Madan is an old mining town. The underground riches of this area have been known since ancient times. Mining of lead ore in these places began in the 5th – 4th centuries BC. from the Thracian tribe Koilaleti. The Koilaletes were a Thracian tribe that lived along the middle course of the Hebros (Maritsa). In the year 77 – 79, Pliny the Elder in “Natural History” wrote that the river divided them into large coelaletes (Coelaletae maiores) living below the Hemus and small coelaletae (Coelaletae minores) living below the Rhodopes. In his Annals, Tacitus mentions the Koilaletes, who, together with the Odris and Dii, raised an anti-Roman revolt in 21.
The Thracians, the Romans and the Byzantines mined lead from the bowels of the Madan municipality. The Thracians worked alone. The Romans used Egyptian and Asia Minor slaves to mine the ore. In the old mine galleries of Borieva, coins from the II-I century BC were found, and at horizons 845 and 1013 – rice knives, wooden troughs, minted money and a child’s skull. Byzantine aristocrats decorated their homes with quartz and galena crystals – they called them “stone flowers”. From the remains of old mining, it can be judged that mining activity was developed here in all eras with minor interruptions, especially during Turkish times. By coming to these lands, the Turks gave a strong boost to ore mining, as evidenced by the remains of an installation and a smelting furnace in the village of Fabrika. From this period is the very name of Madan, which derives from the Arabic-Turkish word Maden, which means mineral, ore, mine. On the old maps it can be found as “Madanköy” – Ore Village. According to legend, 200-300 years ago, Madan was a large village with dozens of workshops by the river – they used water energy by means of propellers. The subject of this industry was all kinds of products – from forged nails to coffee grinders and weapons. They were sold throughout the Ottoman Empire. The reasons for the decline of the former Madan settlement are not known.
At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the plague hit Madan three times, and at the same time the village was attacked and burned. All these calamities forced the Madans to leave their native hearths and seek salvation in the surrounding centuries-old forests.
In 1915, engineer Savov, commander of a regiment, together with his adjutant, the writer Anton Strashimirov, on his way to Greece, stopped in the area of St. Georgi, to today’s village of Strashimir. They enjoyed the beautiful Rhodope landscape, but as he examined some stones, Strashimirov expressed the opinion that the mountain hides countless ore riches in its bosom. After the end of the war, Savov remembers the words of the writer and comes with a whole mission to look for the treasures. The state has already passed a law that private individuals and foreign companies organized into joint stock companies can invest their capital in preserving perimeters for the development of underground resources. Engineer Ivan Savov declared Boevo hamlet, the current Strashimir mine, as well as the areas of the Spoluka and Sharenka mines as his perimeters, and in 1924 announced the existence of the joint-stock company “Rhodopski Metal”. In 1927, “Rhodopski Metal” built a flotation factory in Srednogortsi, together with a small hydroelectric plant, but due to a lack of electricity, the factory could not operate. Various attempts have been made to melt the ore in primitive furnaces or to purify it mechanically, but no great results have been achieved. Savov himself refused the intervention of German companies in his enterprise, and negotiations with English companies did not yield any results, except for the sale of insignificant amounts of concentrate. In the same period, around the perimeters of “Rhodopski Metal” the former enterprise “Pirin” also began to maintain perimeters, and in 1934 “Pirin” became the mining department of the Bulgarian joint-stock company “Granitoid”, which in turn concluded a contract with several German companies for operation of the Rhodope mines. With the help of German capital, the company carries out intensive mining activities, a ropeway is being built from the Gyudyurska mine through Borieva and Kardzhali, where a flotation factory was also built. At the same time, a transmission line was laid from Kardzhali to Konski dol, the first shafts were laid. Along with this, however, the Germans exceeded their capital investments and put their hands on ore mining in the Rhodopes until 1944, after which the German part, according to an international agreement, passed into the hands of the Soviet government. Shortly thereafter, a Soviet-Bulgarian geological exploration brigade was established, which began systematic exploration of underground resources. A Bulgarian-Soviet mining company “GORUBSO” was created with the task of carrying out large-scale mining and processing of lead-zinc ores in Bulgaria. During this period, Madan was the city with the highest average salary in the country. During this time, 100% of the public housing stock and all public buildings were built. The riverbeds are paved, the roads are asphalted. The largest hospital in the region was built and put into operation “Prof. Dr. Konstantin Chilov”, the two secondary schools and all industrial schools enterprises.
Nowadays, the deposits in some of the mines have been exhausted and liquidated.
The Terra-Mine project was developed by the municipalities of Madan in Bulgaria and Pilea Hortiatis in Greece, who realized that re-exploitation of mines and quarries is an important challenge and a chance to transform them from places of traditional crafts and professional activity into attractive and operational ones places to visit, both for locals and visitors.
In the city you can visit the Mining and Mining Museum. The museum exhibits a wealth of photographic material, as well as interesting exhibits related to the history and development of mining in the area, from ancient times to the present day. Also, a section of the “Spoluka” mine has been converted into the “Spoluka” underground mining museum. To enter the Spoluka mine, tourists are first equipped with helmets and special miner’s lamps, then board a passenger car and enter with a locomotive like real miners underground. Where there are figures of miners engaged in various activities. The entire route is equipped with a rail track, turnouts, maneuvering bypasses. Another landmark in the city that you should not miss even because you cannot see it anywhere else is the “Rhodope Crystal” exhibition, also called the “Crystal Hall”. You will learn that this interesting place was discovered in 1984 and presents a collection of mineral crystals extracted from the mines of the Madan region. Looking at all the exhibits, you will enjoy the fine art created by nature. There are also natural phenomena in the municipality, which in recent years have attracted more and more tourists. One of them is the “Sharenka” cave. You will be surprised to learn that this is actually a cave-museum, which is the first of its kind in Bulgaria. If you enter the cave, you will have the opportunity to explore three visitors’ corners, each of which recreates scenes of life, lifestyle and the way of mining ore from the time when the cave was inhabited by a Thracian tribe.
Nature has the magic of shaping bizarre shapes out of rock formations. In many places in Bulgaria there are natural stone structures with unusual shapes that captivate our imagination. One such creation of nature is a rock in the shape of a horse’s head. The horse’s head is one of the wonders of the Rhodope Mountains, a masterpiece that leaves one in awe and dumbfounded by the power of nature.
There are established hiking trails for hiking enthusiasts. The “Kechikaya” area, which is a proto-Bulgarian fortress, occupied by the Romans. There are preserved many old stone walls of buildings and of a fortress wall. The route continues to the rock sanctuary “Rome Pope” with a height of 50 m., which looks like a man with a mantle. The cave “Malkata dupka” is located near the “Rim Pope” rock sanctuary. After a short rest, the tourists head to the “Mushroom” rock sanctuary, the “Triangular Cave” and the holy spring, which is located at the lower end of the rock sanctuary. The route continues to the “Babata” rock sanctuary and the Roman gallery.
Other interesting places in the vicinity of Madan are the two Roman bridges dating from the 1st millennium. According to the researchers, a road connecting White Sea and Thrace passed through them.
As the Madanian population is mixed, you will see three mosques and two Orthodox churches in the city.
If you are a guest of Madan at the end of August, you can also see the celebrations on the occasion of the city’s holiday.