Gavril Genovo is a village in northwestern Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, part of Georgi Damyanovo Municipality

Georgi Damyanovo Municipality

Georgi Damyanovo Municipality is a frontier municipality in Montana Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, located on the northern slopes of western Stara Planina mountain and the area of the so called Fore-Balkan. It is named after its administrative centre - the village of Georgi Damyanovo...

, Montana Province

Montana Province

Montana Province is a province in northwestern Bulgaria, bordering Serbia in the southwest and Romania in the north. It spreads its area between the Danube river and Balkan mountain. As of February 2011, the province has a population of 148,098 inhabitants, on territory of 3,635.5 km²...

. It was formed in 1955 through the merger of Sotochino and Ilitsa (pre-1934 Sarblyanitsa). It was named after September Uprising

September Uprising

The September Uprising was an armed insurgency staged in September 1923 by the Bulgarian Communist Party under Comintern pressure, as an attempt to overthrow the Democratic Accord government of Bulgaria that had come to power with the coup d'état of June 9. Besides its communist base, the...

 leader Gavril Genov.

Sotochino was first recorded in 1607 while Sarblyanitsa ("Sarbitsa") was first mentioned in 1576. The two villages were described in 1666 as small neighbouring settlements that had six and eight houses each. In 1881, Sotochino had 64 houses and a population of 408 while Sarblyanitsa was inhabited by 260 people and had 36 houses. At the time, the villages had a Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 majority, though the population also included a total of 9 Muslims

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

.

The church in Sotochino

Saint George's Church, Gavril Genovo

Saint George's Church is a church in Gavril Genovo, a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Georgi Damyanovo municipality, Montana Province. It was built in 1873 by the architect Alekso Angelkov of the Slavine Architectural School in the village of Sotochino, today one of the two...

 was built in 1873 in a Gothic Revival style.