Breznitsa
|
Breznitsa Брезница |
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|---|---|
| Village | |
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|
 Breznitsa
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| Coordinates: 41°40′N 23°40′E / 41.667°N 23.667°ECoordinates: 41°40′N 23°40′E / 41.667°N 23.667°E | |
| Country |
 Bulgaria
|
| Province | Blagoevgrad Province |
| Municipality | Gotse Delchev |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Isa Sakali (DPS) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 81.815 km2 (31.589 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 715 m (2,346 ft) |
| Population (15-12-2011 ) | |
| • Total | 3,389 |
| GRAO | |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Postal Code | 2972 |
| Area code(s) | 07529 |
Breznitsa is a village in Gotse Delchev Municipality, in Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria. It is located 12 kilometers northwest of Gotse Delchev and 61 kilometers southeast of Blagoevgrad in the Pirin mountain. The Tufcha river is flowing by the village. A municipal asphalt road connects Breznitsa with the second class road Razlog - Gotse Delchev.
The village is mentioned for first time in the Ottoman documents in 1464-1465 as a village with 78 non-Muslim households, 8 not-married people and 2 widows. Between 1498 and 1502 in another document were counted 6 Muslim households and 180 non-Muslim ones,1 non-married Muslim, 22 not-married non-Mulims and 12 widows. The growth of the population continued until 1530, when the population slightly decreased. The village became a center of a "zimaet"- a small feudal property, together with Kornitsa and Lazhnitsa. In 1689 the village was plundered. In 1723 Breznitsa was described as "a village with a mosque". In 1873 year the village was described as one with 80 households of 230 pomak people. In 1899 were counted 821 inhabitants. According to Vasil Kanchov in 1900 year counted 850 Bulgarian-Muslim people, living in 191 houses. After 1912, when the village became part of Bulgaria some Christian people from other villages, that were left outside Bulgaria came there. Remains of an Ancient and Medieval fortress are found 2 kilometers north of the village.
Nowadays Breznitsa is a mostly Muslim village. There are a mosque and a church in the village. After the Balkan war in 1912 in the newly incorporated pomak villages the local people were forced to accept Christianity by the Bulgarian church and paramilitary formations of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). The process of converting did not gain results, and after the actions people returned to Islam. There were several attempts of renaming – changing the Muslim names of the pomaks with non-Muslim. The most controversial one was in the end of 1972 and the first three months of 1973, and its culmination was on March 28, 1973, when military and militia isolated the three villages Lazhnitsa, Kornitsa and Breznitsa and a serious unrest in Kornitsa led to casualties among the local people and the military both.
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Wikipedia