Uzundzhovo is a village in southeastern 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...

, part of Haskovo

Haskovo

Haskovo , is a city, an administrative centre of the homonymous Haskovo Province in southern Bulgaria, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. As of February 2011, it has a population of 74,843 inhabitants....

 municipality, Haskovo Province

Haskovo Province

Haskovo Province is a province in southern Bulgaria, neighbouring Greece and Turkey to the southeast, comprising parts of the Thracian valley along the river Maritsa. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre - the city of Haskovo...

. As of 2008, it has a population of 1,727 and the mayor is Vancho Vanchev. The village lies in the agricultural Upper Thracian Plain

Upper Thracian Plain

The Upper Thracian Plain constitutes the northern part of the historical region of Thrace. It is located in southern Bulgaria, between the Sredna Gora mountains to the north and west; the Rhodopes, Sakar and Strandzha to the south; and the Black Sea to the east. A fertile agricultural region, the...

 (Northern Thrace

Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...

), east of Haskovo, south of Dimitrovgrad

Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria

Dimitrovgrad is a town in Haskovo Province, South-central Bulgaria, located close to the province capital - Haskovo. It is a newly founded settlement, built in the end of the 1940s. and named after the communist leader Georgi Dimitrov. The town is the administrative centre of the homonymous...

 and west of Simeonovgrad

Simeonovgrad

Simeonovgrad is a town in southern Bulgaria, located in Haskovo Province on both banks of the Maritsa River. Three bridges connect the town's two parts. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Simeonovgrad Municipality...

 and Harmanli

Harmanli

Harmanli is a town in Haskovo Province, South-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Harmanli Municipality. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 18,557 inhabitants....

. During Ottoman rule, the village was known as Uzunca ova ("long meadow"), a direct translation of the area's former Byzantine Greek appellation, Makri livada. The village's current name is derived from the Ottoman Turkish

Ottoman Turkish language

The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...

 name and modified with the Slavic

Slavic languages

The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...

 placename suffix -ovo. An architectural reminder of the village's Ottoman history can also be seen, as the local Church of the Assumption

Church of the Assumption (Uzundzhovo)

The Church of the Assumption is a Bulgarian Orthodox church in the village of Uzundzhovo, Haskovo Municipality, Bulgaria. Built as a mosque during the Ottoman era, it was reconstructed in 1906 as a church.-History:...

 was built originally as a mosque. Uzundzhovo hosts the Bulgarian Air Force

Bulgarian Air Force

The Bulgarian Air Force is a branch of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard and protect the sovereignty of Bulgarian airspace, to provide aerial support and to assist the Land Forces in case of war. The Bulgarian Air...

's 21st Fighter and Bomber Airbase

Uzundzhovo Air Base

Uzundzhovo Air Base or 4th Fighter Air Base is a former military air force base located near Uzundzhovo, Bulgaria.- See also :* Bulgarian Air Force* List of Bulgarian Air Force Bases* List of airports in Bulgaria...

, shut down in 1998.

Trade fair

In Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 times, Uzundzhovo was famous as the site of the international Uzundzhovo Fair

Trade fair

A trade fair is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and opportunities...

 (Узунджовски панаир, Uzundzhovski panair). According to the German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 historian Hammer, the fair was established by Grand Vizier

Grand Vizier

Grand Vizier, in Turkish Vezir-i Azam or Sadr-ı Azam , deriving from the Arabic word vizier , was the greatest minister of the Sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself...

 Sinan Pasha

Sinan Pasha

Sinan Pasha or Sinan Pashë Kahremanliu was an Albanian Grand Vizier, Ottoman military commander and statesman.-Life:...

 in 1593. It was organized regularly from the early 18th century to 1876 and gathered up to 50,000 people for around 40 days. The site was chosen because of Uzundzhovo's location on the trade route from Plovdiv

Plovdiv

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia with a population of 338,153 inhabitants according to Census 2011. Plovdiv's history spans some 6,000 years, with traces of a Neolithic settlement dating to roughly 4000 BC; it is one of the oldest cities in Europe...

 to Edirne

Edirne

Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...

, between the Mediterranean Sea

Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...

, the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 and the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

. The 69th issue of the Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

-based Bulgarian newspaper Tsarigradski vestnik of 15 October 1849 describes the fair as follows:
A newspaper report in Vek of 7 September 1874 underlines the importance of the fair:
The Uzundzhovo Fair was one of the most famous fairs in the Ottoman Empire and the most important one in Rumelia

Rumelia

Rumelia was an historical region comprising the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe...

; as such, the authorities took great care to keep the roads in good condition and protect the merchants from the robbers hiding in the nearby forests. However, this was not always possible and robber assaults were always a major issue. Some of the more well-known goods that were sold at the fair were velvet

Velvet

Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed,with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel.The word 'velvety' is used as an adjective to mean -"smooth like velvet".-Composition:...

 and silk

Silk

Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...

 clothes, gems

Gemstone

A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...

, coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

, sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, Persian carpets, English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 tin and paints, Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 cloth and glass, Russian leathers. The fair was visited by famous 19th-century Bulgarians such as Georgi Rakovski, Nayden Gerov

Nayden Gerov

Nayden Gerov , born Nayden Gerov Hadzhidobrevich February 23, 1823, Koprivshtitsa–October 9, 1900, Plovdiv) was a Bulgarian linguist, folklorist, writer and public figure during the Bulgarian National Revival....

, Petko Slaveykov

Petko Slaveykov

Petko Rachov Slaveykov was a noted nineteenth-century Bulgarian poet, publicist, public figure and folklorist.-Early years and educational activity:...

, Dobri Chintulov

Dobri Chintulov

Dobri Petrov Chintulov was a Bulgarian poet, teacher and composer of the Bulgarian National Revival period.Born in the town of Sliven in September 1822 to the family of a craftsman, Chintulov studied at the Greek school in his hometown...

, Hadzhi Dimitar

Hadzhi Dimitar

Dimitar Nikolov Asenov , better known as Hadzhi Dimitar , was one of the most prominent Bulgarian voivods and revolutionaries working for the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule.-Early life:...

 and Vasil Levski

Vasil Levski

Vasil Levski, born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev, , is a Bulgarian revolutionary and a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed the Apostle of Freedom, Levski ideologised and strategised a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule...

. Gradually, the Uzundzhovo Fair lost its international importance. The Plovdiv Fair

International Fair Plovdiv

International Fair Plovdiv , held in Plovdiv, is Bulgaria's largest and oldest international trade fair. It was established in August 1892 as an industrial and agricultural show....

, organized since 1892, assumed its role of the region's leading trade show.