The region was inhabited by the Slavs.
According to Bulgarian academics, the Dragovichi tribe lived there.
The Dragovichi accepted many Thracian customs, but gave them typical Slavic characteristics.
Soon after the Bulgar invasion of the Balkans, the whole region was annexed to the First Bulgarian Empire by Malamir.

Velingrad was founded in 1948 after the unification between the villages Chepino, Ladzhene and Kamenitsa.
Chepino and Kamenitsa are older settlements, but Ladzhene was founded after 1878 by Bulgarian refugees from Macedonia, because their region remained under Ottoman rule after the Treaty of Berlin.

The town is named after Vela Peeva, a Bulgarian communist revolutionary who gave up her life during World War II.
The region was inhabited by the Slavs. According to Bulgarian academics, the Dragovichi tribe lived there. The Dragovichi accepted many Thracian customs, but gave them typical Slavic characteristics. Soon after the Bulgar invasion of the Balkans, the whole region was annexed to the First Bulgarian Empire by Malamir.
Velingrad was founded in 1948 after the unification between the villages Chepino, Ladzhene and Kamenitsa. Chepino and Kamenitsa are older settlements, but Ladzhene was founded after 1878 by Bulgarian refugees from Macedonia, because their region remained under Ottoman rule after the Treaty of Berlin.
The town is named after Vela Peeva, a Bulgarian communist revolutionary who gave up her life during World War II.
Velingrad