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Pazardzhik town |
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A
town in the western part of Upper Thracian valley on both banks of Maritsa
river, 120 km south-east of Sofia. Population of 82 000.
Founded in 1485. Towards the second half of 16 c. it becomes a big and wealthy settlement – market-place, crafts, transport and river port center (warehouses on Maritsa river for cereals, rice, wine, timber from the Rhodopes). Goods are transported on rafts to Odrin. South-east of the town Marashki fair was held. In 19 c. agriculture, cattle breeding, crafts develop; craftsmen from Pazardzhik take part in the 1815 World Exhibition of Paris. The following
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dings have been preserved to the present day: "Kourshoum"
mosque (1667), churches "Sveta Bogoroditsa (18 c.) with a remarkable
wood-carved iconostasis, "Sveta Petka" (1856), "Sveti
Arhangel" (1860) and "Sveti Sveti Konstantin i Elena"
(1868-1870), Hadzhistoyanova house (1840), Pozharov house (1856), a
synagogue, the house museum of painter Stanislav Dospevski – one of the
initiators of Bulgarian secular art (1823-1878), etc.
