Sandanski is a town in Southwest Bulgaria. The town is located in the hollow of Sandanski and Petrich in the outskirts of Pirin mountain. Thracians established the village and called it Medius. Later, there was a Roman village in the same place called Dezudava. In medieval times Bulgarians called the settlement Sveti Vratch in the memory of the two brothers and natural healers Kozma and Damyan. This was the name of the town until 1947 when it was named Sandanski.
It is believed that the Thracian slave Spartacus from the Maedi tribe was born and lived in the region of Sandanski. The monument of Spartacus is one of the symbols of the town. Sandanski is in the region of Blagoevgrad and is the administrative center of the municipality of Sandanski.
The town, located at 240 – 300 m above sea level, is the hottest town in Bulgaria during all seasons as the duration of sun shining is more than 2 450 hours providing conditions for year-round solar and air procedures. The mountain breeze going down the valley of river Bistritsa from mountain Pirin cools the air in the summer.
The combination of favorable natural resources and mineral springs with different temperature ( in the region of Sandanski there are more than 80 springs with temperature from 42 to 81 °С), low mineralization and rich chemical composition heal a lot of diseases and enable bathing outdoors all year round. The up mentioned also made it easy for people to settle in these places since ancient times turning the village in one of the oldest settlement centers on the Balkans from the Trojan War until nowadays.
Melnik, the smallest town in Bulgaria, and the Rozhen monastery can be found near Sandanski.