Provadiya

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**Provadiya**
Провадия

Province (oblast)	Varna
Population	16,718 (2005-09-13)
Altitude	56 m
Postal code	9200
Area code	0518
License plate province code	B
Geographic coordinates	43° 11' north, 27° 26' east
Time zone	EET (UTC +2; UTC+3 in summer)
Mayor	Marin Marinov

Provadiya (Bulgarian: Провадия) is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Varna Province, located in a deep karst gorge along the Provadiya River not far from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Provadiya served as a customs point since ancient times. It is well known for salty mineral waters, its mild climate and a total of 70 km of caves in the surrounding mountain walls. It can be reached by train from Sofia or Varna and there are also hourly buses from and to Varna, and a sophisticated road system.

Historical names of the medieval fortress, the ruins of which have been preserved until today, include Provat (Byzantine Greek), Ovech (Овеч, Bulgarian), Provanto (Italian) and Provadi (Ottoman Turkish). The Greek name and its adaptations stem from the word πρόβατο, provato, "sheep", and the medieval Bulgarian name corresponds directly (being derived from овца, ovtsa, with the same meaning). The fortress is open for visitors.

During the Middle Ages the town was a key centre of the First Bulgarian Empire with an important monastery at the modern village of Ravna, the church of which was inaugurated on 23 April 897, and a major scriptorium of the Preslav Literary School. The rebel leader and subsequently emperor of Bulgaria Ivailo defeated a 10,000-strong Byzantine army near the city in 1279. During the Second Bulgarian Empire it was the seat of a metropolitan in the 14th century. Ovech was captured by the Ottomans in 1388 after a long siege.

In the 17th and 18th century Provadiya was a commercial centre of the Ottoman Empire and was inhabited by many Jewish and Ragusan merchants. A 16th-17th-century Dubrovnik-style church still stands in the nearby village of Dobrina.

South of Provadiya lies the largest rock salt mine in Bulgaria, which is believed to be virtually inexhaustible (salt bed of up to 3900 m) and has been sporadically exploited for some 7500 years; now it is part of the Solvay Sodi AD facility in Devnya. Some of the exhausted vaults are used for the storage of natural gas. The town has a certain potential as a spa centre; its saline mineral water is allegedly similar in composition to the one at Karlovy Vary.

Other places of interest include the Lambova kashta ethnographical complex and ethnographical collections in Dobrina and Manastir villages.