Batak ( ) is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

in Pazardzhik Province, southern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

, not far from the town of

Peshtera Peshtera ( , sometimes transliterated as ''Peštera'') is a town in the Rhodope Mountains, southern Bulgaria. It is located in Pazardzhik Province near the towns of Batak and Bratsigovo. The town is the third largest in the province after Paza ...

. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Batak Municipality. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 3,498.Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - towns in 2009

Geography

Batak is situated in the northwestern slopes of the

Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; , ; , ''Rodopi''; ) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in Greece. Golyam Perelik is its highest peak ...

, at 1036 m above sea level. It is surrounded by many peaks, clad with century-old pine and spruce forests. The river Stara reka, a right tributary of the

Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( ), also known as Evros ( ) and Meriç ( ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,

, flows through the town. The climate is temperate continental with a characteristic southern warm wind. Batak was pronounced town in 1964 and has a population of 4,019 people. Batak is a centre of one of Bulgaria's largest municipalities by terms of territory - 667 km² or 15% of the Pazardzhik Province area - as well as one of the most sparsely populated ones including only the town itself and two villages - Fotinovo and Nova Mahala. Ninety percent of the municipal area is covered with thick forests. Batak is situated at 15 km to the south of

and 33 km to the south of the regional centre Pazardzhik. The nearest railway station is in Peshtera.

History

Antiquity

There are numerous archaeological monuments of most ancient times in the region of Batak. A find of the Old Stone Age was discovered in 1958. Tools, objects, ceramic vessels, ornaments as well as bones of

rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

were found which proves that the climate was warmer in the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

. Twenty

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

, Thraco-

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

and Slavic fortresses, churches and monasteries, as well as Thracian mounds, Roman bridges, mines, mills and other archaeological sites were registered.

Origin of the settlement and medieval history

The exact origin of Batak is unknown, since there is a lack of historical data. The earlier view that the settlement was founded by Bulgarians who escaped from the forced mass conversion into

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

in the valley of Chepino in 16th century today is rejected because it is believed that the settlement is much older. This is justified by an inscription on the fountain of Virgin Mary Monastery of Krichim built by the people of Batak in 1592, a writ of the feudal possessions of Sultan Suleiman I (1520–1566), in which the village of Batak is also mentioned, as well as the remnants of many churches and monasteries burnt down by the Ottomans during the conversion into Islam in this region. The origin of the name of Batak is not certain, too. In the old legends it is related to the Tsepina chieftain Batoy, while the history professors Yordan Ivanov and Vasil Mikov suppose that Batak was Potok, a settlement of

Cuman The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Rus' chronicles, as " ...

origin existing between the 11th and the 13th century. It is, however, certain that the name of the village is Bulgarian, not Turkish as some authors assert.

Ottoman rule

During the centuries of Ottoman rule, many

hajduk A hajduk (, plural of ) is a type of Irregular military, irregular infantry found in Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries, especially from Hajdú–Bihar Count ...

s in the region of Batak took revenge from the Turks for the outrages upon Bulgarian people – Strahil Voivoda, Deli Arshenko Payaka, Gola Voda, Todor Banchev, Beyko, Yanko Kavlakov, Mityo Vranchev, etc. From these times have remained the old rebel names, such as ''Haydushka Skala'', ''Haydushka Polyana'', ''Haydushko Kladenche'' (spring), ''Sablen Vrah'' (''"Sabre Peak"''), ''Karvav Chuchur'' (''"Bloody Spout"''), as well as many legends. Woodworking, trade and innkeeping were developed in Batak during the

National Revival National revival or national awakening is a period of ethnic self-consciousness that often precedes a political movement for national liberation but that can take place at a time when independence is politically unrealistic. In the history of Euro ...

. The prosperity of the population was conducive to the prosperity of education — a secular school was opened in 1835 and the ''St. Nedelya Church'' was built in 1813 at the Todor Balinov place (mayor of the village at the time), donated by him specifically for the construction of the church. Built for 75 days with the work of citizens of Batak.. Batak has given many eminent figures of the Bulgarian Revival, such as clerics like archimandrite Yosif, Nikifor, Kiril and others, who worked in the

Rila Monastery The Monastery of Saint John of Rila, also known as Rila Monastery ("Sveti Ivan Rilski" (), is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. It is situated in the southwestern Rila Mountains, south of the capital Sofia in th ...

, a centre of the

Bulgarian National Revival The Bulgarian Revival (, ''Balgarsko vazrazhdane'' or simply: Възраждане, ''Vazrazhdane'', and ), sometimes called the Bulgarian National Revival, was a period of socio-economic development and national integration among Bulgarian pe ...

. Famous men of letters are Georgi Busilin and Dragan Manchov.

April Uprising and Ottoman war-crimes

The population of Batak took part in the

April Uprising The April Uprising () was an insurrection organised by the Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire from April to May 1876. The rebellion was suppressed by irregular Ottoman bashi-bazouk units that engaged in indiscriminate slaughter of both rebels ...

of 1876. The people of Batak rebelled on 22 April under the leadership of voivoda Petar Goranov. On 30 April the village was surrounded by Ottoman irregulars called

bashi-bozouk A bashi-bazouk ( , , , roughly "leaderless" or "disorderly") was an irregular military, irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army primarily enlisted Albanians and sometimes Circassians as bashi-bazouks, but recrui ...

pomaks Pomaks (; Macedonian: Помаци ; ) are Bulgarian-speaking Muslims inhabiting Bulgaria, northwestern Turkey, and northeastern Greece. The strong ethno-confessional minority in Bulgaria is recognized officially as Bulgarian Muslims by th ...

from the surrounding villages. The battles were carried on for five days. The last stronghold of the rebels was the St. Nedelya Church. At the end five thousand people were killed and the village was burned down to ashes. News of the atrocities spread around the world, aided in large part by Januarius MacGahan's writing for the London Daily New

The public outcry created favourable conditions for Russia to declare war on Turkey. On 20 January 1878 the people of Batak who had survived the uprising enthusiastically met the advancing Russian army.

Batak today

Today Batak is a renovated modern town famous for its historical monuments and a resort and tourist centre. A key hydro power system — Batak Hydropower Cascade — with five dams and three hydroelectric stations was constructed in the 1950s. Rest houses, tourist complexes and villas have been built along the banks of the Batak Reservoir.

Honour

Batak Point on Smith Island,

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

is named after Batak.

Education

*Chitalishte "4 - May" *"Otets Paisiy" Primary school *Stefan Bozhkov High School of Forestry and Wood Processing

Religion

*Orthodox Church Saint Maria

Citations

References

* {{Authority control Towns in Bulgaria Cities and towns in the Rhodopes Populated places in Pazardzhik Province kk:Батак