Chehlare, with a former name of Morozovo (09.04.1950 - 23.09.1969), is a village located in

Southern Bulgaria Southern Bulgaria ( bg, Южна България, ''Yuzhna Balgariya'') is the southern half of the territory of Bulgaria, located to the south of the main ridge of the Balkan Mountains which conventionally separates the country into a northern an ...

Plovdiv Province Plovdiv Province ( bg, Област Пловдив: ''Oblast Plovdiv'', former name Plovdiv okrug) is a province in central southern Bulgaria. It comprises 18 municipalities (общини, ''obshtini'', sing. общинa, ''obshtina'') on a ter ...

, Municipality

Brezovo Brezovo ( bg, Брезово ) is a town in Southern Bulgaria. It is located in Plovdiv oblast and is close to the town of Rakovski. Populated places The following towns and villages are located inside the territory of Brezovo municipality: ...

. The permanent population of the village is 58, and the villagers with a current address Chehlare are counted to be 110.

Geography

Chehlare was first established as a settlement by Bulgarians fleeing from Ottoman soldiers during the

Ottoman rule Ottoman is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, ‘uthmān). It may refer to: Governments and dynasties * Ottoman Caliphate, an Islamic caliphate from 1517 to 1924 * Ottoman Empire, in existence fro ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. The initial name of the village was Morozovo. The village's agriculture is focused around the cultivation of roses. The

rose oil Rose oil (rose otto, attar of rose, attar of roses, or rose essence) is the essential oil extracted from the petals of various types of rose. ''Rose ottos'' are extracted through steam distillation, while ''rose absolutes'' are obtained through ...

played a major part in the village's economical well being even during Ottoman rule. The climate and soil conditions are favorable for the cultivation of roses.

History

In 1853 the villagers write a plead to the Ottoman rule to ask for a church. They collect coin from all parts of

and eventually succeed to raise a temple. Nowadays, the temple is in ruin. Villagers from Chehlare have participated in the

Russo-Ottoman wars The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...

and have been taking active parts in VMORO. Men from the village have actively participated in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

, giving a total of 67 casualties. During Ottoman rule, Chehlare, formerly Morozovo had a total of 235 houses and roughly 1000 inhabitants. After

's liberation, it becomes a central part in the partisan movement in the Eastern

Sredna Gora Sredna Gora ( bg, Средна гора ) is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated south of and parallel to the Balkan Mountains and extending from the Iskar to the west and the elbow of Tundzha north of Yambol to the east. Sredna Gora i ...

region in

. The name Morozovo comes from a partisan commander who was born in the village - Srebro Babakov (Morozov). The festival of the village is held each year on 9th of September.

Notable people

* Decho Butev (1911 - 1943), Bulgarian partisan. * Srebro Babakov (1908 - 1950) Bulgarian partisan. * Prof. D-r Yono Mitev, historian. * Slavi Chakurov (1915 - 1998), one of the first partisans in

References

{{Reflist Villages in Plovdiv Province