fewBulgarians. The bulk of Durankulak's residents were, however, settlers from the eastern Balkan Mountains who arrived in the early 19th century. After the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, it became part of the Principality of Bulgaria and, as the largest village in the region, was a municipal centre of 12 villages. On 1 June 1900, the village was the centre of an economic revolt against the government of Todor Ivanchov and as a result 40 people (none of them locals) were killed by the national cavalry.
Between 1913 and 1940, it was under Romanian rule along with all of Southern Dobruja and was renamed to R?cari, but it was returned to Bulgaria according to the Treaty of Craiova. According to the terms of that treaty, the native Bulgarian population of Northern Dobruja was exchanged with the Romanian and Aromanian colonists sent in the south during the period of Romanian rule. As a result, some Northern Dobrujan Bulgarian refugees (????????, preseltsi) settled in Durankulak. Most of them were from Nunta?i not far from the Danube Delta and today form around half of the village's population. From its return to Bulgaria to 1963, the village was known as Blatnitsa (????????, "marshy place"), but its historic name was reinstated to commemorate the revolt of 1900. The name is of Turkic origin and roughly means "dwellers at the [water] ear". The border checkpoint was opened on 1 May 1967
