Golyamo Dryanovo
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Golyamo Dryanovo
Голямо Дряново | |
|---|---|
  Golyamo Dryanovo Location of Golyamo Dryanovo in Bulgaria | |
| Coordinates: 42°40′N 25°15′E / 42.66°N 25.25°E | |
| Country | Bulgaria |
| Province (Oblast) | Stara Zagora |
| Municipality | Kazanlak |
| Population | |
• Total | 242 |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+3 (EEST) |
| Postal code | 6146 |
| Area code | 0431 |
Golyamo Dryanovo (Голямо Дряново) is a village in southern Bulgaria, part of Kazanlak Municipality in Stara Zagora Province. It lies in the centre of the Rose Valley, in the south-western branch of the Shipka section of the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina), about 12 to 15 km north-west of the town of Kazanlak.[1][2]
Golyamo Dryanovo is situated in the south-western spur of the Shipka section of the Balkan Mountains, on the Leshnitsa river, a tributary of the Tundzha. [2] The river runs about 200 m north of the village and flows into the Koprinka Reservoir some 4 km away; about a dozen springs rise to the north of the village. [3] Mixed deciduous and coniferous forest stretches to the north and south-east of the settlement.[3]
The village's altitude lies in the range of 300 to 499 m above sea level, and it is reached by an asphalt road; it also has a railway station on the Sub-Balkan railway line from Sofia to Burgas. [1][4] The lands are well suited to fruit-growing (apples, plums, pears) and host walnut orchards; conditions also favour the cultivation of essential-oil crops such as rose, lavender and mint, with nurseries operating in the village.[3][4]
The walnut orchards south and west of the village cover around 3,000 decares and constitute the largest walnut massif in the region. [3][5] Until 1993, the south-western edge of the village was home to the oldest walnut tree in Bulgaria, which was around 500 years old; in 1965 the Bulgarian Posts issued a postage stamp depicting it.[3][5]
The village is registered under EKATTE code 15864 and uses the postal code 6146.[1] Its permanent population is around 242 inhabitants.[3]
Name
Until 1906 the village bore the Turkish name Bicherlii (Бичерлии), which the local population explained as meaning "bey-meadows". [2] The present name, Golyamo Dryanovo ("Greater Cornelian Cherry"), was given by the regional governor Hristo Milev of Shipka on account of the many cornelian cherry groves in the area.[2]
History
The settlement is of ancient origin, as evidenced by Thracian, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Bulgarian coins and artefacts found in the surrounding area. [6] The village was inhabited entirely by Turks until the Liberation in 1878. After the emigration of the Turkish population in 1879, around 1885 settlers known as kolibari arrived from the Gabrovo area. [2] Local sources record that the village provided many volunteers to the Opalchentsi during the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation.[2]
A war memorial in the village commemorates its inhabitants who took part in the Liberation War, the Balkan and Inter-Allied wars, the First World War and the Second World War.[6]
A number of the village's older houses, built in the Tryavna architectural style, have been declared cultural monuments. [3] Among the noteworthy old buildings are the house of Kosyo Ivanov and his sons, the largest in the village, built in 1895 and operating a shop after 1944 producing boza and tahin halva, and the house of Denyo and Guna Bumbalov (now belonging to the Angelov family), built in 1899, with six outbuildings, a double-mouthed oven, a museum room and a courtyard with a running water channel and a two-metre wall.[3]
Administration
Golyamo Dryanovo is an independent kmetstvo (mayoralty) within Kazanlak Municipality, comprising only the village itself. [1] The mayor's office is registered in the Bulgarian administrative register as a town hall under Kazanlak Municipality, headed by mayor Mariana Georgieva. [7] Earlier mayors include Nikola Kamburov, who served from 1994 to 2011 and during whose term the buildings of the town hall and the chitalishte were built by voluntary labour, and Petyo Apostolov.[6][5]
The village has a town hall, a health post, a church, a library with more than 4,500 volumes, a small football pitch and several shops.[3]
Education and culture
The first school in Golyamo Dryanovo was established in 1887, and the community cultural centre (chitalishte) "Zora" ("Dawn") was founded in 1902. [2] The village library preserves a "Diary of Inspections and Orders of the School in Golyamo Dryanovo" dating from 1891, as well as rare editions of Zahari Stoyanov's Notes on the Bulgarian Uprisings (1892) and Anton Strashimirov's play Saint Ivan Rilski (1911).[3]
The village is home to a Bulgarian Orthodox church, completed in 2001. [2] Local cultural life centres on the Kaynaka locality, where residents gather at a gazebo and a fireplace.[6]
Walnut Festival
A National Walnut Festival is organised in the village by the mayoralty and the chitalishte "Zora-1902"; the first edition was held on 18 October 2014, on the initiative of mayor Petyo Apostolov, and the festival is held under the patronage of the National Association of Producers and Processors of Nut Crops. [5][6] The festival programme includes an exhibition of bio-products such as cheeses, honey, Smilyan beans and various walnut varieties, an exhibition of dishes prepared with walnuts, the opening of the village ethnographic museum, and a folklore programme reproducing customs and traditions associated with the walnut.[5]
Notable people
- Nikola Lankov (1902–1965), Bulgarian poet, named a Distinguished Cultural Worker in 1965.[3]