Central Southern Bulgaria
The town of Peroushtitsa (5565 inhabitants, 205 metres above sea level) is situated in the fertile Gornotrakiiska (Upper Thracian) Lowland, immediately below the most northern slopes of the Vurhovrushki hills of the Western Rhodopes.
Introduction & History
It is situated at the distance of 147 km south-east of Sofia, 24 km south-west of Plovdiv, at the distance of 12 km south of Stamboliiski and at the distance of 7 km east of Krichim. Its name is one of the symbols of the April heroic events of 1876.
History. The assumptions related to the origin of the name of the town are various. Most plausible seem those, which consider that it originated from Peristitsa - the name of a medieval Bulgarian fortress whose ruins were left over the steep rocks south of it. There was a system of 2 fortresses here _ a lower one (Gradishteto) and an upper one (Momino Kale). It is assumed also that the town is the direct inheritor of the Slavonic town of Dragovets. Ruins of Thracian and Roman settlements were found in the surrounding areas of Peroushtitsa. This proved that the settlement is very old and its beginning dates back to ancient times.The church “St. Archangels Gavrail and Mihail” (1847) and the famous Danov School in which the first teacher was the prominent Bulgarian enlightener - Hristo Danov who introduced the mutual training method in 1850 were built in Peroushtitsa during the Revival Period. It was one of the first co-educational schools in our country. In 1869 Vassil Levski set up a revolutionary committee in Peroushtitsa headed by Peter Bonev.
