Bacho Kiro (7 July 1835 – 28 May 1876) was the nickname of Kiro Petrov Zanev (Киро Петров Занев), a Bulgarian

Bulgarians

The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...

 teacher, man of letters and revolutionary who took an active part in the April Uprising

April Uprising

The April Uprising was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876, which indirectly resulted in the re-establishment of Bulgaria as an autonomous nation in 1878...

.

Bacho Kiro was born in what is today Byala Cherkva

Byala Cherkva

Byala Cherkva is a town in Pavlikeni Municipality part of Veliko Turnovo Province, Central-North Bulgaria. The settlement is located close to the town of Pavlikeni about 28 km away from the city of Veliko Tarnovo...

, Veliko Tarnovo Province

Veliko Tarnovo Province

Veliko Tarnovo is a province in the middle of the northern part of Bulgaria. Its capital city, Veliko Tarnovo, is of historical significance as it is known as the capital of Medieval Bulgaria...

 (then called Gorni Turcheta), to the family of the herdsman

Herdsman

Herdsman can refer to:* a Herder, a worker who lives a possibly semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals* the Perth suburb Herdsman, Western Australia** Herdsman Lake, a groundwater lake located in Herdsman...

 Petar Zanev. After finishing the religious school in his village, he joined the Batoshevo Monastery as a neophyte. From 1852 on, he worked as a teacher in various villages, including Koevtsi, Musina, Mihaltsi, Vishovgrad and his native Byala Cherkva, where he lived and taught from 1857 to 1876 with some interruptions. Bacho Kiro also travelled around the Bulgarian lands by foot, calling for armed resistance against the Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 rule, and visited Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

, Mount Athos

Mount Athos

Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...

, Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

 and Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

. Bacho Kiro established a number of cultural centres (chitalishta

Chitalishte

A chitalishte is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building which fulfils several functions at once, such as a community centre, library and a theatre. It is also used as an educational institution, where people of all ages can enroll in foreign language, dance, music and other courses....

); in February 1872, he became the Byala Cherkva head of Vasil Levski

Vasil Levski

Vasil Levski, born Vasil Ivanov Kunchev, , is a Bulgarian revolutionary and a national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed the Apostle of Freedom, Levski ideologised and strategised a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule...

's Internal Revolutionary Organisation

Internal Revolutionary Organisation

The Internal Revolutionary Organisation or IRO was a Bulgarian revolutionary organisation founded and built up by Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski in the period between 1869 and 1871. The organisation represented a network of regional revolutionary committees which were governed by a Central...

.

Upon the outbreak of the April Uprising in 1876, Bacho Kiro was among the uprising's leaders in the Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo

Veliko Tarnovo is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. Often referred to as the "City of the Tsars", Veliko Tarnovo is located on the Yantra River and is famous as the historical capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, attracting many tourists...

 district and a sub-voivode in Father Hariton's detachment. Bacho Kiro took part in the Dryanovo Monastery

Dryanovo Monastery

The Dryanovo Monastery is a functioning Bulgarian Orthodox monastery situated in the Andaka River Valley, in Bulgarka Nature Park in the central part of Bulgaria five kilometers away from the town of Dryanovo. It was founded in the 12th century, during the Second Bulgarian Empire, and is dedicated...

 fightings, and although his detachment was routed by the Ottomans, he managed to escape. However, he was betrayed and captured by the Ottoman government. He was sentenced to death

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

 and hanged in Tarnovo. Before his execution, he held a passionate speech and did not ask for mercy.

Bacho Kiro was the author of some travel notes and the drama

Drama

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 piece Poor Man Tancho. The Bacho Kiro cave

Bacho Kiro cave

The Bacho Kiro cave is situated 5 km west of the town Dryanovo, Bulgaria, only 300 m away from the Dryanovo Monastery. It is embedded in the exquisit canyons of the Andaka and Dryanovo River. The first tourists entered the cave in 1938, two years before it was actually called the Bacho Kiro cave...

 near Dryanovo

Dryanovo

The town of Dryanovo is situated at the northern foot of the Balkan Mountains in Gabrovo Province, Bulgaria, amphitheatrically along the two banks of Dryanovo River, a tributary to the Yantra River. The town is a centre of the homonymous Dryanovo Municipality, which is composed of 62 villages,...

is named in his honour.