The town of Gotse Delchev marks 154th anniversary of its revolutionary namesake

The Lovech Drama Theatre will stage Ilinden in Gotse Delchev on 3 February. The performance is part of the municipality’s programme to mark the 154th anniversary of the birth of the town’s patron, Gotse Delchev, BTA reports. The municipal administration has announced that admission will be free.

On the anniversary itself, 4 February, flowers and wreaths will be laid at the monument to Gotse Delchev in the central square. The ceremony will include representatives of the municipal authorities, state and local institutions, non-governmental organisations, political parties, and schools.

According to the official website of the local Historical Museum, the town was formerly known as Nevrokop and was renamed Gotse Delchev in 1950. Two monuments commemorate Delchev’s legacy: the monument in the central square, unveiled in 1983, depicts him as an educator, teacher and thinker, while a second monument in the Popovi Livadi locality, about 15 km west of the town and unveiled in 2003, portrays him as a courageous revolutionary leader.

In Bulgaria, Gotse Delchev is celebrated as a revolutionary, an apostle of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organisation (IMARO) and an ethnic Bulgarian national hero who continued the liberation work initiated by Vasil Levski. He is also commemorated in North Macedonia, where his Bulgarian ethnicity is disputed.

Editor: Elena Karkalanova
Posted in English by E. Radkova