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The town of Pernik |
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The town of Pernik is situated in a pictureque hollow in the western part
of Middle Bulgaria. The total area of the hollow field is about 157 sqkm ,
it is 22 km long, extending in the southeast- northwest direction. Its
narrowest part is about 4 km long. The hollow is between 700 and 850 m above
the sea level. It is surrounded by the mountains of Golo Burdo, on the
south, Vitosha, on the east and Liulin, on the north-east. The Municipality of Pernik is an administrative territorial unit comprises 24 settlements - 2 town
and 22 villages, its area being 461.1 sqkm, which is more than the average
area of a Bulgarian minicipality, i.e. 427 sqkm. In Bulgaria 4.8 settlements
an average are lacated on a territory of 100 qkm. This figure is 4.98 for
the municipality of Pernik. The first record of settlement life in the Pernik region dates back to the year of 6000 BC
( the early Neolithic ). The thracian trube that lived here, i.e. the
Agrianians, was mentioned as early as Thucydides in his account of the march
of the Odrysae king Citalk against the Macedonians in 429 BC. Those were the
farthest lands belonging to his state system.
Few historical records give an account of the place and role of the
town of Pernik in the time of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. In 1382 the
region was conquered by the Ottoman invaders, but the population succeeded
in keeping its national consciousness. |
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| In the year of 1891 the first
state coal mine in the country started operating. In the year of 1893 the railway route Sofia - pernik was opened. In the year of 1895 was built the first coal separation facility in Bulgaria and in 1933 the first briquette factory was opened. In 1939 the mine's output accounted for 75% of the coal mined in the country as a whole. |
 Pernik in the beginin of the century |
| It is mining that establishes the town of Pernik as one of the country's
industrial centres. In 1892 the machine service was put into operation (
later known as the "Struma" works ). In the year of 1918 the
first power station in Bulgaria was opened in the town of Pernik. In the year of 1911 the "Granitoid" cement works was opened in the town of Batanovtci, later (in 1931) the factory producing flat glass and jars was opened (known today as "Cristal", plc). The region's furnace for cast iron moulds was the first to be built in Bulgaria. The town of Pernik also boasts the only factory on the balkans producing pectin. It was opened in 1941 and was known as the "Shapkar" factory. Its new name is "Pectin". In 1929 Pernik achived the status of a town. Between 1959 and 1987 it functioned as a regional centre and since 1999 it has been a district centre.
The "Saint John of Rila" chuch was built in 1919 on the initiative of Mr. Ivan Simeonov - the then director of the Pernik state mines. |
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The Palace of culture was opened on February 12, 1957. Its construction started on July 15, 1953. The disign of the building was worked out by Mr. Alexander Doubovik, an architect. Its total floor area of 4250 sqm houses the "Boian Danovski" dramatic thetre, the "Svetoslav Minkov" universal research library, the art galery, the "Orpheus" chamber orchestra, the unified art school and the intelligentsia club. |
| The first secular school in the town of Pernik was founded in 1876. In
the year of the Liberation of Bulgaria (1878) the town offers instruction
in all three school education levels popular at this time - primary,
middle and secondary. In the year of 1903 the mining school was opened. There are 34 schools in the municipality at present, the number of teachres and students in them being 1 466 and 13 978 respectively. There are 19 middle schools (including the primary level) and 15 secondary schools: 8 comprehensive schools and 6 vocational training schools.
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