The forgotten Kingdom of Vovovitsa

Vovovitsa is a community settlement (sometimes referred as a micronation) north of the town of Sevlievo in Bulgaria, Eastern Europe. It is located in the municipality of Sevlievo, Gabrovo, in a secluded area near the Rositsa river, in the land of the Kormyansko village. Vovovitsa existed as an autonomous settlement since the 12-13th centuries and was created by foreigners - immigrants from the lands that are now known as Romania, Serbia and Croatia. In the 14th century some Bulgarians and Jews moved in the community. Over time, the settlement shrinked to its present size, but it remained distant from any nearby villages.

Kingdom of Vovovitsa (late 12th century - early 14th century)

The area was a semi-autonomous micro-kingdom for a couple of centuries during the Second Bulgarian Empire. ‘Kingdom’ was used instead of the tsardom commonly used in Eastern Europe, in order to signify its semi-autonomy from the Bulgarian tsardom and the fact that most of its inhabitants were Catholic. It was ruled by a king (King Miroslav of Vovovitsa), counts, and barons. During the Ottoman rule Vovovitsa was officially referred to as a 'mahala'. After the liberation of Bulgaria, authorities refused to declare the area as autonomous. Very little is known about the Kingdom as the Second Bulgarian Empire was in decline and historians had their focus on it. Moreover, Vovovitsa was inhabited by just about 1000 people at most to be of any concern. The area declined significantly during the Ottoman rule when a lot of houses were destroyed and many people fled the area. Stones from once important buildings of Vovovitsa were used in the construction of the famous stone bridge of Sevlievo. During the Socialism in Bulgaria (1944-1989), many documents and books containing information about Vovovitsa were destroyed by the party and the majority of the inhabitants of the area fled to Yugoslavia and Romania, while the remaining got assimilated.

This was taken from a history website that is now offline and I had it on a word file on my hard drive. I have totally forgotten about it, but I think it's interesting. I was able to find a similar blog post on blogspot.com, that is less detailed:
Kingdom of Vovovitsa

^What do you think of that? Knowing what the Socialist authorities did to free speech it isn't hard to imagine that they really tampered with history. And it being a micro-state that had about 1000 inhabitants at its peak, I guess that was easy. I found it on Wikimapia, 43°2'27"N 25°4'36"E

I tried to research on this topic but information on the Internet is scarce, so it's certainly one of the most obscure states that ever existed in Europe. It's not ancient, but Medieval and 'lost', so I hope this is the right section of the board. Anyway, here is a snipped from what I found about it in some Romanian book (translated for me by a Romanian friend):

Voveu (Romanian, Latin, and int.), Vovovitsa (Bulgarian), Vovovica (Croatian and Serbian) is a present-day community settlement and a former micro-kingdom that existed during the Second Bulgarian Empire. It is situated near the town of Sevlievo in the Gabrovo region in Bulgaria. Since the majority of the population was Slavic, Vovovitsa/Vovovica was the more common and official name, but many Vlachs from the settlement called it Voveu. Foreigners from Europe also referred to it as Voveu (or Vovo in Italian). Since the Second Bulgarian Empire was larger and more powerful, most historians focused on its decline, while ignoring the little kingdom which was semi-independent from the Bulgarian state and experienced economical, political, and politic stability. In fact some many Bulgarians from nearby settlements moved into the community as it was far more prosperous. A couple of Jewish families also moved in, making the micronation even more multicultural. Thus the population rose to 1300. After Bulgaria was occupied by the Ottoman Empire, Voveu declined significantly, turning into a village, and later a neighborhood of Kormyansko village. Nowadays, less than 50 people live there.

Great! thanks for sharing.
I love this kind of 'forgotten kingdoms' stories.
Having visited that area of Bulgaria a couple of years ago, It's a shame I wasn't aware of this particular town.
But i found it a very interesting and beautiful country, and came across certain villages and buildings that looked were taken straight out of some fairytale or a medieval movie set.
Highly recommend a visit.
A shame about the destruction of the historical records.
cheers