What is "dragalevtsi"

Dragalevtsi is a quarter of Sofia, part of Vitosha municipality and situated in the southwestern part of the city, at the foot of the mountain of Vitosha. A former village incorporated into the city in the 20th century, Dragalevtsi is today a high-income area built up with luxurious one-family country houses, villas and hotels.

Dragalevtsi lies between Boyana and Simeonovo, near the Sofia ringroad. There is a two-person chairlift connecting the quarter with the Vitosha ski runs. A landmark in Dragalevtsi is Dragalevtsi Monastery, founded in the 14th century in the Second Bulgarian Empire.

Dragalevtsi, then a village, was first mentioned in a Bulgarian source in the Zograf Screed of 1527 as ДРАГАЛЄВ(Ц), with a reference to the monastery as МОНА ДРАГАЛЄВСКИ. It had been listed in Ottoman tax registers of 1420 as Diragulevça. Its name stems from the personal name Dragol or Dragal.