Enina

Enina is situated in the northern part of the Kazanlak Valley, at about 350 m above sea level, on the southern slope of the central Balkan Mountains. ^[2] The Eninska reka, also known as Stara reka, flows through the village, dividing it into two roughly equal parts and serving as the natural divide between the Shipka and Tryavna sections of the Balkan range. ^[2][5] The river is fed by numerous mountain springs, has its maximum flow in April and May (around 1.70 m³/s) and a minimum in September (around 0.20 m³/s); it carries large quantities of alluvial deposits.^[6]

The village has around 800 houses and a population estimated at 2,300 inhabitants, the great majority of whom are ethnic Bulgarians. ^[5] It is registered under EKATTE code 27499 and uses the postal code 6142.^[1]

The Eninsko zhdrelo (Enina gorge) and the Kamenshtitsa Reserve lie in the mountains north of the village; the reserve covers 10,184 decares of forest within Enina's lands and protects mixed broadleaved forests of Hungarian oak, beech, hornbeam and other species, aged from 60 to 170 years.^[7]

According to local tradition, the name of the village derives from a goatherd named Yana, who came from the village of Koprinka (about 5 km west of Kazanlak) to graze her flock at the foot of the Balkan Mountains, along the course of the Stara reka; charmed by the place, she built a sheepfold there, and was followed first by her family and later by relatives and neighbours, whose dwellings gradually formed the new settlement. ^[2] A folk legend identifies Yana as a beautiful orphan girl whose love story with a young man led to the founding of the settlement on a spot revealed by one of her goats.^[8]

On the basis of available evidence, the village is thought to have taken shape in the 13th century. ^[8] The remains of two monasteries, one in the western and one in the eastern part of the village, were already in existence before the Ottoman conquest, and in the so-called Cherkovska mahala the foundations of a Christian temple from the 7th century have been preserved.^[8]

According to a local tradition, Enina has more than 800 years of history, and the relics of a female saint were said to have rested there for one night in 1271 on their way to Tarnovgrad, the then capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. ^[9]

A firman issued in April 1691 by Suleiman II and addressed to the kadi of the then chief town of Akça Kazanlık authorised the inhabitants of the entirely Christian village of Keçi deresi (later identified with Enina) to repair their church; unlike many neighbouring settlements, Enina remained mostly populated by Bulgarians throughout Ottoman rule. ^[5] During the kardzhali disturbances at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the village was sacked three times and many of its inhabitants temporarily resettled in nearby Kazanlak, which at the time was protected by an earthen rampart.^[5]

After the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 and under the Treaty of Berlin, Enina became part of the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia, and following the Bulgarian unification of 1885 it became officially part of the Principality of Bulgaria.^[10] During the Russo-Turkish War, a Russian Red Cross field hospital was relocated to Enina to take advantage of the climate of the area. ^[11] At the outbreak of the First Balkan War in 1912, one resident of Enina volunteered for the Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps.^[10]

Enina is an independent kmetstvo (mayoralty) within Kazanlak Municipality, comprising only the village itself; no other settlements form part of it. ^[1] The mayor's office is registered in the Bulgarian administrative register as a town hall under Kazanlak Municipality, with the address at 7 Dimcho Yustadzhov Street.^[12]

The Church of St Paraskeva in Enina dates from the 13th–14th century and is one of the village's oldest surviving monuments. ^[7][11] During restoration work in 1960, the Enina Apostle was discovered hidden inside the church. ^[13]

The Enina Apostle is a short Apostolos lectionary written on parchment in the second half of the 11th century in Old Church Slavonic, and is the oldest Cyrillic manuscript currently held in any Bulgarian collection. ^[3][14] Of an estimated original 215 to 220 leaves, only 39 have been at least partially preserved, the manuscript having been recovered in very poor condition; from its discovery to 1964 it was kept at the Iskra Museum in Kazanlak, after which it was transferred to the SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library in Sofia (NBKM 1144), where it is held today.^[14][13]

The Church of St George, also located in the village, was completed in 1837 and was the subject of a centenary publication in 1937.^[2][7]

The remains of the Roman-era fortress of Chilecheto stand in the mountains north of the village, together with several other historic localities used for hiking, including Kampusa, Raevata tubla and the Rusaliyski grobishta.^[7][11]

The Enina hydroelectric power station, situated on the upper course of the Eninska river, was inaugurated at midnight on 1 January 1914, providing electricity to Kazanlak and making it the second town in Bulgaria, after Sofia, to enjoy public electric lighting. ^[4] Unlike the country's first hydroelectric plant, Pancharevo (1900), which was built under concession with Belgian capital, the Enina station was conceived, designed and constructed entirely with Bulgarian capital, on the initiative of Stoyan Stainov and twelve associates who founded the joint-stock company "Pobeda" ("Victory"). ^[15] The plant's electrical machinery was supplied by a German firm and its turbines by a Swiss manufacturer; despite all the political and economic upheavals of Bulgarian history, the plant has continued in operation ever since, still using its original early-20th-century equipment.^[4][15]

The village is home to the basic school "Hristo Botev" and the United Children's Establishment kindergarten "Zdravets". ^[8] A cell school existed in Enina from at least the early 19th century, and according to local tradition the school here was older than the one in Kazanlak. ^[8] The first teacher in the renovated school of the early 19th century was Bogdan Popivanov, later known as Onufri Popovich Hilendarski, who taught around 40 pupils including children from Stara Zagora, Kazanlak, Etar near Gabrovo and other settlements before leaving for the Hilandar Monastery in 1816 to take monastic vows. ^[8] A girls' school was opened in 1850 with 30 pupils, and the community cultural centre (chitalishte) "Bratstvo" was founded in 1869. ^[2]

The chitalishte continues to function and houses a library, a pensioners' club and several amateur groups, including the choir for old urban songs "Zlatna Esen" ("Golden Autumn"), known for its many awards. ^[8] The village's annual fair is held on Petkovden (14 October), when a ritual kurban is prepared and a large open-air horo takes place.^[2]

• Onufri Hilendarski (Bogdan Popivanov, c. 1786–1850), priest, translator, poet, calligrapher and active participant in the Bulgarian church struggle, known as the first Bulgarian-language priest in the church of St Stephen in Constantinople.^[8]
• Petko Kitipov (1893–?), local historian and ethnographer, born and raised in Enina.^[16]