KIUSTENDIL  , the

chief town of a department in Bulgaria, situated in a mountainous country, on a small affluent of the Struma, 43 M . S.W. of Sofia by rail . Pop . (1906), 12,353 . The streets are narrow and uneven, and the majority of the houses are of clay or wood . The town is chiefly notable for its hot mineral springs, in connexion with which there are nine bathing establishments . Small quantities of gold and silver are obtained from mines near Kiustendil, and vines, tobacco and fruit are largely cultivated . Some remains survive of the Roman period, when the town was known as Pautalia, Ulpia Pautalia, and Pautalia Aurelii . In the loth century it became the seat of a bishopric, being then and during the later middle ages known by the Slavonic name of Velbuzhd . After the overthrow of the Seryian kingdom it came into the possession of Constantine, brother of the despot Yovan Dragash, who ruled over northern Macedonia . Constantine was expelled and killed by the Turks in 1394 . In the 15th century Kiustendil was known as Velbushka Banya, and more commonly as Konstantinova Banya (Constantine's Bath), from which has developed the Turkish name Kiustendil .