Bansko (Bulgarian: Банско [ˈbansko]) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, located in Blagoevgrad Oblast near the city of Razlog. Once mainly a stockbreeding and travelling merchant community, the town is now an international centre for winter and summer tourism. More recently Bansko has become a known hotspot for digital nomads driven in part by the relative affordability of the location combined with its natural scenery.
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👉 Bansko in the context of Blagoevgrad Province
41°45′N 23°15′E / 41.750°N 23.250°E
Blagoevgrad Province (Bulgarian: област Благоевград, oblast Blagoevgrad or Благоевградска област, Blagoevgradska oblast), also known as Pirin Macedonia or Bulgarian Macedonia (Bulgarian: Пиринска Македония; Българска Македония), (Pirinska Makedoniya or Bulgarska Makedoniya) is a province (oblast) of southwestern Bulgaria. It borders four other Bulgarian provinces to the north and east, the Greek region of Macedonia to the south, and North Macedonia to the west. The province has 14 municipalities with 12 towns. Its principal city is Blagoevgrad, while other significant towns include Bansko, Gotse Delchev, Melnik, Petrich, Razlog, Sandanski, and Simitli.
In this Dossier
Bansko in the context of Kutelo
Kutelo (Bulgarian: Кутело [ˈkutɛɫo]) is a summit in the Pirin mountain range, southwestern Bulgaria. With a height of 2,908 m, it is the second highest peak in Pirin after Vihren (2,914 m), and the third one in Bulgaria, behind Musala (2,925 m) in Rila and Vihren. Kutelo is a double peak with a small saddle between the two parts, the lower being only one meter shorter than the higher one, at 2,907 m. Seen from the town of Bansko, it appears higher than Vihren.
Like Vihren, which towers to the south, Kutelo is built up of marble but its slopes though sheer are not so rocky and it is not very difficult to climb. On the north-eastern slopes there are alpine climbing tracks of category II "b". The Premkata saddle is situated to the south and leads to Vihren while to the north is the narrow karst edge Koncheto which links Kutelo to the summit of Banski Suhodol. There are no marked tracks to the summit of Kutelo, but on the slanting western slope among the rocks is nestled the track between the Vihren refuge and Yavorov refuge. This track also leads along Koncheto. In the homonymous waterless cirque to the north-east there are snow-drifts all the year. To the south-east is the cirque Golemiya Kazan with Europe's southernmost glacier, Snezhnika. Pirin's second glacierlet, Banski Suhodol Glacier, is situated below the northern face of Kutelo.
Bansko in the context of Paisius of Hilendar
Saint Paisius of Hilendar or Paìsiy Hilendàrski (Bulgarian: Свети Паисий Хилендарски) (1722–1773) was a Bulgarian Orthodox clergyman and a key Bulgarian National Revival figure. He is most famous for being the author of Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya (1762), the first significant modern Bulgarian history that became famous and has been copied and distributed everywhere in the Bulgarian lands. The book is, overall, the third modern work of Bulgarian history, after the works titled "History of Bulgaria" by Petar Bogdan Bakshev in 1667 and by Blasius Kleiner in 1761. He is considered the forefather of the Bulgarian National Revival.
Paisius was born in the Samokov eparchy of the time. There is a scientific dispute about the exact place of his birth, although the prevailing consensus points to the town of Bansko. He established himself in the Hilandar monastery in 1745, where he was later a hieromonk and deputy-abbot. Collecting materials for two years through hard work and even visiting the Habsburg monarchy, he finished his Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya in 1762 in the Zograf Monastery. The book was the first attempt to write a complete history of Bulgaria and attempted to awaken and strengthen Bulgarian national consciousnesses.