Petrich is a village in the Sofia Province

Sofia Province

Sofia Province is a province of Bulgaria. The province does not include Sofia in its territories, but Sofia however remains its administrative center...

, western 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...

. The stress falls on the last suffix by contrast with the town of Petrich

Petrich

Petrich is a town in Blagoevgrad Province in southwestern Bulgaria, located at the foot of the Belasica Mountains in the Strumeshnitsa Valley. , the town has 29920 inhabitants.Petrich is located close to the borders with Greece and the Republic of Macedonia...

.

Geography

Petrich is located in Ihtimanska Sredna Gora

Sredna Gora

Sredna Gora is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated south of and parallel to Balkan mountain range and extending from the river Iskar to the west and the elbow of Tundzha north of Yambol to the east. Sredna Gora is 285 km long, reaching 50 km at its greatest width...

 in the forested valley of the river Topolnitsa

Topolnitsa

The Topolnitsa is a river in southern Bulgaria, an important left tributary of the Maritsa. It takes its source from Bich Peak in Sredna Gora close to Koprivshtitsa; it is known as the Shirineyska in its upper course. Its average discharge is 55 m³/s and it is long; its drainage basin covers...

 which flows through the village. The neighbourhood Brodyad is part of the village although it is located at several kilometers from the center.

History

The village took 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...

. On 23 April 1876 Georgi Benkovski

Georgi Benkovski

Georgi Benkovski was the pseudonym of Gavril Gruev Hlatev , a Bulgarian revolutionary and leading figure in the organization and direction of the Bulgarian anti-Ottoman April Uprising of 1876 and apostle of its 4th Revolutionary District.Born around 1843 to the family of the small-time merchant...

 arrived in Petrich with his Flying Cheta. The population helped by the villagers from Smolsko and Kamenitsa fought bravely 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...

 regular and irregular army. One hundred and seventy-two rebels were killed in the fighting and dozens were captured and exiled. The event is commemorated annually with fireworks at the monument of the uprising which resembles a bell

Bell (instrument)

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...

 and symbolizes the bells which were melted for bullets.

According to the Treaty of Berlin of 1878 the border between the liberated Principality of Bulgaria

Principality of Bulgaria

The Principality of Bulgaria was a self-governing entity created as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The preliminary treaty of San Stefano between the Russian Empire and the Porte , on March 3, had originally proposed a significantly larger Bulgarian territory: its...

 and the autonomous Eastern Rumelia

Eastern Rumelia

Eastern Rumelia or Eastern Roumelia was an administratively autonomous province in the Ottoman Empire and Principality of Bulgaria from 1878 to 1908. It was under full Bulgarian control from 1885 on, when it willingly united with the tributary Principality of Bulgaria after a bloodless revolution...

 followed the summit of the Balkan mountains

Balkan Mountains

The Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea...

 and went southwards between Pirdop

Pirdop

Pirdop is a town located in South-West Bulgaria of Sofia Province in the southeastern part of the Zlatitsa - Pirdop Valley at 670 m above sea level. It is surrounded by the Balkan Range to the north, Sredna Gora Mountain to the south, and Koznitsa and Galabets saddles to the east and west,...

 and Dushintsi

Dushintsi

Dushintsi is a village in western Bulgaria. It belongs to the municipality of Breznik, in the district of Pernik. The village is situated in a mountainous region, nestled in the northeast mountainside of Golemi Vrah. The village was not mentioned in any registers until the Liberation of Bulgaria...

 eventually following the Topolnitsa river at Petrich.

Landmarks

• St Nikolay Church
• Monument to the fallen Russian soldiers in the Liberation War
• Monument to the casualties of the Patriotic War (1944-1945)