page_title: Gotse Delchev, Blagoevgrad Province
section_title: Bulgarian Renaissance period
hierarchical_section_title: Gotse Delchev, Blagoevgrad Province / History / Bulgarian Renaissance period
caption_attribution_description: Български: Апел на македонските българи към Великите сили за присъединяване към България. Страница 1. Текст в оригинал. „Ваше Высокопревозходителство! Познаты сѫ вече на цѣлъ свѣть веков- ныте страданiя и мѫкы, на които беззащитно бѣха изложены христiяны- те подъ турското фанатическо го- сподство. Познато е сѫщо, че адскыте изтязанiя, които особено претрьпѣ въ послѣднѣ врѣме миролюбивiя блъгарскiй народъ отъ турското безпримѣрно вар- варство по всето пространство на бащиното му огнище въ Мiзiя, Тракiя и Македонiя подигнаха общо негодова- нiе въ образованый европейскый свѣтъ и найпослѣ извика Руско-Турската война, която недавно прѣстана по...“ English: Memorandum of the Macedonian Bulgarian Municipalities to the Great Powers for unification with Bulgaria. Page 1
context_page_description: Gotse Delchev, is a town in Gotse Delchev Municipality in Blagoevgrad Province of Bulgaria.
  In 1951, the town was renamed after the revolutionary hero Gotse Delchev. It had hitherto been called Nevrokop.
  Nearby are the remains of a walled city established by the Romans in the 2nd century AD. The town was a kaza in Syar sanjak of Selanik vilayet before the Balkan Wars.
context_section_description: In the 19th century, along with agriculture, husbandry, and beekeeping, the town of Gotse Delchev developed coppersmithing and goldsmithing crafts, packsaddle manufacturing, homespun, leather, and timber trades. Local traders carried goods to sell at fairs in Serres, Drama, Melnik, and Uzundzhovo. Since the second half of the 19th century, every year in August the Nevrokop Fair was held, which attracted merchants from the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, France, and other countries.
  In 1808-1811, the Christian community in the town built a small church dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. During the years 1833-1841, they built a large church to the Holy Virgin Mary, which is a result of reforms in the Empire.
  The Bulgarian population of Nevrokop stood against the Greek clergy for church independence and early Bulgarian education. In 1862, the town had its first Bulgarian school, with the first teacher being Todor Nenov, and in 1867, a school for girls was opened. The Greek Orthodox Bishop Agathangel allowed the use of half the urban school for Bulgarian classes, but after protests by Greeks and Vlachs, the Bulgarian school was closed and Nenov expelled. Bulgarians in the city threatened communion with the Pope, and the bishop reopened the Bulgarian school. In 1865, a community center was opened and in 1870, a female community. In 1873, a teachers' community, called "Enlightenment", was formed, which played an important role in the struggles of the Bulgarians. The Bulgarian communities in Plovdiv and Pazardzhik had a positive impact on the cultural revival of Nevrokop: they assisted with teachers, teaching materials, books, and money.
  After the Russo-Turkish War in 1877-1878 and the Berlin Congress of 1878, Nevrokop remained within the Ottoman Empire (as did the whole of Macedonia). The divided Bulgarian lands became the arena of the process of national unification. In May 1878, representatives of the Bulgarian community in Nevrokop signed the "Memorandum of the Bulgarian church and school communities in Macedonia", stating that they wanted to join Macedonia in the newly formed Bulgarian state.
  According to geographers Dimitri Mishev and D. M. Brancoff, the town had a population of 1,646 Christians in 1905, consisting of 1,016 Exarchist Bulgarians, 288 Patriarchist Bulgarians, 168 Vlachs, 114 Roma people, and 60 Greeks.The city operated one elementary and one lower-secondary Bulgarian school with 6 teachers and 151 students, and two Greek schools starting with 6 teachers and 77 students.
caption: Macedonian Bulgarian Memorandum to the Great Powers, 1878
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