 Today's town began to form in the mid-19th century from the villages of Grad, Mlino, Rečica, Zagorice, and Želeče, which were encircling the lake.At that time, farmers started to sell the land along the eastern lakeshore to wealthy individuals for their villas, and the villages of Grad, Zagorice, and Želeče began to merge.Bled was officially recognised as a town in 1960.