Rupite (Bulgarian: Рупите, pronounced [ˈrupitɛ]) is a village which includes a small mountainous protected area in the southeastern part of Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria, 11 kilometers northeast of Petrich, Petrich Municipality, on the western bank of the Struma River. It is best known as the place where alleged Bulgarian clairvoyant Baba Vanga lived. The area is also associated with the crater of an extinct volcano, the hills of Kozhuh and Pchelina, and the warm thermal springs. The village has 1,124 inhabitants.
Baba Vanga's house.Remains of an ancient town were discovered at the southwestern foot of Kozhuh. In 2002, a Latin inscription dated 308 CE and consisting of an imperial appeal addressed to the local urban citizens, suggests that the settlement was Heraclea Sintica. The town likely existed from 4th century BCE to the 6th century CE, and was the main town of the Thracian tribe Sints.
Today Rupite is mostly famous as the residence of the late alleged clairvoyant Baba Vanga (Vangeliya Gushterova, 1911 – 1996), who still attracts thousands of worshipers and tourists. According to a legend, Vanga lost her sight during a storm in her early childhood, but during the accident she had a vision, which gave her clairvoyance abilities. In the last years of her life, Vanga lived in a small house in Rupite, because according to her relatives she considered the area an "energy source" from which she collected her powers.According to the statistics of Vasil Kanchov in 1900, Shirbanovo (as it was known before) was populated by 252 Bulgarian Christians.
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