Pavlikeni

Pavlikeni (Bulgarian: Павликени) is a town in Veliko Tarnovo Province, Northern Bulgaria, about 41 kilometers away from the city of Veliko Tarnovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Pavlikeni Municipality. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 11,151 inhabitants. Pavlikeni was a centre of ceramics and pottery in Antiquity as evidenced by the remains from Roman and Thracian times, the modern town emerged in the 13th-14th century as a village initially called Marinopoltsi. Since its residents were adherents of the Christian sect of Paulicianism, it soon acquired its present name. During the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, the demographics of the village changed significantly, as many Turks settled to make it a purely...