Добрич

The heart of Dobruja — the bakery of Bulgaria and the city of the writer Yordan Yovkov.

The modern city arose in the 16th century as a marketplace at the crossroads between the Black Sea and the interior of Dobrudja. Legend links its foundation to the merchant Hadjioglu, and historical sources indicate that the settlement was named Hadjioglu pazardjik — Hadjioglu's market — and quickly became a bustling commercial center of the region. During the Ottoman period, the city grew thanks to the rich Dobruja lands around it and the regular fairs that attracted merchants from all over Europe. Hadjioglu Pazardjik became one of the important economic centers in Northern Bulgaria, and its fertile plain gave it the role of a granary of the region. After the Liberation in 1878, the city remained within the boundaries of Bulgaria, but its fate in the following decades was closely intertwined with the struggle for Dobrudja. In 1882, it was renamed Dobrich - in honor of the medieval Dobruja ruler Dobrotitsa, who ruled the Karvun despotism in the 14th century. With the Bucharest Treaty of 1913, Southern Dobrudja, together with Dobrich, was handed over to Romania and the city was renamed Bazardzhik. During the First World War, after the advance of the Third Bulgarian Army in the fall of 1916, the territory temporarily returned to Bulgarian rule, but with the Neue Treaty of 1919, it was once again ceded to Romania. Only with the Craiova Agreement of September 7, 1940, Southern Dobrudja, including Dobrich, was finally returned to Bulgaria — an event that has been celebrated ever since as a big holiday in the city. In the period 1949–1990, the city bore the name Tolbukhin, in honor of Soviet Marshal Fyodor Tolbukhin, before in 1990 it regained its historical name of Dobrich. Today, Dobrich is the economic and cultural center of Dobrudja, known for the architectural-ethnographic complex "Old Dobrich", where masters demonstrate traditional crafts, and for the legacy of the writer Yordan Yovkov, whose work is inextricably linked to the Dobruja way of life and nature.