 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (December 2019) |
Great Bulgarian Forest (latin: Silva Magna Bulgarica or Silvas Bulgarorum) was the territory between Belgrade and the Gate of Trajan, entering Via Militaris in Thrace.[1][2] In the Middle Ages this territory was afforested with inaccessible forests and was known to all by this name. Participants in the first three crusades in the 11th-12th centuries, passing along Via Militaris, describe the famous area, which was passed in 8 days, walking 2 days and 2 nights without seeing a person. This was the area between Nis and Pazardzhik.[3][4] Usually the name Bulgarian Forest referred to the mountain hills overgrown with dense forests along the Great Morava and Nisava, including the massifs of mountain ranges in today's central parts of Eastern Serbia and Western Bulgaria.[1] In the narrower geographical sense, the territory covers the forested mountain ranges of the Timok Valley (according to the Romanian understanding of the area), located east of the Great Morava River.[5]
- ^ a b Койчева, Елена (2004). Първите кръстоносни походи и Балканите. Векове. ISBN 954-91167-5-1.
- ^ Bŭlgaria: kratka geografia, Authors: Liubomir Antonov Dinev, Kiril Ivanov Mishev, Edition 3, Publisher Nauka i izkustvo, 1980, str. 145.
- ^ Райчевски, Стоян (2004). Нишавските българи. Балкани, ISBN 954-8353-79-2.
- ^ Razvitie na estestvoznanieto i meditsinata v nashite zemi, Author Tsvetan Kristanov, Izd-vo na Bŭlgarskata akademiia na naukite, 1966, 19.
- ^ Занетов, Гаврил (1914). Българи на Морава. Либерален клуб.