Samokov

a city in southwestern Bulgaria, on the slopes of the Rila massif, in Sofia District. Population, 25,000 (1972). Samokov has textile and woodworking industries; machine building, mainly the electrotechnical branch, is developing. A local school of wood carving and icon painting, among whose members was Z. Zograf, became established in Samokov in the 18th and 19th centuries.