The number of okruzi has been changed only at times of major governmental reorganization, the most recent of which was in 1959. The obshtini, on the other hand, are in a state of relatively constant change. Cities grow, towns become cities, new enterprises are set up and attract population, and other factors affect the need for local administration. Since the reorganization of 1959, when the obshtini were reduced by nearly one-half—from about 1,950 to just over 1,000—their number has tended to grow again. By the late 1960s there were about 1,150 of them.
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
The Bulgarians, who were mounted archers from the steppes of central Asia, rode into the area between the Danube River and the Stara Planina in the seventh and eighth centuries A.D. They interbred with the Slavs and adopted a Slavic language and many Slavic customs, but they retained enough individuality to remain readily identifiable. In spite of horrifying defeats and treatment at the hands of Byzantines and Ottomans, they were in the land to stay and never relinquished their title to a share of the peninsula.
For several centuries before their independence from the Turks, the people preferred to live in the hills, motivated by the sheer necessity of having to escape the notice of their oppressive occupiers. They returned to the fertile plains and valleys in large numbers only after independence in 1878. Since 1945 there has been a major movement of people to the cities as the country has become industrialized, and there has been a lesser movement of the rural population resulting from the collectivization of agricultural lands.
Each major movement has brought about some improvement over the conditions of the period that preceded it. Settlement in the back hills was particularly necessary during the last years of Turkish control, when the Ottoman Empire was in decline and its local controls and taxation became increasingly oppressive. To avoid attracting attention to themselves, the people settled into small hamlets and built their homes as bare and unattractive as possible.
With independence life on the plains was safer and easier. For a time there was plenty of good land available but, as the population grew, inevitably the land became occupied, and the size of individual landholdings decreased. Between the turn of the century and the mid-1980s, for example, the average landholding decreased from 18.2 to 12.2 acres, a size that was agriculturally uneconomic and that overpopulated the rural areas. People remained poor and, although it was no longer necessary to keep them plain, peasant homes amounted to little more than small, bare, essential shelter.
Under the communist government, the first near-complete collectivization program served to increase the size of farmland units in collective and state farms to an average of about 10,000 acres each. In 1970, with an average of less than 1,100 fully employed farmers at each of the larger units, the ratio of farmers to acres of arable land had fallen sharply. In 1973 the agricultural lands were again recombined, this time into about 170 units called agroindustrial complexes. The rural population is still, however, for the most part clustered in unplanned, nucleated villages or hamlets. Long, single-street villages are rare. Many villages are situated in valleys for shelter from cold winter winds. A gradual movement to housing at the agroindustrial centers will undoubtedly take place, but there was no indication in 1973 that the movement would be a rapid one or that the government intended to make it a matter of urgent priority.
Post-World War II emphasis on educational and cultural pursuits and rural development has made more community life and more amenities available to the rural areas. Dwelling space remains meager, with only a little more than 500 feet of floorspace per dwelling. By 1970 central water supplies were available to over 90 percent of the population, but fewer than one half of the dwellings had individual service. Nearly all dwellings have electricity.
Bulgaria has been primarily agricultural and has been overrun, pillaged, and occupied by so many conquerors that its cities have suffered, and their inhabitants have had less opportunity than have those in most European countries to develop a culture. There are relatively few cities with noteworthy associations with the country's past. There are, however, a few notable exceptions, and some of their histories antedate the introduction of the Bulgar people into the region. There are others that, if not altogether new, have had rapid and well-planned growth during the country's recent history. Modern city growth has been accompanied by the construction of large numbers of apartment houses, many of them built as rapidly as possible to recover space destroyed during World War II and to accommodate the heavy influx of people to urban areas.
Sofia was founded by the Thracians and has had a continuous history of some importance for 2,000 years. No trace of its original founders remains in the city, although it retained its Thracian name, Serdica, while it was a part of the Roman Empire. It is situated in a sheltered basin at the base of the Vitosha range, a location that has been both strategically and esthetically desirable. Long-established communications routes cross at the city. The most traveled and most famous is that from Belgrade to Istanbul. It is Sofia's main street for that portion of its route. At the city it crosses the north-south route from the Aegean Sea to the Danube River that uses the Struma and Iskur river valleys. Some of the other routes that radiate from the city, particularly those to the Black Sea coastal cities, are of more local importance than the international routes. Sofia's pleasant climate, plus its strategic location, made the city a contender in the selection of a capital for Rome in Emperor Constantine's reign. Its hot springs were an added attraction to the Romans, and their baths remain.