On the other side of the Pirin Mountains from Gotse, SANDANSKI enjoys the warmest, sunniest climate in Bulgaria, with alpine breezes mellowing its Mediterranean aridity, and hot mineral springs whose curative effects have been appreciated since Roman times - making it a health resort   par excellence . You don't have to be ill to enjoy the baths and pampering at the spa centre (located in the Hotel Sandanski ) - great if you've just been hiking in the mountains - nor the town's festivals, restaurants and korso , centred around ul. Makedoniya. Moreover, Sandanski offers the best public transport access to Melnik, Rozhen and Rupite - the chief attractions in the far south - plus another way into the Pirin range, via the mountain resort of Popina Lâka and the Yane Sandanski hut.

Sandanski's modern appearance belies its origins as Desudava, a settlement of the Thracian Medi tribe and the likely birthplace of Spartacus , who led the great slave revolt against the Roman Empire in the first century BC. The revolt originated in Sicily, where Spartacus - like other Medi - had been deported to labour on the island's estates following the Roman conquest of Thrace. While a Spartacus monument is visible from the highway, vestiges of the past in the centre of town relate to the Orthodox saints Kozma and Damyan , local brothers whose healing skills earned them the accolade Sveti Vrach (Blessed Doctor) - also the town's name prior to the Turkish conquest. A provincial chiflik under Ottoman rule, it rivalled Melnik as a market town in the nineteenth century and surpassed it after disaster befell Melnik in 1913. The town's present name, bestowed in 1949, pays tribute to the nineteenth-century Macedonian freedom fighter Yane Sandanski.