Pazardzhik is a town situated along the banks of the
MaritsaThe Maritsa or Evros is, with a length of 480 km, the longest river that runs solely in the interior of the Balkans. It has its origin in the Rila Mountains in Western Bulgaria, flowing southeast between the Balkan and Rhodope Mountains, past Plovdiv and Parvomay to Edirne, Turkey...
river in
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
with a population of 95,485. It is the capital of
Pazardzhik ProvincePazardzhik is a province located in southern Bulgaria and covers 4,458 km². Ranging from 190 to 370 m above sea level, Pazardzhik is home to 319,358 people ....
and centre for the
Pazardzhik municipalityPazardzhik municipality is the second largest municipality in Pazardzhik Province, after Velingrad. It occupies 640 km² or 14,3% of the province. Its territory encompasses the western-most parts of the Upper Thracian Plain and is famous for its fertility...
.
History
Pazardzhik was founded by
TatarsTatars , sometimes spelled Tartars, are a Turkic ethnic group mainly inhabiting Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. They numbered 10 million in the late 20th Century, which includes all subgroups of Tatar people, such as...
from what is today
Bilhorod-DnistrovskyiBilhorod-Dnistrovskyi is a city situated on the right bank of the Dniester Liman in the Odessa Oblast of southwestern Ukraine, in the historical region of Bessarabia...
in 1485 on the left bank of the river
MaritsaThe Maritsa or Evros is, with a length of 480 km, the longest river that runs solely in the interior of the Balkans. It has its origin in the Rila Mountains in Western Bulgaria, flowing southeast between the Balkan and Rhodope Mountains, past Plovdiv and Parvomay to Edirne, Turkey...
, near the market of the region, an important crossroad at the middle of this productive region, and named Tatar Pazardzhik (
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
Tatar Pazarcιk, "small Tatar market"). Thanks to this favourable location, the settlement quickly developed. While it was very small at the beginning of the 19th century, it became the administrative centre for the region at the end of the century and remained so until the Liberation from
TurkishThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
occupation.
During the following centuries the town continued to grow and strengthened its position. Trade in iron, leather and rice prospered. The town impressed visitors with its beautiful houses and clean streets. In 1718 Gerard Kornelius Drish visited Pazardzhik and wrote "the buildings here according to construction, size and beauty stand higher than those of
NišNiš is a city in Nišava District, Serbia situated at 43.3° N 21.9° E, on the Nišava River. With more than 253,077 inhabitants it is the largest city in southern Serbia and the third-largest city in the country, after Belgrade and Novi Sad, according to the data from May 2009...
,
SofiaSofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city by population in the European Union, with 1.4 million people living in the Capital Municipality...
and all other places".
The Russians under Count
Nikolay KamenskyCount Nikolay Mikhailovich Kamensky was a Russian general who outlived his father, Field Marshal Mikhail Kamensky, by two years....
took the city after a brief siege in 1810. By the mid-19th century Pazardzhik was a big, important centre of crafts and trade, with a population of about 25,000 people. It hosted two big annual fairs, and a big market Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There was a post office with a telegraph.
In 1837 the Church of the Mother of God was built — an important national monument, famous for its architecture and woodcarving. In the mid-19th century Pazardzhik became an important cultural centre: a school was opened in 1847, a girls' school in 1848, a community centre in 1868, the women's union "Prosveta" in 1870.
During the Liberation War in 1877-1878, the town was burned by retreating Turkish troops. It was liberated on 2 January 1878 by General
Joseph Vladimirovich GourkoCount Joseph Vladimirovich Romeyko-Gourko was a Russian Field Marshal prominent during the Russo-Turkish War ....
's platoon. Pazardzhik grew and spread to the right bank of Maritsa river; barracks and an agricultural school were built.
From the early 20th century on people built factories, stores and houses, and thus the industrial quarter of the town. From 1959 to 1987 Pazardzhik was again an administrative centre for the region, and is again since the 1999 administrative division of Bulgaria.
Culture and pedestrian areas
The Church of the Theotokos preserves the most impressive icons in Bulgaria by master artists of the
DebarDebar is a city in the western part of the Republic of Macedonia, near the border with Albania, on the road from Struga to Gostivar. It is the seat of Debar Municipality.-Geography:...
School, wood-carvings of
NewThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
and
Old TestamentIn Christianity, the Old Testament is the collection of books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the comparable texts are known as the Septuagint, from the...
scenes, and icons by Stanislav Dospevski. Among the town's landmarks are also the clock tower, the ethnographic and history museums.
As with most Bulgarian cities, Pazardzhik has developed a significant pedestrian center, in which several central squares typify the European café society and pedestrian culture. In Bulgaria the café culture is particularly prominent, with many downtown squares easily providing up to a half dozen cafés, with ample outside seating.
Pazardzhik has a level of pedestrian streets (or network of
carfree areas) even above the relatively high Bulgarian standard. There are several longer pedestrian streets, and at one point there is even an intersection where five different pedestrian streets converge. A few of these do not continue for very long, but most do, or are connected to the rest of the pedestrian areas of the city, and thus could be said to form the pedestrian network of the city.
During the warmer seasons, most afternoons of the week and especially weekends find a large number of people strolling about or sitting in cafés. There are few tourist attractions in this area but there are large supermarkets including Bila and a Lidl which is due to open in summer 2009.
Most people who live in Pazardzhik are proud of their city. Villagers could be often seen at the Pazardzhik Downtown disco "Largo". The town cinema closed in 2008.
Sister cities
West Bend, WisconsinWest Bend is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Wisconsin, United States in southeastern Wisconsin. The population was 28,152 people at the 2000 census...
, USA
.png)
StavropolStavropol is a city located in south-western Russia and is the administrative center of Stavropol Krai. Population: 355,900 ; -History:...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
Chekhov, Moscow OblastChekhov is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Before 1954, it was named Lopasnya , after the Lopasnya River. Population: 56,000 .There is an Anton Chekhov museum fifteen kilometers away from Chekhov, in the village of Melikhovo....
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
Barysaw,
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
External links