Rezovo
Encyclopedia
Rezovo is a village and seaside resort
in southeastern Bulgaria
, part of Tsarevo
municipality, Burgas Province
, in the coastal Strandzha
geographical region. Lying at the mouth of the Rezovo River
in the Black Sea
, Rezovo is the southernmost point of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
and the southeastern-most inhabited place in Bulgaria and the European Union
mainland. The village is located 11 kilometres south of Sinemorets
, 17 km from Ahtopol
and 36 km from Lozenets
. As the Rezovo River constitutes the border between Bulgaria and the European part of Turkey
, Rezovo directly overlooks the Turkish bank of the river and the Turkish village of Beğendik, in Demirköy
district, Kırklareli Province
.
Researchers have attempted to link the village's name to that of Rhesus of Thrace
, a Thracian
king of the Iliad
, and although the existence of an ancient settlement at the place of the modern village has been proven (with the oldest artifacts dating to the 4th century BC), it is hard to establish any connection with Rhesus' personality. In ancient times, the area was subject to large-scale metallurgical
activity, with the largest ancient deposit of slag
in Bulgaria. It is believed that the medieval fortress of Castrition lay on Cape Kastrich north of modern Rezovo.
Today's village was first mentioned in Ottoman
registers as Rezvi, a village of 41 Christian
families. In the 18th century, it was noted as Büyük Rezve ("Big Rezve") and marked as a sea port on Ottoman maps. According to Austrian Wenzel von Bronjar and other 18th-century western travellers, the river mouth at that place had a good wharf
suitable as a storm and winter shelter. Rezovo has changed its location slightly several times: its oldest known location is the same as today's, at the coast. However, the locals were forced to move inland because of persistent raids by Caucasian
Laz
pirates, settling during the 19th century in the Kladarsko Bardo area 10 kilometres to the west, also along the Rezovo River. By 1900, that "Old Rezovo" had 70–80 houses and an Eastern Orthodox church of Saint Elijah the Forerunner. The seaside land was not completely abandoned, as it was used as a pasture
because of the favourable climate.
In 1903, the residents of Rezovo took an active part in the Bulgarian Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising
, seeking unification with their compatriots in the Principality of Bulgaria
. However, the revolt was crushed by the Ottoman authorities and most of Old Rezovo was burned to the ground. The surviving locals settled on the coast, approximately where the oldest known incarnation of the village had been. The Church of Saints Constantine
and Helena
was built in 1906. After the Balkan Wars
of 1912–1913, Rezovo became part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria
and a limited number of Bulgarian refugees (25 families) from other parts of Eastern Thrace that remained under Ottoman rule settled in the village. According to Lyubomir Miletich
's demographic survey of the Ottoman province of Edirne
in The Destruction of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913
, published in 1918, before the wars Rezovo (Рѣзово) was a village in the district of Vassiliko
inhabited by 70 Bulgarian Exarchist
families.
After the wars, the main occupation of the locals was charcoal
production and logging
, with some agriculture
, cattle breeding
and fishing
. Wood and charcoal were exported by means of the wooden pier in the Rezovo River. The population has gradually declined, however, but today Rezovo is a popular beach resort and a spot frequented by tourists because of its southeasternmost location. Until recently, it was part of the border zone and visitors were required to be checked by Border Police officials. As Bulgaria joined the European Union on 1 January 2007, Rezovo became the contiguous EU's southeasternmost point. On 2 January 2007, municipal mayor Petko Arnaudov hoisted the flag of Europe in the village, along with the national and municipal flags, and the street starting from the Bulgarian border sign was renamed the Europe Alley.
In January 2011 a foot-and-mouth disease
outbreak
was registered in the village of Rezovo.
Rezovski Creek
on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands
, Antarctica is named after Rezovo.
Seaside resort
A seaside resort is a resort, or resort town, located on the coast. Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort.- Overview :...
in southeastern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, part of Tsarevo
Tsarevo
Tsarevo is a town and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, an administrative centre of the homonymous Municipality of Tsarevo in Burgas Province. It lies on a cove 70 km southeast of Burgas, on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast at the eastern foot of Strandzha mountain...
municipality, Burgas Province
Burgas Province
-Municipalities:The Burgas province contains 13 municipalities . The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town or village , and the population of each as of 2009.-Demography:The Burgas province had a population of 423,608 -Municipalities:The Burgas...
, in the coastal Strandzha
Strandzha
Strandzha is a mountain massif in southeastern Bulgaria and the European part of Turkey, in the southeastern part of the Balkans between the plains of Thrace to the west, the lowlands near Burgas to the north and the Black Sea to the east. Its highest peak is Mahya Dağı in Turkey, while the...
geographical region. Lying at the mouth of the Rezovo River
Rezovo River
The Rezovo River is a river in southeasternmost Bulgaria and northernmost Turkey....
in the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, Rezovo is the southernmost point of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coastline. White and golden sandy beaches occupy approximately 130 km of the 378 km long coast...
and the southeastern-most inhabited place in Bulgaria and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
mainland. The village is located 11 kilometres south of Sinemorets
Sinemorets
Sinemorets is a village and seaside resort on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, located in the very southeast of the country close to the border with Turkey, where the river Veleka flows into the sea. Sinemorets is part of Tsarevo municipality, Burgas Province, and has a population of 216...
, 17 km from Ahtopol
Ahtopol
Ahtopol is a town and seaside resort on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is located on a headland in the southeastern part of Burgas Province and is close to the border with European Turkey...
and 36 km from Lozenets
Lozenets, Burgas Province
Lozenets is a village and seaside resort on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is part of Tsarevo municipality, Burgas Province, and lies at...
. As the Rezovo River constitutes the border between Bulgaria and the European part of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Rezovo directly overlooks the Turkish bank of the river and the Turkish village of Beğendik, in Demirköy
Demirköy
Demirköy is a town and district of Kırklareli Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. The inhabitants are mainly descendants of Muslims from the village of Tisovo and other villages from the Greek side of the Chech region who were settled in Demirköy in 1923/1924. The mayor is Muhlis Yavuz . The...
district, Kırklareli Province
Kirklareli Province
Kırklareli Province is a province in northwestern Turkey on the west coast of the Black Sea. The province neighbours Bulgaria to the north along a 180 kilometers long border. It borders the province of Edirne to the west and the province of Tekirdağ to the south and province of Istanbul to the...
.
History
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1926 | 378 |
| 1934 | 422 |
| 1946 | 350 |
| 1965 | 215 |
| 1975 | 104 |
| 1992 | 79 |
| 1998 | 27 |
Researchers have attempted to link the village's name to that of Rhesus of Thrace
Rhesus of Thrace
Rhesus or Rhêsos was a Thracian king who fought on the side of Trojans in Iliad, Book X, where Diomedes and Odysseus stole his team of fine horses during a night raid on the Trojan camp. Homer gives his father as Eioneus— a name otherwise given to the father of Dia, whom Ixion threw into the...
, a Thracian
Thracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
king of the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
, and although the existence of an ancient settlement at the place of the modern village has been proven (with the oldest artifacts dating to the 4th century BC), it is hard to establish any connection with Rhesus' personality. In ancient times, the area was subject to large-scale metallurgical
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
activity, with the largest ancient deposit of slag
Slag
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form...
in Bulgaria. It is believed that the medieval fortress of Castrition lay on Cape Kastrich north of modern Rezovo.
Today's village was first mentioned in Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
registers as Rezvi, a village of 41 Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
families. In the 18th century, it was noted as Büyük Rezve ("Big Rezve") and marked as a sea port on Ottoman maps. According to Austrian Wenzel von Bronjar and other 18th-century western travellers, the river mouth at that place had a good wharf
Wharf
A wharf or quay is a structure on the shore of a harbor where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.Such a structure includes one or more berths , and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships.A wharf commonly comprises a fixed...
suitable as a storm and winter shelter. Rezovo has changed its location slightly several times: its oldest known location is the same as today's, at the coast. However, the locals were forced to move inland because of persistent raids by Caucasian
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
Laz
Laz people
The Laz are an ethnic group native to the Black Sea coastal regions of Turkey and Georgia...
pirates, settling during the 19th century in the Kladarsko Bardo area 10 kilometres to the west, also along the Rezovo River. By 1900, that "Old Rezovo" had 70–80 houses and an Eastern Orthodox church of Saint Elijah the Forerunner. The seaside land was not completely abandoned, as it was used as a pasture
Pasture
Pasture is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs...
because of the favourable climate.
In 1903, the residents of Rezovo took an active part in the Bulgarian Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising
Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising
The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising or simply the Ilinden Uprising of August 1903 |Macedonia]] affected most of the central and southwestern parts of the Monastir Vilayet receiving the support mainly of the local Bulgarian peasants and to some extent of the Aromanian population of the region...
, seeking unification with their compatriots in the Principality of Bulgaria
Principality of Bulgaria
The Principality of Bulgaria was a self-governing entity created as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The preliminary treaty of San Stefano between the Russian Empire and the Porte , on March 3, had originally proposed a significantly larger Bulgarian territory: its...
. However, the revolt was crushed by the Ottoman authorities and most of Old Rezovo was burned to the ground. The surviving locals settled on the coast, approximately where the oldest known incarnation of the village had been. The Church of Saints Constantine
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
and Helena
Helena of Constantinople
Saint Helena also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople was the consort of Emperor Constantius, and the mother of Emperor Constantine I...
was built in 1906. After the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
of 1912–1913, Rezovo became part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria
Kingdom of Bulgaria
The Kingdom of Bulgaria was established as an independent state when the Principality of Bulgaria, an Ottoman vassal, officially proclaimed itself independent on October 5, 1908 . This move also formalised the annexation of the Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia, which had been under the control...
and a limited number of Bulgarian refugees (25 families) from other parts of Eastern Thrace that remained under Ottoman rule settled in the village. According to Lyubomir Miletich
Lyubomir Miletich
Lyubomir Miletich was a leading Bulgarian linguist, ethnographer, dialectologist and historian, as well as the chairman of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from 1926 to his death....
's demographic survey of the Ottoman province of Edirne
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...
in The Destruction of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913
The Destruction of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913
"The Destruction of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913" were events described by Bulgarian academician Lyubomir Miletich in 1918, but also mentioned by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with also a detailed report on the annihilation of Thracian Muslims...
, published in 1918, before the wars Rezovo (Рѣзово) was a village in the district of Vassiliko
Tsarevo
Tsarevo is a town and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, an administrative centre of the homonymous Municipality of Tsarevo in Burgas Province. It lies on a cove 70 km southeast of Burgas, on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast at the eastern foot of Strandzha mountain...
inhabited by 70 Bulgarian Exarchist
Bulgarian Exarchate
The Bulgarian Exarchate was the official name of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church before its autocephaly was recognized by the Ecumenical See in 1945 and the Bulgarian Patriarchate was restored in 1953....
families.
After the wars, the main occupation of the locals was charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
production and logging
Logging
Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks.In forestry, the term logging is sometimes used in a narrow sense concerning the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the forest, usually a sawmill or a lumber yard...
, with some agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, cattle breeding
Animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising livestock.- History :Animal husbandry has been practiced for thousands of years, since the first domestication of animals....
and fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
. Wood and charcoal were exported by means of the wooden pier in the Rezovo River. The population has gradually declined, however, but today Rezovo is a popular beach resort and a spot frequented by tourists because of its southeasternmost location. Until recently, it was part of the border zone and visitors were required to be checked by Border Police officials. As Bulgaria joined the European Union on 1 January 2007, Rezovo became the contiguous EU's southeasternmost point. On 2 January 2007, municipal mayor Petko Arnaudov hoisted the flag of Europe in the village, along with the national and municipal flags, and the street starting from the Bulgarian border sign was renamed the Europe Alley.
In January 2011 a foot-and-mouth disease
Foot-and-mouth disease
Foot-and-mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids...
outbreak
2011 Bulgaria foot-and-mouth disease outbreak
2011 Bulgaria foot-and-mouth disease outbreak is an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurring in Southeastern Bulgaria in 2011.The outbreak was recognised when a wild boar was shot. This animal is believed to have crossed the Bulgarian-Turkish border near the village of Kosti, Burgas Province...
was registered in the village of Rezovo.
Rezovski Creek
Rezovski Creek
Rezovski Creek is a melt-water stream located on Livingston Island, Antarctica.The 500 m long melt-water stream draining that portion of the northwestern slope of Balkan Snowfield located between Hesperides Hill, Atlantic Club Ridge, Krum Rock and Sinemorets Hill on Hurd Peninsula in eastern...
on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
, Antarctica is named after Rezovo.