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Pazardzhik
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21,653
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13092005
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450
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4550
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0350
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42° 2'
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24° 18'
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Georgi Petarneychev
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(Пещера ) is a town in southwestern
Bulgaria , part of
Pazardzhik Province , located in the Upper Thracian Lowlands at the foot of the
Western Rhodopes . It takes its name from the many caves (''peshtera'' is the
Bulgarian word for 'cave') in the vicinity.
The first thraces of human presence in the area date from the
Neolithic . The
Thracian tribe of the
Bessi inhabited the area in Antiquity and the settlement in the Peshtera Valley emerged in the
Fourth Century BC .
The earliest piece of writing documenting the town's name dates from
1479 , when Peshtera was part of the
Fief of a certain Mustafa in the
Ottoman Empire . During the
Bulgarian National Revival , many churches, bridges, fountains, schools and houses were built. The first secular school in Peshtera was opened in
1848 , while the Nadezhda ('hope') community centre emerged in
1873 . Many local residents took part in the armed struggle for the
Liberation Of Bulgaria , the town itself being liberated during the
Russo-Turkish War Of 1877-78 , more precisely on
6 January 1878 .
In
1876 , the town had 800 households, of which 500
Bulgarian , 60
Aromanian and about 250
Turkish and
Roma . The first official Bulgarian census in
1880 stated 758 households and 3,871 inhabitants, of which 2,618 Bulgarians, 856 Turks, 341
Greeks (most actually Aromanians), 53 Roma and a single
Karakachan . Five years later, in
1885 , Peshtera had a population of 4,704 and 876 households.
