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Opaka is a town in northeastern Bulgaria. It is located in Targovishte region, near town of Popovo. The town is the administrative center of the municipality Opaka.
Town of Opaka is located in the eastern part of Danube plain, along the valley of Black Lom river. It is about 15 km north of town of Popovo, 48 km northwest of town of Targovishte and about 63 km south of town of Ruse.
Its altitude is 180-200 m.
The population is around 2700 people.
Education activities in the municipality of Opaka are realized by five primary schools in five villages and one secondary school in the town of Opaka.
Nurseries/kindergarten are in: town of Opaka, village of Gorsko Ablanovo, village Garchinovo, in village of Golyamo Gradishte, village of Krepcha and village of Lyublen.
Medical insurance is provided by two medical practices group "Health EK" and "Medica 2000", which has a presence in every village in the municipality.
Opaka is an old settlement. His birth was around II century, when its lands are settled by Thracian tribe krobizi. It is believed that the name of the village comes from the Latin word opakus - shady place or opan - white clay.
The town is located at the shadow of the hills, but there are areas rich in haltsedonovi white sand and clay, which are valuable raw material for industry. Archaeological studies suggest that the region was inhabited since hoary antiquity. Evidence of this is the existence of Thracian mounds along the valley of Black River Lom, Roman Calais, Slave funerals and other objects found in the household.
In these times, since II century to present days, Opaka has developed in the same land. By Decree of the State Council of Bulgaria Opaka is announced to be a town.
Tourism in Opaka municipality is not very developed. In the village of Gorsko Ablanovo there is a hut "Third of March", located amidst beautiful scenery and fresh air. From the hut, a nice view is reviewed to the valley of the Cherni Lom and wooded slopes of the neighboring hills.
At thirty kilometers from the village of Gorsko Ablanovo are the railways of Popovo and Dve mogili, through which you can travel to every corner of the country and beyond. Tourists are also able to use the airport in the town of Rousse fifty kilometers from the village of Gorsko Ablanovo.
Southwest of Krepcha village is the Krepchanski medieval rock monastery. Monastery complex consisted of cells, church and tomb, cut in the rock massif. On the walls of the church at the tomb and around some of the cells, are carved drawings, runic signs and inscriptions in Hebrew, and Cyrillic. Two texts in Cyrillic are the X century. One of them is the oldest dated inscription in Cyrillic - October 922 years. The inscriptions in the monastery krepchanskiya are very valuable epigraphic monuments of medieval Bulgaria. In cooperation with the municipality Popovo municipality Loznitsa project funded under the PHARE program is built approach to rock monastery and tourist information point located in the Youth Center in downtown Opaka
One of the biggest attractions in the area are caves Monastira, Sarandalitsa, Dusty Cave, Rabbit Hole, Ushite /Ears/, etc.
Sources: http://bg.wikipedia.org; http://www.opaka.bg