Сапарева баня

A town with the hottest mineral spring in Europe (103°C) and a natural gateway to the Rila mountain.

Sapareva Banya is located at the foot of the northern slopes of Rila Mountain, about 15 km east of Dupnitsa and 75 km from Sofia. The area has been inhabited since ancient times - the remains of a Neolithic settlement were found in the area of ​​Kremenikov Egali, and the Thracians highly valued the hot mineral springs here and used them for medicinal purposes. The oldest known name of the settlement is Germania (the variants Germane and Germanos are also found) — a Thracian root in which "germ-" means "hot", similar to the Greek "therm-". In the 3rd century, Germania was already an established city and one of the important centers of the Roman province of Inner Dacia. The settlement was also mentioned in the following centuries - in documents of the Byzantine emperor Basil II (XI century) it appears again under the name Germaneia, and archaeological studies show the existence of a medieval settlement with remains of churches and fortifications in the area. After the Ottoman conquest, the large ancient-medieval city declined and became an ordinary village, and part of the population moved to the waterless valley, which gave rise to today's Saparevo. The farm reoriented itself towards sheep farming - the Dzhelepkeshan register from 1576 mentions over twenty shepherds from a settlement named Chiparova, and in 1662 the Ottoman traveler Evliya Celebi described "Siparova" as a village with 300 houses of Muslims and Christians. The origin of the name remains controversial among linguists — the most common hypotheses connect it with the Thracian word "sapara" (in the meaning of ford, marketplace or river) or with the obscure old word "sapar"; the popular notion of soap origin does not find serious linguistic support. During the Renaissance, the settlement gradually revived. In 1864, the 14-kilometer Saparevska Vada irrigation canal was built, and in the same period the Assumption Church was built. One of the first artisan mutual aid associations in the Dupnish region was also established here. After the Liberation (1878), the baths and the neighboring village of Saparevo continued to develop as separate hamlets, united administratively. In the 20s of the 20th century, the state financed the construction of a modern two-story mineral bath on the site of the destroyed Ottoman bath, and in 1943, with Ministerial Order No. 168, the settlement was named Sapareva Banya. In 1955, the village of Gyurgevo joined Sapareva Banya, and in 1957, during hydrogeological drilling at a depth of 73 meters, the famous geyser was discovered - with a water column up to 18 meters and a temperature of 103°C, the hottest mineral water in Bulgaria and continental Europe. In 1974, Saparevo joined Sapareva Banya and the settlement received the status of a city, and in 1983 an independent Sapareva Banya municipality was established, separated from the then municipality of Stanke Dimitrov (today's Dupnitsa). Today, Sapareva Banya is an established balneological and spa center, known for the reconstructed mineral pool in the center and the many hotels with thermal pools. The town is also the natural starting point for hikes to the Seven Rila Lakes and the Rila Monastery, a UNESCO site, making it a preferred location for both healing and mountain tourism.