Would any of you experienced folk like to enlighten me on this topic? Is a village only classed as dead when no inhabitants remain, or is there a threshold number below which a village will lose it's status or services? Does it depend on whether there's a shop or not? At what point would street lighting and refuse collections cease, and would water and electricity services be withdrawn at the same time? When does it become officially dead?

Does it then remain abandoned, or do villains move in and camp there? For instance, if someone were happy to use solar power and a backup generator, and rely on spring water and wood-burning stoves etc - assuming one could afford to maintain a vehicle that would cope with roads receiving no attention - is there any reason one could not live in such a place? Obviously one would have to like solitude and be prepared to take one's own refuse to a disposal point, but is it actually illegal to live in a dead village, or seriously unsafe, or what?

On the Google maps I have seen places with no name, that I'm sure had one when I looked some time ago. Is this just my memory playing tricks, or are these villages that have died? If you see a place for sale online, is there any simple way to tell if it's a thriving or a dying village? It's one of those terms that crops up from time to time, for which I've never seen any explanation yet. Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere and I've missed it.

ghost towns are world wide, many reasons for this, often progress and rail systems bypassing a village so it no longer has a local economy. with no trade and decreasing population abandonment oftens happens. you would have no services in an abandoned village, not a good prospect really because there is nothing absolutely nothing to offer anymore. sad really.

This is from Novinite.

Bulgarian villages will be fully extinct by 2060, if the current trend of high mortality rate in the countryside remains.

The data comes from a research of the Institute for the Study of Population at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS).

According to the study, 100 years ago, only 20% of Bulgarians lived in cities and towns while now the trend is reversed. There are currently about 200 villages in the country without any population while nearly 500 have a population of 10 to 20 people only.

In the last 60 years, village population in Bulgaria has been reduced by over 3 million people. About 2 million Bulgarians live in villages now. The main reason to the exodus is poor infrastructure, lack of work, schools, health care and stores, turning large parts of the country into a "
museum."


Villages near large cities are in better shape since they are used as residencies for people who work in the city.

According to the study, women are more prone to leave small villages over lack of marriage perspectives.

Experts from the Institute point out the depopulation has another downside – huge losses in the absorption of EU funds thus the State must interfere and plan policies for the development of the Bulgarian village.

According to statistics by the National Statistical Institute 'villages without a single resident in Bulgaria are as follows.

1. Bablon municipality. Smolyan;

2. Balabanchevo municipality. Sungurlare,
3. Balaleya municipality. Dryanovo;

4. Banchovtsi municipality. Ihtiman;

5. Bedrovo municipality. Chernoochene;

6. Bizhovtsi municipality. Veliko Turnovo;

7. Bilkini municipality. Dryanovo;

8. Bogdanovtzy municipality. Ihtiman;

9. Bogdansko municipality. Elena;

10. Boynik municipality. Krumovgrad;

11. Boychovtsi municipality. Veliko Turnovo;

12. Tree, common. Chuprene;

13. Bochkovtsi municipality. Veliko Turnovo;

14. Budiltsi municipality. Kresna;

15. Banzareto municipality. Maglizh;

16. Rapids general. Kirkovo;

17. Valeo general. Elena;

18. Velyuvtsi municipality. Elena;

19. Kestrel, common. Ivaylovgrad;

20. Vladovtsi municipality. Tryavna;

21. Vlasatili municipality. Tryavna;

22. Vlahovtsi municipality. Gabrovo;

23. Valkovtsi municipality. Tryavna;

24. Gabraka municipality. Elena;

25. Gaidar, general. Tryavna;

26. Ganev dol municipality. Elena;

27. Gledachevo municipality. Radnevo;

28. Upper Dragoycha municipality. Dryanovo;

29. Upper Marentsi municipality. Tryavna;

30. Upper Tsonevtsi municipality. Tryavna;

31. Forest, total. Elena;

32. Forestry Pisarevo municipality. Zlataritsa;

33. Forestry, General. Ivaylovgrad;

34. Burn total. Tryavna;

35. Garden general. Antonovo;

36. Giurgiu municipality. Petrich;

37. Neighborhood business, general. Zlataritsa;

38. Dzhurovtsi municipality. Dryanovo;

39. Doynovtsi municipality. Veliko Turnovo;

40. Lower Enevets municipality. Veliko Turnovo;

41. Lower Margatina municipality. Troyan;

42. Lower Marentsi municipality. Tryavna;

43. Lower Radkovtsi municipality. Tryavna;

44. Lower Tomchevtsi municipality. Tryavna;

45. Donkin, total. Tryavna;

46. Chepelare municipality. Chepelare;

47. Dogwood, common. Sevlievo;

48. Durovtsi municipality. Zlataritsa;

49. Woodcutters, total. Tryavna;

50. Darlevtsi municipality. Elena;

51. Daskarite municipality. Tryavna;

52. Quince, common. Rouen;

53. Elentsite municipality. Dryanovo;

54. Hardware, general. Omurtag,
55. Zhergovets municipality. Gurkovo;

56. Zhidov dollars, total. Troyan;

57. Zanoga municipality. Petrich;

58. Star general. Rouen;

59. St. John, general. Kurdzhali;

60. Phosphor, total. Kurdzhali;

61. Ivan Dimov, total. Tryavna;

62. Ivanivanovtsi municipality. Elena;

63. Irinetsi municipality. Tryavna;

64. Kalchovtsi municipality. Gabrovo;

65. Kamenski, total. Sungurlare;

66. Karaivantsa municipality. Elena;

67. Karanda, total. Elena;

68. Kiselkovtsi municipality. Tryavna;

69. Wrist joint. Rouen;

70. Koevtsi municipality. Tryavna;

71. Kokortsi municipality. Rudozem;

72. Kolishovtsi municipality. Gabrovo;

73. Kolyu Ganev general. Tryavna;

74. Konarskoto municipality. Tryavna;

75. Kosilka municipality. Dryanovo;

76. Kraypole municipality. Antonovo;

77. Krastenyatsite municipality. Tryavna;

78. Doll overall. Dryanovo;

79. Kartipanya municipality. Dryanovo;

80. Kashle municipality. Tran;

81. Lesiche municipality. Elena;

82. Leshko extruded overall. Troyan;

83. Lisets municipality. Samokov;

84. Raspberry, common. Sevlievo;

85. Small Bulgari general. Dryanovo.

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t=2131&
p=46323&
hilit=Bablon+municipality.+Smolyan%3B#p46323

Thankyou Cheekychops for this list, very useful to have. I guess the reasons for village death and Ghost towns are a whole other complicated topic with many aspects and ramifications! In this one I am simply trying to find out about the present physical attributes of such places, not the causes. For instance, if somebody decided to live in one, and there are no services supplied, would they still be expected to pay Council Tax? If a bunch of foreign purchasers wanted to revive a dead village, would the government be glad and supportive, or otherwise? This is meant to be a thread about the practical realities of the situation, if anybody knows the answers!

I don't know if you are looking for properties that have been re-possessed but if so this might help? if not sorry I got you wrong.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ... rchive%3D1

I didn't imagine re-possessed came into it, I assumed most people who abandoned these villages probably owned the property outright, but couldn't make a living there or afford to maintain them? Would they have been able to raise a mortgage it, before they left? Would a Bulgarian bank have actually lent anything against a property in this kind of situation, where the owner earned no income to repay with? Are you saying there are dead villages full of properties with money owed on them, or that they mostly belong to banks now? If an elderly person with no offspring died in one of these villages, doesn't the house and land pass to siblings, cousins and their descendents etc?