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Economic Yearbook, Stara Zagora Region, Bulgaria, 2011
Stara Zagora Municipality The Upper Thracian Plain, and more specifically the land where Stara Zagora is located today, has been inhabited since deepest antiquity. Archaeological research shows that a civilization sprung up here approximately 8000 years ago. Since antiquity, up until the present, the city has had eight names: Beroe, Augusta Trayana, Vereya, Irinopolis, Boruy, Eski Zagra, and Zheleznik. The present name of Stara Zagora was accepted at the Church Council in Constantinople in 1871.
Today Stara Zagora is a beautiful and dynamically developing industrial city and university centre, which boasts a rich historic past
During 2010 the municipality of Stara Zagora worked with a budget, which included revenues of 78.7 million leva. Out of that amount, 52.9 million leva were provided by the state for the fulfillment of delegated activities, while the revenues from its own activities were in the amount of 25.8 million leva. The municipality finished 2010 in good financial condition and was able to pay off loans in the amount of 5.2 million leva. The funds budgeted for revenues and expenditures by the municipality of Stara Zagora for 2011 are similar to those from the previous year. The largest expenditure is for salaries and social security of those that work in the areas of education, social services and municipal departments. Significant funds, totalling approximately 14 million leva, have been set aside for the maintenance of street lighting and public cleanliness, street repairs, landscaping and other activities. Stara Zagora is among the leading municipalities in Bulgaria in the absorption of monies
and many scientific and cultural institutes. The newest and most modern museum in Bulgaria, as declared after a national contest for the 2009 Building of the Year, is located here. One of the biggest and most functional opera buildings on the Balkan Peninsula is also found in Stara Zagora; it has been entirely remodelled over the last two years. The municipality of Stara Zagora invested 12.5 million leva in the remodelling. At the end of 2010 it was declared the Building of the Year in the Culture, Science and Religion category.
from European Funds. In 2010 it ranked 6th in total worth of the projects implemented as part of the Operative Programme – Regional Development (OPRD) and 2nd in the amount of funds awarded as part of the Operative Programme – Administrative Capacity (OPAC). During the period 2008-2010, the municipality of Stara Zagora won projects worth 32 million leva from OPRD, OPAC and Beautiful Bulgaria, while projects worth more than 20 million leva were either completed or in the process of being carried out during 2010.
The date of July 31, 1877 is memorable for the city. That is when one of the biggest battles in the Russo-Turkish war of liberation took place and, as a result, the city of Stara Zagora was burned to the ground by the Ottoman troops. The Governor of Eastern Rumelia, Aleko Bogoridi, laid the foundational stone of the reconstructed city on October 5, 1879. Stara Zagora was rebuilt according to plans by the Czech construction expert, Lubor Bayer and became the first post-liberation city in Bulgaria to have modern urban planning.