Възникването на Банско и развитието му като огнище на национална пробуда
The Appearance of Bansko and its Development as a Centre of National Awakening

Summary/Abstract: The Bulgarian National Revival began in the mountain settlements whose population was purely Bulgarian. There are no positive data as to the time and reasons for the appearance of these settlements. An analysis of the name, linguistic, ethnographic, folkloristic, anthropometric and other data about Bansko as one of these settlements, shows that it was founded in the early 16th century by a rich notable, a Ban, and his men. At a later date, free and enterprising people from Western Macedonia, the Shopp and Samokov regions and the Rhodopes came there and found a refuge in the recesses of the Pirin Mountains from the oppression of the Turkish conquerors. As suppliers of sheep, they obtained certain rights from the Sultan, but prospered economically in the 18th and 19th centuries by transporting raw materials (cotton, hides, wool, etc.) for the industries of Central and Western Europe, and as merchants who imported commodities. Some inhabitants of Bansko even opened offices of their own in Austro-Hungary, Wallachia, Serbia and the large centres of the Ottoman Empire: Salonica, Seres, etc. Highly patriotic in spirit and imbued with a sense of duty to their homeland as they were, the men who had grown up in Bansko were not denationalized like some of the exiles abroad were and did not break off their ties with their country. Having come early into contact with the civilized West, they worked persistently and with dedication to awaken and strengthen the national consciousness of their people in bondage. From Bansko came Paissiy of Hilendar, the founder of the Bulgarian National Revival, Neophyte Rilskij the Patriarch of Bulgarian teachers and scholars and many others who advocated and worked for the people's all-round progress, political freedom and social justice.

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