Topolovgrad
The town of Topolovgrad is situated in southeastern part of Bulgaria –just 27km to the southwest from the town of Elhovo. It is a municipality centre and it occupies the northern skirts of the Sakar mountain. Because of its excellent climate conditions (Mediterranean influence) and its strategic geographical situation the region has been populated ever since the antiquity. There are a lot of ancient settlements ruins and all archaeological finds and excavations show there were intense trade and social activities in the past.
The first written evidence of the existence of Topolovgrad dates to the 16th c. when the town, then named as Kavukli, was dominated by the Turkish Sultan Bayazid II. In the 18th and 19th c. the town and the region around it grew into a large vegetable-growing, animal-breeding, wine-producing and artisan centre. Vegetables produced here (onion, garlic, cabbage, etc) were sold in the markets of Odrin, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Alexandria, Romania and Austria while each week, animal stock from the region was transported to the markets of Odrin and Istanbul. The biggest tourist landmarks in the area are the so-called Dolmens, spread all over the region. These Thracian monuments are not only one-chambered, but also two and three-chambered, as is the case with the dolmen near the village of Hlebovo. Another historical sight is a Temple of the Sun, found in the Sakar mountain ridge between the town of Topolovgrad and the village of Hlebovo. The temple represents a 1.5km-long rock group in a fan shape, covered with more than 150 manmade circles, most of which are geometrically arranged into ensembles. The circles are all in relief with some of them being convex, and others - concave. A similar cult place of the Thracians in the region is Paleokastro. The Thracian fortress is situated 3km to the west of Topolovgrad and its natural rock walls to the east hold over 150 discs in relief that illustrate the Thracians' cult to the sun. Finally, close to the Topolovgrad, tourists can visit one of the biggest monasteries in southern Bulgaria (“Holy Trinity†Monastery)
