Geography
Pernik is located 28 KM south-west from the capital, Sofia.
The city is an economic, cultural and administrative center of the municipality with 2 cities and 22 villages, with an area of 461,1 km2, which is higher than the average municipality in Bulgaria.
The area of the city is 28 862 hectares, including districts Bela-Voda, Iztok, Teva and Kalas, with the population of 93 424 people. The population of the municipality is 111 799 people, of them,33 401 are under the age of 25.
History
7-11 Century – Pernik is an economic, military and cultural center of the south-western bulgarian territories. The settlement joined the First Bulgarian Empire after the treaty in the year 816. It is famed for mainly for the boyar Krakra of Pernik, who strongly resisted the byzantine in the early 11th century.
End of 12th Century – the fortress was destroyed but the settlement kept existing. Its significance diminished, and its value never reached the scale of the medieval times.
19 – 20 Century – from an agricultural and pastoral settlement Pernik transformed into a significant mining, metallurgical and industrial center. Trading and banking is developing.
1891 – a law is passed about the mines, and the first mine “Pernik” is open in the Kulata area. Around it, first miners buildings are constructed. Gradually the center of the settlement moved from “Varosh” to the new mining village
1895 – The first lightbulb in Bulgaria is turned on in Pernik.
1899 – The first power plant in bulgaria is built. It was used for lighting the sorting factory and the area around it.
1903 – St. John of Rila is announced as a patron Saint of miners. The first miner’s holiday is celebrated.
November 5th, 1953 – First steel was made on the metallurgical factory “V.I. Lenina” (currently AO “Stomana”), and from there on this date is the Day of the metallurgist in Bulgaria. Furnaces of the factory started working a few months before.
Festival Surva
International festival of masquerade games “Surva” in Pernik – the most authoritative European representation of traditional folk games and customs with masks. In its competition programme the festival is a meeting and competition of living bearers of the traditions, most popular under names “survakari” and “kukeri”.
The festival is organized by the municipality of Pernik since 1966. In 1995 Pernik was accepted as a member of the Federation of European Carnival Cities. On 26th of June 2009, during the ceremonial meeting of the municipality council in Pernik, the president of FECC Henk van der Kroon announced Pernik as the european capital of traditions of survakari and kukeri. The decision was made in the city Kotor, Montenegro.
Traditionally, over 7000 people from over 100 masquerade collectivesfrom all ethnographic regions of Bulgaria, and guests from Europe, Asia and Africa participate in the festival competition.
2nd of December 2015 the “Surva” custom in Pernic officially was put in the UNESCO list.
Bulgarian nomination “Folk holiday Surova/ Surva in Pernik” was included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in december 2015.
