Novi Pazar, Bulgaria

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**Novi Pazar, Bulgaria**

Province (oblast)	Shumen
Population	16,515 (13.09.2005)
Altitude	156 m
Postal code	9900
Area code
Geographic coordinates	43° 21' north, 27° 12' east
Time zone	EET (UTC +2; UTC+3 in summer)
Mayor	Rumen Panayotov

Novi Pazar (Bulgarian: Нови пазар, "new marketplace") is a town in Shumen Province, northeastern Bulgaria. It is located in a hollow between the Shumen, Ludogorie and Provadiya plateaus, on the banks of the Kriva Reka ("twisting river").

[edit] History

The town may have been first mentioned in 1444 in a document by the German Michael Beheim before the Battle of Varna, although this is disputed.^[1] As part of the Ottoman Empire, Novi Pazar (Yeni Pazar) belonged to the Silistra sanjak and later the Provadiya kaza. It became a kaza centre in the 17th century and grew to become a rich and lively town in the 17th and 18th century. A new mosque was built in 1763, a Turkish bath in 1774 and a clock tower in 1826. During the Russo-Turkish Wars many Bulgarians from the region fled to Bessarabia and established the community of the Bessarabian Bulgarians.

A monastery school was founded in 1840 on the idea of Iliya Valchev and a chitalishte (cultural centre) followed in 1872. The town was liberated from Ottoman rule in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, not being a site of significant fighting. It became part of the Principality of Bulgaria and many Turks fled to be replaced with Bulgarians from the ethnic Bulgarian lands that were left outside the country's borders of the time. Novi Pazar became a town in 1883.