Blagoevgrad

Blagoevgrad is а city in southwestern Bulgaria, the executive centre of Blagoevgrad Municipality and of Blagoevgrad Province, with a population of 70,881 inhabitants. It lies on the banks of the Blagoevgradska Bistritsa River. The metropolis is the monetary and cultural centre of southwestern Bulgaria. It is located inside the valley of the Struma River on the foot of the Rila Mountains, 101 kilometres south of Sofia, near the border with the Republic of Macedonia. Blagoevgrad capabilities a pedestrian downtown with preserved nineteenth-century architecture and severa restaurants, cafes, espresso stores, and boutiques.

Blagoevgrad is home to two universities, the South-West University "Neofit Rilski" and the American University in Bulgaria. The city hosts additionally the "Sts. Cyril and Methodius National Humanitarian High School", the previous Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki moved from Thessaloniki to Blagoevgrad in 1913. Attractions within the surrounding region include the resort Bodrost. The call Blagoevgrad is a latest assemble from Blagoev the Slavic suffix -grad, "Blagoev's metropolis". Blagoev is from the Bulgarian personal name Blagoy, from blag, "sweet, figuratively- gentle and type". Named after Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party founder Dimitar Blagoev, an immigrant from Ottoman Macedonia.