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.
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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.
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