Rila, Bulgaria

Rila (, ) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, in Rila Municipality, part of Kyustendil Province. It is the administrative centre of Rila Municipality, which lies in the southeastern part of Kyustendil Province.
The town lies in a mountainous region at the foot of the southwestern Rila Mountains, from the Rila Monastery, from Dupnitsa and from Kyustendil. It is situated on the banks of the Rilska River at the entrance of the Rila Monastery Nature Park. In antiquity, the area was inhabited by the Thracians and Romans; it was known as "Sportela" and then as "Roligera". In the Middle Ages it was part of the Bulgarian Empire. In the 14th century, the village was a feudal possession of the Rila Monastery and may have been mentioned in Tsar Ivan Shishman of Bulgaria's Rila Charter as "Driska". Later on, it was mentioned as "İrlie" in Ottoman tax registers of 1576.