Sights of the Region

The Gotse Delchev Municipality offers a great variety of sites for the loves of nature. The Chinarbey (a 500-year-old, 24 m high plane tree) grows on the bank of the Delchevska River. The Twins -  age-old chestnut trees grow 1.5km west of the town of Gotse Delchev. The fishpond by the Mesta River offers attractive pastimes and consumption of its produce in a specialized fish restaurant.

The picturesque, 25 m high Momina Klisura Defile of the Mesta River connects the Razlog Hollow with the Gotse Delchev Hollow and separates the Pirin Mountains form the Rhodopes. A very beautiful part of Pirin National Park with three cirques - the Kornitsa Cirque, the Breznitsa Cirque and the Kamenitsa Cirque -  occupy 1487.2 hectares of the municipality's area. The Orelyak Nature Reserve (758.1 ha - 751.5 ha of forest areas and 6.6 ha of pasture areas) is famous for its old beech forests. The resort locality Popovi Livadi (1430 m above sea level) is a convenient starting point for the Orelyak and the ridge of the elevation Debeli Rid, which surrounds the three cirques. The International Mountain Route E-4 (The Pyrenees - Peloponnesus) also passes through here.

Trips can be made from the town of Gotse Delchev to the popular national and international tourist centre Bansko (32 km). Picturesque mountain roads passing through the resort locality Popovi Livadi  to the original village of Pirin (44 km), the Pirin Chalet (61 km, the famous Rozhen Monastery (79 km)  and the cultural and historical reserve Melnik (80 km).

The village of Delchevo

An architectural reserve. It is situated above the town of Gotse Delchev, 8 km into the Pirin Mountains. Its population consists of about 75 local inhabitants. Residents of the town of Gotse Delchev and other towns buy many of the houses in the village, restore them and make them very good places to live or spend holidays in. There are  excellent conditions for rural tourism.

The village of Kovatchevitsa (Garmen Municipality)

The village of Kovatchevitsa

It is situated in the Rhodopes, 25 km away from the town of Gotse Delchev. It is an architectural and historical phenomenon, and the brightest representative of a building and architectural school of the Southwest Rhodopes. Almost every house in Kovatchevitsa has some characteristic feature which makes it different from the neighbouring houses and makes it a unique work of folk architecture. Some houses are as high as 3 or 4 storeys, with protruding upper storeys. The village streets are covered with cobblestones where an old sewerage system passed. There is also a water supply system for the public drinking systems.

Most of the houses are now restored. More than 60 persons from Sofia and other towns and cities, who have bought and restored houses in the village, live here.

The village of Leshten (Garmen Municipality)

This village is also an architectural reserve. It is 17 km away from the town of Gotse Delchev, on the way to Kovatchevitsa. Most of the houses have been restored and adapted for rural tourism. The village is very popular with the tourists from the country and abroad. 

The village of Dolen (Satovcha Municipality)

An architectural reserve. Its narrow streets, covered with cobblestones, are extremely interesting. The houses were built with the typical protrusion of the second and the third storey and their interior architecture is in the National Revival Style. Some of the ceilings are decorated with fretwork. There is also a church, built in 1837, which is interesting with its original fretwork by self-taught woodcarvers. It is in the Rhodopes, 25 km away from the town of Gotse Delchev in the direction of the village of Satovcha.

Churches and monasteries

There are 35 churches in the region,4 of which are in the town of Gotse Delchev.

With their unique architecture, rich interior decoration (murals, iconostases, fretwork) and rituals, the churches are interesting tourist sites.

St. Archangel Michael's Church (1811) is remarkable for its old holy gates, included in the iconostasis composition, its richly decorated fretwork ceilings, and 70 icons from 1881 by Sergi Georgiev.

The Assumption's Church (1838) has an extremely interesting painted iconostasis, masterpieces of fretwork, and icons by eminent representatives of the Bansko painting school.

There are 3 monasteries in the region.

They are extremely interesting object with a great potential for tourist sites due to their long and eventful history, unique architecture and interior decoration.

The Holy Virgin's Monastery, built in 1888, and the remains of the Momina Kula medieval fortress are situated at a 3-km distance from the town.

The town of Gotse Delchev is the centre of the Nevrokop Metropoly, which encompasses the whole Blagoevgrad District. The seat of the Metropolitan of Nevrokop is also in this town.

The architectural complex of Rifat Beg (a local Ottoman ruler) in the Bulgarian National Revival style, the ensembles of post-National-Liberation houses in the old central part along the Hristo Botev, Targovska and Ivan Vazov streets, and the artisans' workshops along the Zvancharska Street also contribute to the town's atmosphere.