Breznik is a town in western Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, 50 km away from Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

. It is located in Pernik Province

Pernik Province

-Religion:Religious adherence in the province according to 2001 census:-Ethnic groups:Ethnic groups in the province according to 2001 census:145 642 Bulgarians ,3 035 Roma  and 1155 others and unspecified .-Economy:...

 and is close to the towns of Bankya

Bankya

Bankya is an upscale town and district in western Bulgaria. It is administratively part of greater Sofia.The district is famous for the mineral springs and baths that have been used for their medicinal properties for hundreds of years. Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov is a native...

 and Pernik

Pernik

Pernik is a city in western Bulgaria with a population of 81,052 . It is the main city of Pernik Province and lies on both banks of the Struma River in the Pernik Valley between the Viskyar, Vitosha and Golo Bardo mountains.Originally the site of a Thracian fortress founded in the 4th century BC,...

. It has 4,500 inhabitants. Villages in the municipality include Dushintsi

Dushintsi

Dushintsi is a village in western Bulgaria. It belongs to the municipality of Breznik, in the district of Pernik. The village is situated in a mountainous region, nestled in the northeast mountainside of Golemi Vrah. The village was not mentioned in any registers until the Liberation of Bulgaria...

.

Breznik was first mentioned in the 11th-century Story of Isaiah and Bulgarian Apocryphal Chronicle as БР(Ѣ)ЗНИКЪ; it was already a city by then. The town was mentioned throughout the 15th-19th centuries, attesting its continuous existence. Its name is derived from the Bulgarian word breznik, referring to a birch forest, from the word for birch

Birch

Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...

, бреза (breza). It is cognate to the Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

 placename Březník

Březník

Březník is a village and municipality in Třebíč District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 629 ....

.

Honour

Breznik Heights

Breznik Heights

Breznik Heights rises to over 600 m in the southeast part of Greenwich Island. They extend 12 km between Santa Cruz Point in the north east and the base of the moraine spit at the mouth of Yankee Harbour in the southwest...

 on Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands

South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...

, Antarctica is named after Breznik.