Nevrokop

Gotse Delchev Гоце Делчев
Monument of Gotse Delchev
Seal
Gotse Delchev Location of Gotse Delchev (town)
Coordinates: 41°34′N 23°44′E / 41.567°N 23.733°E / 41.567; 23.733Coordinates: 41°34′N 23°44′E / 41.567°N 23.733°E / 41.567; 23.733
Country	Bulgaria
Province (Oblast)	Blagoevgrad
Municipality	Gotse Delchev Municipality
Government
• Mayor	Vladimir Moskov (BSP)
Elevation	540 m (1,770 ft)
Population (15.09.2012)
• City	20,522
• Urban	32,240
Time zone	EET (UTC+2)
• Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Postal Code	2900
Area code(s)	751

Gotse Delchev (Bulgarian: Гоце Делчев), is a town in Gotse Delchev Municipality in Blagoevgrad Province of Bulgaria with a population of 20,522.

In 1951 the town was renamed after the Revolutionary hero Gotse Delchev. It had hitherto been called Nevrokop (in Bulgarian: Неврокоп, Nevrokop; in Greek: Νευροκόπι, Nevrokopi; and in Turkish: Nevrokop).

Nearby are the remains of a walled city established by the Romans in the 2nd century AD. The town was a kaza in Syar sanjak of Selanik vilayet before the Balkan Wars.

Gotse Delchev is situated in a mountainous area. Located about 200 km (124 mi) from the capital - Sofia and 97 km (60 mi) from the city of Blagoevgrad in the southern part of Blagoevgrad district. The town center is 545 m (1,788 ft) above sea level. The Gotse Delchev Hollow is characterized by a continental climate; rainfall occurs mainly during spring and autumn, and summers are hot and dry. Winter temperature inversions are possible.

Nicopolis ad Nestum was one of two fortified towns founded to mark Emperor Trajan’s victory in 105-106 AD over the Dacians. The area had been inhabited for about 14 centuries and attained its peak in late antiquity (4th-6th centuries AD). The original town occupied about 25-30 decаres. The Slavs destroyed Nicopolis in the 6th-7th centuries but it re-emerged as a medieval settlement in the late 10th century.

Nevrokop became part of the Ottoman Empire sometime between 1374 and 1383, when the Ottoman Turks captured Serres and Drama. The town was included in the Ottoman documents sometime after the final conquest of Thessaloniki by the Ottoman Empire in 1430. Under the name Nevrokop the town is mentioned in the following descriptions in the Ottoman Tahrir defter Mal. № 525 from 1444, which was described as a large Christian village - center of ziamet, numbering 131 households, 12 singles and 24 widows. Thus Nevrokop was the largest settlement in the region. Then Nevrokop developed very quickly and became a Muslim city. Ottoman tax registers from 1464 - 1465 year marks 208 Christian households, 50 singles and 19 widows and 12 Muslim households. During the 1478-1479 registration year Nevrokop recorded 393 Christian households, 31 widows and 42 Muslim households.