The Town of Melnik
The Town of Melnik
This is the smallest town in Bulgaria.
The town is surrounded in a valley by impressive terrestrial pyramids.
It has been declared a historical and a cultural reserve and a museum-town.
The first inhabitants of these places were the Thracians.
Proof to this are the architectural details, coins, etc, which have been discovered.
That area was inhabited by a Thracian tribe called Meldi, which is the origin of the great Spartak.
It is the Slavs who are supposed to have first given the town its present name, they settled in the Strouma river valley during 5th-6th century.
In the middle of the 9th century, it became a part of the Bulgarian State under Khan Pressiyan, and within a few centuries flourished greatly.
Its great location turned the town into one of the border posts near the frontier with Byzantium, that`s why a fortress around the town was erected.
Melnik thrived as a capital city of the independent domain of Lord Alexi Slav.
Masons built churches and monasteries; trade, tobacco - growing and cotton - growing flourished rapidly.
The town became world famous with the great Melnik wine made from special grapes sorts, imported from Syria.
The Ottoman conquest ushered in a period of several centuries of decline.
In the period of Bulgarian national revival, the town became again a cultural and commercial centre, with population of over 25000, 1300 houses and more than 70 churches.
The old houses in Melnik make a strong impression on the tourists with their architecture and unique wine- cellars.
