On September 2, 1947, the city of Dimitrovgrad was founded. The first socialist city of Bulgaria was conceived grandly in terms of infrastructure and urban planning. Its beginning was laid on May 10, 1947.
The city was built by 50,000 foremen, who arrived from 963 Bulgarian cities and villages. Some of them became residents of the new city. From 1948 to 1950, the young people worked in the independent brigade “Young Guard”. The motto of the foremen building Dimitrovgrad is: “We build the city, the city builds us!”
Dimitrovgrad was officially founded on September 2 by a decree of the then Prime Minister and leader of the Bulgarian Communist Party Georgi Dimitrov, by uniting the villages of Rakovski, Mariino and Chernokonevo. A youth foreman movement was formed for its construction, in which young people from all over the country worked for free.
The foreman built dozens of homes, chemical plants, the "Vulkan" factory, the nitrogen fertilizer plant, the road network of today's Dimitrovgrad municipality, as well as sites throughout the country: the road through the Hainboaz Pass, railway lines (Lovech - Troyan, Pernik - Voluyak, Samuil - Silistra), the "Alexander Stamboliyski" and "Georgi Dimitrov" dams, etc.
The most ancient objects resulting from human activity in Dimitrovgrad were discovered in the "Dyado Panyovata Dupka" cave in the Gabera area. Experts date the processed flint blades to the Paleolithic period (40 thousand BC), recalls dimitrovgrad.bg.
The favorable climatic conditions and fertile soil around the Maritsa and Merichlerska rivers attracted people in antiquity. This is evidenced by the numerous ceramic materials and finds found in the land of Dimitrovgrad.
Most likely, in late antiquity, the fortress in the Kaleto or Durhana area was built, which is identified with Blesna or Blisimos. It was included in the borders of the Bulgarian Khanate after the victorious campaigns of Khan Krum (802-814) against the Byzantine Empire. Blesna experienced its true flourishing during the Byzantine rule of the 11th-12th centuries, when it became a major spiritual and military center.
Medieval chroniclers associate the name of the city with the Third Crusade led by the German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in 1189 and the victorious campaigns of Tsar Kaloyan in 1202 in Thrace. The last time the name of Blesna is mentioned in the sources is because of the brother of Emperor Baldwin of Flanders, who was captured by the Bulgarians - Henry. He invaded Thrace in 1206 and captured the fortress, which had previously been abandoned by its inhabitants and defenders. What was the exact fate of the fortification after that - is unknown. Archaeological materials testify that life around it continued after that.
After the conquest of Thrace by the Ottoman Turks, the area around Dimitrovgrad fell into the so-called Rumelia Vilayet.
The largest of the three villages, the village of Rakovski, is known in Ottoman registers and travelogues from the 16th-19th centuries, with the name Kayadzhik (in Turkish „kaya” is a rock, stone). In 1906, the village was renamed Kamenets, and in 1925 to Rakovski.
In written sources from the 17th-19th centuries, the village of Mariyno is known by the name Kokardzha (literally translated from Turkish „por”). In 1897, the village was renamed Mariyno in honor of Princess Maria Luisa, wife of Prince Ferdinand, who joined the campaign to help the flood-affected population by donating 1,000 gold leva.
The legend says that on the site of the village of Chernokonevo, there was an old village called Chernichevo. A plague drove out its inhabitants and during the Turkish conquest, Turkish settlers came here. In the 17th century, the Turks were driven out, the inhabitants of the former Chernichevo returned and named their village Karaatli, because their leader rode a black horse - in Turkish "kara at". In 1906, the village was renamed Chernokonevo. The village is also known as “Little Batak”, due to the bloody events during the Russo-Turkish War of Independence, when it was completely destroyed by the Turks, and the population was subjected to indiscriminate logging.
The main occupation of the population is agriculture. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, vegetable production received special development. Part of the local population was engaged in saldzhiystvo (transportation of goods along the Maritsa River), and another in varadzhiystvo (production of lime). In 1873, the Baronhirshov Railway was laid, which passed through the village of Kayadzhik. The station gave impetus to the development of the village and turned it into a center of trade.
In 1895, coal mining began in the region. In the years between the two world wars, two thermal power plants were built in the Maritsa coal basin – TPP “Vulkan” and TPP “Maritsa 1”, which marked the beginning of electricity production and electrification in Southern Bulgaria.
A canning factory was opened in the village of Rakovski and construction of a large cement plant began between the villages of Mariyno and Chernokonevo. Thus began the formation of a large industrial region, which foreshadowed the construction of an urban settlement of great importance for the country. It is no coincidence that in 1946 a government decision was made to build the first Bulgarian fertilizer plant precisely on the land of the village of Rakovski.