Pazardzhik

The city lies in the southwestern parts of the Upper Thracian Plain and also in the Pazardzhik-Plovdiv Fields, a sub-region of the plain. Pazardzhik lies on both the right and left banks of the Maritsa River, with an island called ''Svoboda''.

Pazardzhik is one of the few cities with a flat topography without any elevations. The average elevation is 205 metres (673 ft) and covers the entire area of the city. The only exception is a slight elevation change in the riverbed of the Maritsa.

Nearby is the Besaparski Ridge, where limestone deposits have been discovered. Nearby, near the village of Mokrishte, there are many hills from the time of the Thracians, which were artificially created.

The nearest mountains are the Western Rhodopes—about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) south, the Eastern Rila—about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southwest and the Sashtinskata Sredna Gora about 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of the town.

The vegetation in and around the town is mainly broad-leaved species - oak, linden, poplar, chestnut, plane and less often coniferous species - mainly pine and fir. Willow, birch, ivy grow around the rivers.

The region is traditionally used for agriculture due to the favourable climate and fertile soils and is considered a recognised region for the cultivation of vegetables and fruit. Besides cereals, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, watermelons, tobacco and wine, but also peaches, cherries and cotton are grown.

From the 15th century[3] until the 1980s, Pazardzhik was a centre of Bulgarian rice cultivation, which was practised in the humid lowlands of the Upper Thracian Plain.[4] The yellowish rice grains of Pazardzhik were well known and better appreciated than the rice grown around Plovdiv or further southeast along the Maritsa. Western visitors were amazed by the intensive rice culture and already in the 18th century spoke of the area as a "European Egypt" (in a travel diary from 1786[5]). Today, rice cultivation no longer plays a major role in the Pazardzhik region. After 1989, production was stopped or even abandoned (in most places) within a few years, as Bulgarian rice was no longer competitive on the world market.[6]

One of the main rivers, the Maritsa, flows through the city and Topolnitsa (river) and Luda Yana, tributaries of the Maritsa, also border the city to the east and west.

Pazardzhik has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) according to the Köppen climate classification and a considerable amount of humid continental climate and Mediterranean influence on the city. According to Batakliev's book about the region, the highest temperature ever recorded around 1921-1955 is 40.6 °C (105.1 °F) in July, while the lowest is −29.5 °C (−21.1 °F) in February. Mainly in June, July and August are shown to have higher temperatures in comparison with the other months. The coldest months are December, January and February, as shown in the climate table. The wettest months of the year are May and June, both above 58 mm.

The beginning of the pattern of civilisation brought by the Asia-Minor settlers in the second half of the 7th millennium BC has so far been judged on the basis of the early Neolithic finds from the Rakitovo settlement mound, which chronologically corresponds to the Karanovo I culture. The first known and discovered tribes in the city was in the Stone Age period, around the same time. They were agro-pastralists and founded an settlement from this era at the right shores of Maritsa, near Sinitovo and Pazardzhik. It continues until the 5th millennium BC during Chalcolithic period in the south, near the Besaparian hills. Another settlement was established in this period, at the today's railway station. It was destroyed due to the construction of the railroad Baronhirshova in 1876, the station and other structures around it in the beginning of the 20th century.[13] A clay idol (named the Pazardzhik Venus) was founded in 1872 and now is in the Natural History Museum in Vienna.[14] It was made in the 5th millennium BC and is a clay figure of a seated woman.[15] Near the city lived the Bessi tribe in the Iron Age, which their main city was Bessapara near the village Sinitovo and the ancient Roman road Via Militaris passed through it. Until 1920, was preserved a Thracian tombstone near the today's market in Pazardzhik. Northeast of it, an annular well was discovered, believed to be from an Thracian villa complex.[13]

The Eneolithic culture is best represented by the layers of the Yunatsite settlement mound - its last period corresponds to the Karanovo VI culture. The development of the Late Neolithic culture was interrupted in the first centuries of the 4th millennium BC. - In the period from 3700 to 3300 BC, life in the settlement mounds ended. However, some finds from the mountain areas of the Rhodopes and Sredna Gora show that there was no 'hiatus' (interruption) between the Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age cultures, indicating that at least part of the lowland population of Pazardzhik seems to have retreated to the mountains.[16]

The Drougoubitai tribe settled here in the early Middle Ages. The region is incorporated in the First Bulgarian Empire during Omurtag's reign and also the battles of Malamir. Archaeological leads from the Second Bulgarian Empire were founded near the west of the city. In the left shores of Topolnitsa, fragments of sgraffito ceramics, iron shovel and sword were founded in 1926.[13]

Disputes were made on when the city was established. According to research made by historian Stefan Zahariev concluded that Pazardzhik was first founded in 1395, where nomads from Saruhan settled under Bayezid I's orders. First and only, Zahariev implicates the nomads of Sarukhan in the founding of Pazardzhik. To answer the question of how and when the city was founded, Zahariev combines two different episodes in the history of the settlement of Thrace to create a 'story'.[17] Three years later in 1398, according to the history of İbn-i Kemal, the city was founded by the migration of Tatars from Actav to Rumelia.[18] Another claim according to Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, an Austrian historian and orientalist, is about the establishment is during 1418, where the Minnet Bey and the Tatars from Isquilip, which resettled due to Mehmed I. Mehmed, after taking Samsun, passed through Isquilip and takes punitive measures against Minnet Bey. The reason for this, although presented by Aşıkpaşazadeh in the form of a dialogue, is explicitly stated in the source - Minnet Bey deviated from the campaign to which he had been called. The entire group of Tatars was taken to Rumelia and settled in Konush, where Minnetoglu Mehmed Bey built an imaret and a caravanserai and enlivened the surrounding area. Some facts in the narrative require special attention. According to the contrast of Balkanski, the resettled Tatars belonged to the Samagar tribe and Minnetoglu Bey is portrayed as the executor of the Sultan's will. The leader of the deported Tatars was Minnet Bey and they most likely appeared as part of Timur's forces in the Isquilip region, a fact reported only by the "anonymous". The identity of Minnet Bey has not been fully clarified in historiography.[19] The fourth claim and the preferred one is the city's establishment from the resettled Crimean Tatar people by the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II's campaign on Kiliia and Akkerman according to the Dutch professor Machiel Kiel. The Tatars settled there in 1485, where the local villages held an annual market and their leadership was entrusted to their leader Sar-Khan Bey, who in turn settled in the depopulated village of Zagorovo, from which Sarukhanbehlu (today Septemvri) emerged. According to Zahariev, a historian from Pazardzhik, the first Tatar settlers were united in the mahalla Hadzha Kalach, which also built the first mosque in the town. It became a town in 1488.[20]

Pazardzhik developed in the years from its foundation in 1398 to the time of the earliest Ottoman register available in 1472. Within a period of less than eighty years, Tatar Pazardzhik was already included as a town in the Ottoman cadastre - eloquent testimony to its highly successful development. It is safe to assume that only a few years after its foundation, Pazardzhik, like a number of other settlements in Thrace, was severely shaken by the civil war between the Ottoman sons of Sultan Bayezid I. In the 1530s, an intensification of rice cultivation began in Thrace, directly affecting the immediate vicinity of Pazardzhik. According to the accounts of Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, in this case taken directly from Idris Bitlisi, rice cultivation was introduced in the region as early as the time of Lala Şahin Pasha, but according to the authoritative opinion of Inaljik, the intensification and expansion of rice cultivation in the Plovdiv region can only take place during the reign of Mehmed II. This is confirmed by the reports of the construction of the city of Plovdiv by Hadım Şehabeddin until the mid-15th century.[21]

A part of the Tatars left Pazardzhik and its surroundings and those who remained in the city turned their backs completely on nomadism and turned to agriculture or handicrafts - a fact reported by Ibn Kemal, who probably described the situation as he knew it in the 1580s. Within a few decades these changes breathed vital force into the new settlement, and in the second half of the 16th century the first mosque was built, attracting settlers and craftsmen, and the village took on the characteristic features of a kasbah of the time. Unlike neighbouring Philibe (Plovdiv), whose urban planning depended entirely on the sultan and local senior administrators, Pazardzhik attracted the attention and active support of influential Akıncı families. Among the builders of public buildings in the city are the names of Evrenosoglu, who promoted the construction of the city's imaret, the influential Malkoçoğlu Bali Bey, who built the Pirzade Curve near Pazardzhik, to Kadı Ishak Çelebi from Bitola, who built one of the city's mosques. The influence of nearby Ihtiman, completely dominated by the powerful Akinji clan of Mihalovtsi, is also important.[22]

In 1718 Gerard Kornelius Drish visited Pazardzhik and wrote "the buildings here according to construction, size and beauty stand higher than those of Niš, Sofia and all other places". In 1738 the population of Pazardzhik was predominantly Turkish.[23]

The Russians under Count Nikolay Kamensky captured the city after a brief siege in 1810 during the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812).[24]

In the mid-19th century, Pazardzhik was an important craft and trade centre with a population of about 25,000. Some mahallas emerged in the town, one of them being Chiksalan.[25] There were two large annual fairs and a large market on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There was a post office and a telegraph. The town also developed into an important cultural centre during this period, as the first school in the town, which was taught Bulgarian alongside Greek, was opened by bishop Dionysius in 1823,[26] a class school was opened in 1847,[27] a girls' school in 1848,[28] a community centre in 1862[29] and the women's union Prosveta in 1870.[30]

In the course of the Tanzimat reforms of 1834, a Bulgarian congregation was able to form, which in 1837 had the Church of the Dormition built with its carved altar wall, the work of masters of the famous Debar school. Stefan Zahariev reports that the city was divided into 33 mahallas in the 1860s. At that time there were 3420 houses, 1200 shops, 19 mosques, 6 churches, 1 synagogue and 4 public baths. There were also 8 Turkish and 6 Bulgarian schools, as well as a Jewish, a Vlach and an Armenian school.[31]

Vasil Levski appointed the revolutionary committee in Pazardzhik as the second district centre in Bulgaria in 1872. In 1876 Georgi Benkovski resumed the activity of the Pazardzhik revolutionary committee.[16]

The town was planned to be burnt down like other settlements that experienced it during the April Uprising.[32] In Pazardzhik - а strong stronghold of Turkish power - an uprising could not take place. The Turkish garrisons in town instilled fear in the local activists, many of whom were rich people. The plan to burn down the town and cut the railway line was not carried out. Thus, the Turkish authorities had a large superiority of forces already at the beginning of the uprising.[33]

City plan of Tatar Pazardzhik (Pazardzhik), 1878-1923

At the end of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), the Imperial Russian Army under the command of Lieutenant General Iosif Gurko continued to be present in the areas of Bulgaria that had been wrested from Ottoman rule. The Zapdniya detachment of Russian troops stationed in Pazardzhik was withdrawn on 14 January 1878. Unlike many other Bulgarian towns where massacres occurred during or after the war, unprotected Pazardzhik was spared planned depredation. Elsewhere along the Maritsa, the Ottoman commander Süleyman Hüsnü Pasha had burned down several settlements and killed or mistreated the inhabitants.[34] A group of young Jews organised a vigilante group in the town in order to protect the possessions of Bulgarian families that have fled and their own, as well as to defend the remaining population from violent attacks by the bashi-bazouk. A fire brigade was also established under the leadership of Gabriel Seliktar; their task was to extinguish fires in Bulgarian and Jewish houses and shops.[35] The town was planned to be burnt down like other settlements that experienced it during the April Uprising. The Armenian-born telegraphist Ovanes Sovadzhiyan saved the town from total annihilation. The ciphered order arrived at the station's telegraph office while the Turkish military were in Sovadzhiyan's office. Risking his life, he interpreted the telegram in the opposite sense. Namely, that the city and its inhabitants should be spared. To avoid scrutiny, Sovadzhiyan swallowed the printed text of the original message. After some time, the Russian troops entered the city, which was saved from destruction by an Armenian.[36]

The railway station in 1928

In 1904, there was a fire in the city, which burnt down more than 300 workshops and commercial buildings.[37]

The famous British travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor visited Pazardzhik in the late summer of 1934, according to his book The Broken Road.[38] During the 1934 Bulgarian coup d'état, which overthrew Mushanov's cabinet by Kimon Georgiev's Zveno and the Milltary Union, saw being replaced Mihail Trendafilov with Georgi Kenderov as mayor of Pazardzhik and also Lyubomir Levicharov as deputy mayor.[39]

Bulgaria's participation in the final stage of World War II was conditioned by circumstances reflecting national and international interest. On 17 September 1944, an agreement was reached that the newly formed Bulgarian People's Army. The first reported Soviet troops entered Pazardzhik on 23 September 1944. From the autumn of 1944 until the summer of 1946, troops from the 9th Artillery Division, commanded by Major-General Andrei Ratov, were stationed in the town, and the division's headquarters were located in Plovdiv. Near Glavinitsa in the winter of 1944 the aviation unit was deployed. The Soviet command in Pazardzhik was headed by Dmitry Gorunkov and assistants - Nikolai Pavlovich Ugryumov and Vasily Feodorovich Bezhanov.[40]

After 9 September 1944, the city grew to an industrial centre, which in 1947 during nationalisation, began consolidation of industrial enterprises. The leading sectors of the economy were food and beverages, machinery and metals, chemical, electronics, production of accumulators, etc. In 1960 was established a factory for accumulators, one of the biggest ones in Bulgaria. In 1981 49,7% of the industrial products in the okrug were produced in the town. Pazardzhik had 72 industrial enterprises and the cooperatives are also developed. After 1989, the process of state ownership in its various forms begins. Conditions were made for the development of private-owned agriculture enterprises.[41]

The special camp "C" was established. It was a secret concentration camp, organized secretly and illegally, about which only the head of the State's Security and Georgi Dimitrov knew about. It is housed in the old prison, and was ran by the Counterintelligence Department II of the State Security. It was intended for persons captured on the border, but from the very beginning many IMRO activists were also sent. According to testimonies, they were killed with iron rods by groups of executioners. By 1950, 137 people were sent to Camp C, of whom 65 died. The camp was closed on November 20, 1950, and the survivors were sent to the Belene camp. Eight people, "because they knew everything that was going on in the camp", were left without sentences "forever in Pazardzhik prison", but they too were transferred to Belene in June 1952.[42]

Pazardzhik co-hosted the 1981 Men's European Volleyball Championship, with Varna and Burgas.[43]

A demonstration of more than 5,000 people in Pazardzhik was organized by the independent associations in December 1989 with demands for the abolition of the monopoly of the Communist Party's power, a change in the electoral law, the release of political prisoners, the legalization of independent groups and the removal of the Penal Code for anti-government agitation.[44]

According to the latest 2011 census data, the individuals declared their ethnic identity were distributed as follows:[49][50]

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the all-Bulgarian districts of Kavlakkavak and Syulyukkavak were established. According to some accounts, by the mid-19th century the city consisted of 33 neighbourhoods - 18 Turkish, 12 Bulgarian and 3 Gypsy. Although the Bulgarian neighbourhoods were smaller in number, they were more densely populated, while the Turkish neighbourhoods also had Bulgarians. In 1865, the city's population was 25,000, with Bulgarians making up 57% and Turks 28.5%.[51] As a trading city, the city was attractive to other peoples, and so significant minorities of Jews, Armenians and other peoples remained in the city for decades, and they are still present today, although in much smaller numbers. Sephardic Jews were probably in the city as early as 1492. About 10% of the 17,000 inhabitants were Jewish when Jews had a monopoly in the trading and distribution of grain.[52][53] Some Aromanian families also live in Pazardzhik.[54]

Pazardzhik is twinned with:[55][56]

Municipal Hall

The municipal administration consists of a mayor, a deputy mayor and a secretary.[57] The mayor of Pazardzhik is the head of the city's administration. The incumbent mayor is Todor Popov, a part of the local coalition "Novoto Vreme", who won his first election in 2007 and subsequently served second, third and currently fourth consecutive terms in 2011, 2015 and 2019.[58] The incumbent deputy mayor is Petar Petrov, while the secretary of the municipality is Rumen Kozhuharov.

The mayor is a branch in the administration, which includes an Internal Audit Department, Financial Controller, Deputy Mayor, Data Security Officer and a department ''Mayor's Office''.[57]

The secretary is divided into 7 directorates - Legal and Administrative Services, Civil Registration of population, European funds, strategic planning and digital services, Education and culture, Budget and municipal property, Architecture and spartial planning and Construction, transport, environment.[57]

Pazardzhik is divided into the following neighbourhoods and districts:

• Varosha
• Industrial zone
• Piskovets
• Poliklinikata
• Stadiona
• Tsentar
• Chiksalan
• Shirok tsentar
• Bessapara
• Dimcho Debelyanov
• Zapad
• Iztok
• Maritsa
• Mladost
• Stavropol
• Ustrem
• Monastiri
• Yabalkite

• Agricultural College
• College for Primary Educators
• Branch of the Faculty of Music of Paisii Hilendarski University

• Mathematical High School "Konstantin Velichkov"[73]
• Bertolt Brecht Language School[74]
• High School of Economics and Management
• High School "Ivan S. Aksakov"
• High School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
• High School of Construction and Architecture[75]
• Tsaritsa Ioanna High School of Agriculture[76]
• High School of Chemical and Food Technologies
• High School of Clothing[77]
• High School of Industrial Technologies
• Georgi Bregov Secondary School
• Georgi Benkovski Secondary School
• Secondary School "Dr. Petar Beron"
• Dimitar Gachev Secondary School

• Primary School "Lyuben Karavelov"
• "Prof. Ivan Batakliev" Primary School[78]
• ''Stefan Zahariev'' Primary School
• "Hristo Botev" Primary School
• "Kliment Ohridski" Primary School
• ''Hristo Smirnenski'' Primary School
• "Vasil Levski" Primary School
• "Sts. Cyril and Methodius"
• "Saint Paisius" Primary School
• ''Nikola Furnadzhiev'' Primary School
• "Vasil Levski" Primary School
• "Vasil Drumev" Primary School

In the Pazardzhik History Museum, the items, documents and photos exhibited there tell about the development of the individual sports: cycling, football, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, modern pentathlon, athletics, rhythmic gymnastics, volleyball, etc.[87]

The main sports of the city is volleyball and football, as they have a professional men's volleyball team called VC Hebar Pazardzhik and a football team, FC Hebar Pazardzhik. There are other minor sports such as basketball and wrestling.[88]

Sport arenas and stadiums in the city include the stadium Georgi Benkovski and an indoor arena ''Vasil Levski'', the home arena for the city's volleyball club.

Pazardzhik became the European City of Sports in 2020. It was inspected by the special commission of ACES Europe, in which it met the criteria.[89][90] Tax cuts were made on families with children practising sports.[91]

The Pazardzhik theatre named Konstantin Velichkov.

The city is home to one of the oldest theatres in the country, built with funds raised voluntarily by citizens. Today the theatre is united with the puppet theatre under the name Drama and Puppet Theatre Konstantin Velichkov after the Bulgarian writer, Konstantin Velichkov.

The theatre has a big 470-seat auditorium and a 100-seat chamber hall. The theatre stages titles from world classic, from the Bulgarian classical literary heritage and from the contemporary national and foreign dramaturgy. It also presents its plays not only on home stage, but across the country.[96]

The theatre was founded in 1870 first performance "Mnogostradalna Genoveva" takes place on the stage centre "Videlina" situated in one of the rooms of class school. In 1899 a new building of the chitalishte was constructed - a new spacious lounge and theatre scene. In 1937 the theatre was professionalized. Funds are allocated for salaries of all artists are conducted training courses. In 1942 the theater was closed. Since 1945, the theatre in Pazardzhik again began to function and develop and strengthen one of the major cultural institutions in the city. In 1964, due to reorganization of the theatre is closed again. On 1 August 1969, the theatre restores the status of a state theatre.[97]

With 133 years of theatrical tradition and over 40 years of state theatre; 35 theatrical seasons. The first production in theatre in Pazardzhik is Albena by Yordan Yovkov. From January by Radichkov, directed by Krikor Azaryan, to Epic Times again by Radichkov, directed by Petrinel Gochev, from As You Like It by Shakespeare directed by Leon Daniel to The Storm by Alexander Ostrovsky directed by Vladlen Alexandrov. From Vampire by Anton Strashimirov, directed by Vili Tsankov, through Roman Bath by Stanislav Stratiev, to The Backyard by Bilgesu Erenus, directed by Iskender Alton. Some of the greatest directors have worked on the stage: Krikor Azaryan, Asen Shopov, Leon Daniel, Nikolay Polyakov, Zdravko Mitkov, Nikolay Lyutskanov and others, also some of the most famous actors: Nevena Kokanova, Georgi Georgiev - Getz, Georgi Kaloyanchev, Katya Paskaleva, Ilka Zafirova, Zlatina Todeva, Leda Taseva, Georgi Cherkelov and others.

Outside Frontal View of the Pazardzhik History Museum

Pazardzhik History Museum

The Pazardzhik Regional Historical Museum is one of the leading and oldest museums in Bulgaria. It was established in 1911 by a decision of the management board of Chitalishte Videlina. In 2000 it was transformed into a Regional Historical Museum with territory of activity in the towns of Pazardzhik and Plovdiv.[98] The profile of the museum is general history and has the following main departments: Archeology; History of Bulgaria from the 15th-19th century, Ethnography, Modern history, Funds and scientific archive, Public Relations. The historical expositions are housed in a specially built building with an area of 1200 m². The museum has its own specialized library, restoration studio and photo laboratory, has a stand for the sale of advertising materials and souvenirs and a cafe.

Ethnographic Museum

The ethnographical exhibition of the history museum is set up in the biggest Baroque house from the Bulgarian National Revival period in Pazardzhik constructed in 1850 by master builders from Bratsigovo. The house belonged to Nikola Hristovich, a rich merchant from Pazardzhik. It was declared a national monument of architecture and culture by virtue of publication in State Gazette, issue No 25 of 1998.[99]

The building is declared monument of culture of national importance. The presented exhibition illustrates different aspects of the traditional national lifestyle (typical for Pazardzhik region) some of which were practiced up to the middle of the 20th century. Pazardzhik region covers parts of Rhodopes, the Upper Thracian Plain and Sredna Gora and is characterized by widely varied ethnographic and folklore traditions.[100]

Art Gallery ''Stanislav Dospevski''

The gallery was established in 1963 as a department of the General People's Museum in the city. In 1966 it united with the Stanislav Dospevski House Museum with decision No 50 / 02.08.1966 of PNA in the gallery. The founder and first director of the gallery is the artist Tsvetan Radulov.[101] It is named after the Samokov school artist and public figure Stanislav Dospevski (1823-1878), who worked in the field of the portrait genre. The current gallery building was opened in 1980. Later in 1911 it housed the Regional History Museum. The total exhibition area is 800 m². The art fund of the gallery exceeds 10,000 works.

The building was constructed by builders from Bratsigovo in 1864. Its a two-storey high, made of sun-dried bricks, with six rooms and a parlor, typical for the period of Revival.[102]

The exposition presents the Bulgarian fine arts from the end of the last century to the present day. It consists of 731 works by 204 authors and is located in 5 exhibition halls. All genres (portrait, landscape and still life) are presented, as well as the different currents in the Bulgarian fine arts: Revival realism, romanticism, academism, realism, symbolism, impressionism, expressionism, socialist realism, abstractionism and others.

Stanislav Dospevski Art Gallery has two branches: Stanislav Dospevski House Museum and Georgi Gerasimov House Museum, as well as the open-air exhibition of Velichko Minekov.

House Museum ''Konstantin Velichkov''

The museum is the birth house of Konstantin Velichkov, who was a prominent activist during the late Bulgarian National Revival and writer.

The house is located on Vl. Gyoshev ”4. One-storey and with a veranda, it was built around 1850 and is now declared architectural, artistic and historical monument of culture of national importance.[103] In 1964-1965 the house was completely repaired and restored.[104] Since 1967, the urban living conditions from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century have been arranged in it. In the native house of Konstantin Velichkov in 1876 his sister Teofana sewed the flag of the Pazardzhik Revolutionary Committee.[103] There is also kept an icon depicting the town of Jerusalem from 1856 that has been family heritage.[105]