Asenovgrad
Asenovgrad
(äsānôv`grät), city (1993 pop. 52,019), S central Bulgaria. It is a commercial center, with wineries and tobacco manufactures. An ancient Bulgarian stronghold, it became a trade center under Turkish rule (15th–19th cent.). Asenovgrad has several 16th-century churches as well as the ruins of a 13th-century castle. The city was formerly known as Stanimaka.Asenovgrad
(Stanimaka until 1934), a city in southern Bulgaria, in Plovdiv District. It is located at the point where the Chepelarsk River emerges from a mountain gorge in the Rodopi Mountains. The population is 37,000 (1965).
Asenovgrad is a center for the production of tobacco and wines. A lead and zinc plant and a hydroelectric power station are near the city. In Asenovgrad there are medieval stone houses and churches (including the Church of John the Precursor, 14th century). South of Asenovgrad are the ruins of the so-called Asen’s fortress (llth-13th centuries) with the Church of Our Lady (12th century) and the Bachkovskii Monastery, which has buildings from the llth-19th centuries, paintings from the 12th—17th centuries, and paintings from the 19th century by Z. Zograf.