The town of Yambol (population: 82 924, 135 m above sea level) is situated in
the eastern part of the Gornotrakiiska (Upper Thracian) Lowland, on the banks
of the Toundzha River, shortly after the river curved to the south.
It is 37 km north of El-hovo, 106 km west of Bourgas, 28 km south-east of
Sliven, 304 km east of Sofia. One of the oldest Bulgarian towns. A regional
administrative centre.
The earliest traces of communal life were discovered in the dozens of
pre-historic living mounds. The so-called Rasheva and Marcheva Mounds are
located on the territory of the present day town. These two date back to the
neolith, eneolith and bronze epoch. Some of the finds recovered there are kept
in the Parisian Louvre, the Archaeological Museum in Sofia, and mostly in the
Museum of History in Yambol. The ancient town sprang up as a Thracian
settlement called Kabile (some 10 km north-west of the town, near a village of
the same name) at an important crossroad; later it became a significant
fortress in the state of Philip of Macedonia. During the Roman domination the
town reached its prime when people started minting coins. On his way through
the town in 293 emperor Diokletian gave it the name of Diospolis (God’ town).
It existed till 378 when the Goths destroyed it. The first written information
dates back to 6th century. Since 11th-14th centuries it was mentioned as a
Bulgarian town having different names - Diospolis, Dianopolis, Diam-polis,
Yampolis, Dublin, Dublino, Douboulino, and the Byzantine authors mentioned it
as Dimpolis, Diampolis, Hiampolis. The town was mentioned with the name of
Dubilin in an inscription of 1357 (the reign of Tzar Ivan Alexander). At the
time it was situated on the border between Bulgaria and Byzantium, and nearby
was the famous entrenchment Erkesiata. Some of the impressive fortress walls
and turrets of medieval Yambol are still preserved.
The town was among the first in the Balkans to resist the Ottomans. It was
conquered in 1373 after a long siege. During the Ottoman Rule many Turks
settled to live around Hissarluka, and after the Russian-Turkish War of 1829
many Bulgarians from the town and the vicinity emigrated to Russia. The
haidouts (armed volunteers, leaders or members of detachments) Georgi
Garabdchi, Boudak Stoyan, Kara Dobri, Dyado Zhelyo and others based in
countryside of the town, took part in the battles for liberation. The town is
a native place of the revolutionaries Georgi Drazhev, Radi Kolessov, Zakhari
Velichkov, etc. The Oriental town carried out active with agricultural
products, silkworms, homespun material, predominantly with Odrin and Tsarigrad.
The so-called Salty Road from Anhialo to Plovdiv passed through the town. The
Russian armies liberated it in January 1878. In memory of this act people
built and inaugurated the St. Alexander Nevski Temple - the first monument of
the Bulgarian-Russian friendship in Bulgaria. It was erected in the
Bakadzhitsite area south-east of the town. In the first half of 20th century
Yambol was known for its curative mineral water, unique rail tram tugged by
horses, pheasant breeders, huge hangar for zeppelins of 1917. John Atanadsov,
the inventor of computers, had kinship in Yambol, and it was a native place of
Peter Noikov - the first professor in pedagogic, Atanas Radev - elite
mathematician, Georgi Papazov and Ivan Popov - world famous painters, Kiril
Krustev – Bulgarian off encyclopedic knowledge, Stiliana Paraskevova who
embroidered the prototype of Bulgarian national flag. |
