Kardzhali

People have lived around Kardzhali since the Neolithic, and the hills of the eastern Rhodopes were a heartland of the Thracians, who built rock sanctuaries dedicated to the gods of the sun and the earth. The greatest of them, Perperikon, stands on a rocky hill north-east of the town; Tatul and the Utroba Cave, where a ray of noon sunlight enters a womb-shaped chamber, are nearby. In the Byzantine period the area was the centre of a Christian eparchy, Achridos, and the fortified monastery of St John the Forerunner grew on the right bank of the Arda. In the medieval Bulgarian state the settlement was known as Zherkovo, guarded by the fortresses of Vishegrad and Monyak on either side of the river.

Under Ottoman rule the town grew on the trade routes but stayed small. In the 18th century brigands used it as a hideaway and supply point, and it took its present name from their leader, Kırca Ali. After the Congress of Berlin in 1878 it joined autonomous Eastern Rumelia, but it was returned to the Ottoman Empire after the union of 1885. On 21 October 1912, during the First Balkan War, Bulgarian troops took the town, and the date has been its holiday since 1937.

Kardzhali became the centre of a new province in 1949. Turkish emigration continued throughout the 20th century, peaking in 1989 when the state's forced assimilation campaign, the "Revival Process", drove many ethnic Turks to Turkey. In December 1989 and January 1990 the town saw protests over the restoration of minority rights, and Turkish students boycotted schools until the ban on their mother tongue was lifted.

Kardzhali Province has the highest proportion of ethnic Turks of any Bulgarian province. In the town itself a Bulgarian majority, many of them Muslim Pomaks, lives alongside a large Turkish community, while the wider municipality has a Turkish majority; both languages are heard on the streets. The municipal government is largely in the hands of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, the party most associated with the Turkish community. The Central Mosque near the market draws hundreds for daily prayers and the two Eids, while the medieval monastery of St John the Forerunner was restored in 2000 with a new bell tower.

For a town of its size, Kardzhali has a busy cultural life: two drama theatres, named after Dimitar Dimov and Kadrie Lyatifova, a puppet theatre, an art gallery, and a historical museum with one of the most extensive exhibitions in southern Bulgaria. The town hosts the Perperikon international arts festival and a national children's literature competition, and its town clock is unusual in Bulgaria for playing revolutionary songs every hour.

Football is followed closely. FK Arda Kardzhali, founded in 1924, plays in the First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football, at the Arena Arda. The long-distance Sultans Trail walking route passes the reservoir, the town centre and many surrounding villages, and the lakes draw anglers from across the country.

About 42,000 people lived in Kardzhali at the end of 2025, and the wider municipality, which includes 117 villages, had about 68,000 at the 2011 census. The population has fallen since the end of communism, as both Bulgarians and Turks left during the hard years of the post-communist transition, the Bulgarians for other parts of the country or abroad and the Turks mainly for Turkey.

The old industrial economy has gone. Kardzhali was once a centre of tobacco processing and of metallurgy based on the lead and zinc ores of the area; the large lead and zinc complex outside town closed, and its two chimneys were demolished in 2016. Today retail and services make up the largest share of the local economy, and the province has one of the highest shares of people working in agriculture in Bulgaria. Tourism, built on Perperikon and the lakes, is seen as a promising sector.

Daily life centres on the market and the streets around the mosque, the promenades along the Arda and, in summer, the reservoir shore, where families swim, fish and eat in the open-air restaurants. Erol Myumyun has been mayor since 2023, succeeding Hasan Azis, who held the post for two decades.

Kardzhali's cooking combines Bulgarian and Turkish traditions. Pastries include börek, made with layers of filo dough, and Bulgarian banitsa, and Ottoman cooking left dishes such as baklava, moussaka and kyufte in Bulgarian cuisine. Bulgarian staples are everywhere: shopska salad under grated sirene cheese, grilled kebapche and kyufte, and gyuvech, with yoghurt and ayran at many meals.

The reservoirs supply fish. Kardzhali Reservoir was stocked with wels catfish in the 1970s, and specimens of up to 100 kg are found there today, along with carp and perch; rudd is caught in large numbers at Studen Kladenets. Boat restaurants on the lake let diners choose a live fish for their meal, and open-air restaurants on the dam serve drinks and food through the summer.

The producers' market north of the river sells fruit and vegetables from the surrounding farms. Rakia, the national spirit, is often drunk with salads as an appetiser, and Bulgarians are great coffee drinkers.