title: Makresh Municipality
text: # Makresh Municipality
  
  Makresh Municipality (Bulgarian: Община Макреш) is a municipality (obshtina) in Vidin Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, located in the Danubian Plain about 12 km southwest of Danube river. It is named after its administrative centre - the village of Makresh. The area borders on the Republic of Serbia to the west.
  
  The municipality embraces a territory of 229 $km^2$ (88 sq mi) with a population of 1,938 inhabitants, as of December 2009.
  
  The easternmost border of the area is linked by the main road E79 which connects the province centre of Vidin with the city of Montana and respectively with the western operating part of Hemus motorway.
  
  ## Settlements
  
  Makresh Municipality includes the following 7 places all of them villages:
  
  | Town/Village | Cyrillic | Population (December 2009) |
  | - | - | - |
  | Makresh | Макреш | 473 |
  | Kireevo | Киреево | 268 |
  | Podgore | Подгоре | 278 |
  | Rakovitsa | Раковица | 611 |
  | Tolovitsa | Толовица | 70 |
  | Tsar Shishmanovo | Цар Шишманово | 157 |
  | Valchek | Вълчек | 81 |
  | Total | | 1,938 |
  
  ## Demography
  
  The following table shows the change of the population during the last four decades.
  
  Makresh Municipality :
  
  | Year | 1975 | 1985 | 1992 | 2001 | 2005 | 2007 | 2009 | 2011 |
  | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
  | Population | 5,876 | 4,333 | 3,623 | 2,550 | 2,270 | 2,129 | 1,938 | 1,630 |
  | Sources: Census 2001, Census 2011, „pop-stat.mashke.org“, |||||||||
  
  ### Religion
  
  According to the latest Bulgarian census of 2011, the religious composition, among those who answered the optional question on religious identification, was the following:
  
  Religious composition of Makresh Municipality
  
  Orthodox Christianity
  
  75.9%
  
  Catholicism
  
  0.6%
  
  Protestantism
  
  0.5%
  
  Islam
  
  0.0%
  
  No religion
  
  14.8%
  
  Prefer not to answer, others and indefinable
  
  8.2% :
  
  An overwhelming majority of the population of Makresh Municipality identify themselves as Christians. At the 2011 census, 75.9% of respondents identified as Orthodox Christians belonging to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
  
  