The town of Sliven (population 110 240 people, 270 m above sea level) is situated in the eastern part of the Gornotrakiiska valley at the immediate foot of Sliven Balkan (Eastern Balkan Mountains). Sliven is located 270 km east of Sofia, 28 km northwest of Yambol, 70 km northeast of Stara Zagora, 75 km east of Kazanlak and 114 km west of Bourgas.

Most probably the name of Sliven derives from the location of the town, i.e. fusion of the field and the mountain as well as the three rivers Asenovska, Selishka and Novoselska. The town sprang up in the period VII – X century on an old military road from the Danube River to the mountain pass Vratnik (Jelezni vrata) in the Balkan Mountain to Tzarigrad.
Idrisi, an Arabian geographer was the first one to give information about the town in 1153, calling it Istilifunos. Later it became known with the following names – Silimno, Slivno, and during the Ottoman rule – Islimie, Islivne. Father Paisiy mentioned it for the first time as Sliven in his “Istoria Slavianobulgarska” (Slavonik and Bulgarian History).
During the first decades of the Ottoman rule Sliven enjoyed the privilege of being a town where people were rearing falcons and guarding the Balkan passes. It also gained popularity for the weaving of the woolen material called “kebe”. In 1828 there were about 20 000 inhabitants in the town but after Sliven was liberated from Turkish yoke in the Russian-Turkish war more than 15 000 Bulgarians from the region left with the withdrawing Russian soldiers and settled to live in Romania, Bessarabia and South Russia. In 1872 the population of Sliven was 25 000 inhabitants.
Sliven grew as a crafts and trading center, making use of the waterpower of the rivers running close by. The craft of the homespun cloth making was best developed. More than 400 trades would annually visit the town to buy thousands of meters of woolen material. The craft of rifle making came second in importance. In 1836 the first textile factory in Bulgaria was built in Sliven, that of Dobri Jeliazkov. It was a three-storey building with 20 spinning machines, 6 mechanical looms and 500 workers. Traders from Turkey, Poland and Hungary would come to the annual fair in Sliven. Nowadays the building of the factory is declared a monument of culture of national significance.
During the Revival period Sliven became famous as “the town of the hundred chieftains” – Inge, Zlati, Kara Subi, Radoi, Hristo, Konda, Hadji Dimitar, Panaiot Hitov, Taniu Voevoda and many other. Georgi Ikonomov, one of the apostles of the April Rebellion, was born in the town, so were Sava Dobroplodni, Dr. Ivan Seliminski and Dobri Chintulov. After the liberation the textile industry continued to develop and shape the economic image of the town.