Montana, Bulgaria

Montana Монтана
Panoramic view of Montana
Coat of arms
Montana Location of Montana, Bulgaria
Coordinates: 43°25′N 23°14′E / 43.417°N 23.233°E / 43.417; 23.233Coordinates: 43°25′N 23°14′E / 43.417°N 23.233°E / 43.417; 23.233
Country	Bulgaria
Province (Oblast)	Montana
Government
• Mayor	Zlatko Zhivkov
Area
• City	69.235 km2 (26.732 sq mi)
Elevation	135 m (443 ft)
Population (Census February 2011)
• City	89,544
• Density	1,300/km2 (3,300/sq mi)
• Urban	53,856
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal Code	3400
Area code(s)	096
Website	Official website

Montana (Bulgarian: Монтана) is a city in northwestern Bulgaria, located 50 kilometres (31 miles) south of the Danube river, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of Vratsa and 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of the Serbian border. It is the administrative centre of Montana Province.

When the town was first settled by Slavs it was known as Kutlovitsa; later in Ottoman Turkish as Kutlofça. The town was renamed Ferdinand in 1890, receiving the benevolence of Bulgarian Knyaz Ferdinand and a city status. On 1 March 1945, by a decree of the government, the communist authorities changed the town's name to Mihaylovgrad after the red party activist Hristo Mihaylov (died 1944), a leader of the 1923 September Uprising in the region. In 1993, after a presidential decree, the town received the name Montana, inspired by the name of the nearby Roman settlement, from Latin mons, "mountain".

Montana is situated on the river Ogosta, north of Stara Planina, surrounded on the south and east by uplands.

The climate is temperate continental, with a cold winter and hot summer. The average temperature is 1 °C (34 °F) in January and 25 °C (77 °F) in July. In the last 15–20 years, temperatures reaching up to 35 to 40 °C (95 to 104 °F) in the summer are not uncommon.

As of February 2011, the city has a population of 43,781 inhabitants. The number of the residents of the city reached its peak in the period 1988-1991 when exceeded 55,000 with a highest rate in 1991 numbering 57,142.

According to the latest 2011 census data, the individuals declared their ethnic identity were distributed as follows:

Total: 43,781

There is a large concentration of Gypsies within the city limits as the Gypsies are 3055 in the city and 3764 in the municipality, while the Bulgarian elements are 38278 in the city and 47464 in the municipality. The following table presents the change of the population after 1887.