Municipality of Montana

The name of the settlement is known from several epigraphic monuments from the II and III century. It is etymologically connected with mons – mountain and montani – mountaineers. According to one of its origin, it may have been named after a Roman military unit, Cohors Montanorum, established in a camp in the second half of the 1st century, from which there is no direct information and documented presence or due to the geographical location in front of the Stroplanin chain, according to another, it may be associated with the hill at the foot of which the sanctuary functioned in ancient times and pre-Roman cults were practiced.

The administrative, economic and cultural prosperity of the city was interrupted by the Gothic invasions in the middle of the third century. The fortress of Montana was built. After the administrative changes at the end of the 3rd century, the province of Coastal Dacia was created with the capital Ratiaria, and a significant urban centre in the interior remained Montana.

During the Middle Ages and during the Ottoman rule, the settlement, built on the ruins of the Roman city, bears the Slavic name Kutlovitsa. During the Second Bulgarian State, it was a diocesan centre. In the fights against the Ottomans, Kutlovitsa is famous for the great battle that took place in the nearby area of ​​Zheravitsa during the Chiprovtsi uprising in 1688. Today, the central square of Montana is named “Zheravitsa”.

After the Liberation in 1878, the settlement grew rapidly. In 1891, for the second time in its history, it received city status. The decree was signed on December 2, 1891 by the then Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand, and the town received its name. In the following years, the town of Ferdinand became a district centre, a market centre of this agricultural region, marked cultural progress and had an active social and political life. The town of Ferdinand is famous in the recent history of Bulgaria for its participation in the September events in 1923.

In the period 1945-1992, the town was called Mihaylovgrad, after Hristo Mihailov (1893-1944), a political functionary of the Bulgarian Communist Party, who was one of the leaders of the uprising in September 1923.

The decree of the Council of Ministers for the renaming of the city by Ferdinand to Mihaylovgrad is dated March 1, 1945. Mihaylovgrad gradually became a modern city for its time, with its appearance and place in the life of Bulgaria - first as a district, then as a district and regional administrative centre.

Since 1993 (by Decree of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria of January 18, 1993) the city of Montana, regional centre in the Republic of Bulgaria, bears its first historically known name - the ancient settlement of Roman times – Montana, an integral part of modern history and the cultural tradition of today's city.