Rila (town)

Rila ( _bg. Рила; IPA: ) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, part of Kyustendil Province. It is the administrative centre of Rila municipality, which lies in the southeastern part of Kyustendil Province.

The town lies in a mountainous region at the foot of the southwestern Rila mountains, 20 kilometres from the Rila Monastery, 34 kilometres from Dupnitsa and 65 kilometres from Kyustendil. In antiquity, the area was inhabited by the Greeks and Romans; it was known as "Sportela" and then as "Roligera". In the 14th century, the village was a feudatory possession of the Rila Monastery and may have been mentioned in Tsar Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria's Rila Charter as "Driska". Later on, it was mentioned as "İrlie" in Ottoman tax registers of 1576.

Municipality

Rila municipality covers an area of 361 square kilometres (of which 54.84% forests and only 19.3% arable) and includes the following 5 places:

Several peaks higher than 2,000 metres are part of the municipality, including Rilets (2,731 m), Yosifitsa (2,697 m), Kanarata (2,619 m), Zliya Zab (2,678 m), Kalin (2,667 m), Elenin Vrah (2,654 m), Tsarev Vrah (2,378 m). The municipality also boasts 28 mountain lakes. The area is also rich in medieval Bulgarian Orthodox churches and monasteries.