Delčevo Municipality

Until the 17th century, the settlement laid on the right side of the river Bregalnica on the present toponym Selishte, more precisely under the hill Ostrec near the road leading to Bulgaria. From the first centuries of Turkish rule there is not much information about the position of Delchevo. In the middle of the 17th century, Sultan Mehmed IV lived in its vicinity. At the time of his visit to Pijanec, mass Islamization was carried out on the population. Due to the oppression and pressure, many Macedonian settlements were deserted, including the then Tsarevo Selo. It is assumed that at the time of that sultan the settlement was moved to its present place on the left side of the river Bregalnica. The city mosque built in the 17th century is also cited as evidence.

However, it is thought-provoking that the Turkish travel writer Evliya Çelebi spent here only a few years later in 1670 and wrote in his Travelogue:

"From Vinica we climbed the Kocani mountain ore, moving through the gorge and after four hours we reached Tsarevo Selo. This is a Muslim village at the foot of a mountain and is decorated with about 100 houses and a magnificent mosque mined by a minaret."

We should also mention the folk tradition that says that the settlement under the Ostrec hill was deserted when the plague reigned and the surviving population settled on the place where Delchevo is today.

The oldest part of the city is considered to be the Turkish colony that was created around the mosque. According to Jaranov, until the 19th century Delchevo was a village, a Turkish colony, inhabited by purebred Turks and a large part of the Islamized Slavic population, called Pomaks, who did not know the Turkish language. Only a few families were Bulgarian Exarchists.

Towards the middle of the 19th century, the bazaar began to develop and the settlement to grow, and at the same time the Christian population to increase. After the space in Sredno Maalo (Middle Neighbourhood) was filled, the spread through Gocho Potok i.e. Gorno Maalo (Upper Neighbourhood) started or today's I region. In 1863 there were 75 Orthodox houses in Delchevo, and in 1873 109 Orthodox houses.

In 1856, the construction of the church was completed, whose surrounding was mainly inhabited by locals fleeing Turkish oppression in the surrounding villages. There was a larger emigration of the population from this area in 1878 after the Russo-Turkish war. After the end of the war, the famous Bulgarian voivode Ilija Markov (Grandfather Iljo Maleshevski) created the little-known Pijanec Republic, and after its destruction, the Bulgarian Exarchist population, fearing for their safety, fled the region seeking refuge on the territory of newly created Bulgaria. About 150 households from the villages and the city moved to the Kyustendil region. A small number of those refugees later returned. Turkish refugees from Bulgaria and even Bosnia and Herzegovina settled in the place of the emigrated Macedonian refugees. The Turkish refugees, called "Madzirci" settled in Madzir maalo (Madzir Neighbourhood), today's III district of the city.

On the left side by the river Bregalnica, on the narrow flat space where the bazzar and Inns were, the construction of the trade and craft shops along the two narrow streets started. With that, the bazaar was finally formed and Delchevo grew into a city settlement. According to the statistics of Bulgarian ethnographer Vasil Kanchov from 1900, 1610 inhabitants lived in Tsarevo Selo, 575 Bulgarian Muslims, 520 Bulgarian Exarchists, 425 Muslim Turks and 90 Romani.[1]

During the Balkan Wars, a large number of Turks left the city, so that in 1914 the population was 1.701. After these wars, a new Macedonian population came from the surrounding villages, mostly from the passive villages of Bigla, Selnik and Dramche, which bought Turkish properties.

In 1931. the population increased to 3.746 inhabitants. After this year, the emigration of the Turkish population to Turkey continued voluntarily, especially in 1953. In 1935, the construction of the first houses on the right side of the river Bregalnica began.

After the liberation, on 23 April 1950, the Presidium of the National Assembly of the People's Republic of Macedonia decided that Tsarevo Selo should be renamed Delchevo, in honor of Goce Delchev.

In the sixties the town expanded on the right side of the river Bregalnica, and in the seventies on the hill Milkovo Brdo (Milkov's hill). With the increase of the employees in the working organizations in Delchevo, the number of the population in it also grew. Today Delchevo is a modern city settlement with wide asphalt streets and boulevards, sewerage network and parks and greenery.

Until 1996, the Municipality of Delchevo was one of the 34 municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia. In 1990 the municipality had 26.315 inhabitants or 1.2% of the population of the Republic of Macedonia. The population in that period was divided into 30 settlements, including the city settlement Delchevo. 34% of the population of the municipality were concentrated in the town, and the rest was distributed in rural settlements and in a settlement of mixed type (Makedonska Kamenica). With the new territorial division of the Republic of Macedonia, which formed 123 municipalities, the Municipality of Makedonska Kamenica was separated from the Municipality of Delchevo, so that today it covers a territory of 423 km² (163 mi²) with ⅔ of the population of the old Municipality. In addition to the municipal center Delchevo, there are 22 Rural settlements in the municipality.

According to the new territorial division, and in accordance with the data from the last census in 1994, the total population in the Municipality of Delchevo was 17.726 inhabitants, of which 10.554 are inhabitants of the town, and 7,172 inhabitants in rural areas. From the rural settlements in the Municipality of Delchevo, 5 villages had less than 100 inhabitants (Vratislavci, Kiselica, Kosovo Dabje, Selnik and Chiflik), 7 villages have 100 to 300 inhabitants (Vetren, Iliovo, Nov Istevnik, Ochipala, Star Istevnik, Turija and Poleto), in 3 villages were registered between 300 and 500 inhabitants (Bigla, Dramche and Stamer), while 6 villages had over 500 inhabitants (Grad, Virce, Trabotivishte, Gabrovo, Zvegor and Razlovci). The largest rural settlement is Zvegor with 949 inhabitants, followed by Razlovci with 907 inhabitants, Gabrovo with 829 inhabitants, Grad with 696 inhabitants, etc. The birth rate in the Municipality of Delchevo in 1998 was 10,7 live births per 1.000 inhabitants and is slightly lower than the average in the Republic of Macedonia which was 14,6 live births per 1.000 inhabitants. The mortality rate in the municipality in 1998 was 9,9 deaths per 1.000 inhabitants and is slightly higher than the average in the Republic of Macedonia which was 8,4. According to the 1994 census, there were 2.977 households in the city or 57.3%, and in rural areas 2.216 households or 42.7% of the total number of households in the municipality. There were 3.143 agricultural holdings in the municipality, of which 1.430 holdings (45.5%) belonged to the urban ones, and 1.713 holdings (54.5%) to the rural population. Hence it can be concluded that a significant part of the urban population is regularly or additionally engaged in agriculture.

According to the gender structure, in the city and in the municipality as a whole, the male population slightly prevails with a share in the municipality with 50.8%, and in the city with 50.2%. Regarding the mechanical movement of the population, according to the statistical data taken from the National Statistical Office, the migration balance for 1994 and 1998 is negative and amounts to 28 and 29 emigrants, respectively.

The educational process in the municipality of Delchevo is given great importance, but unfortunately in the past it had an assimilative role. Finally, for the first time in the summer of 1944, the Macedonian word was heard in schools. Today, the educational activity is performed in two Primary schools and one state secondary school. The primary school "Vancho Prke" has 4 regional schools, two of which are eight-year schools in the villages of Bigla and Dramche and two four-year schools in the villages of Gabrovo and Zvegor. The elementary school "St. Kliment Ohridski" has 5 regional schools, of which 3 eight-year schools in the villages Razlovci, Trabotivishte and Grad and two four-year schools in Virce and Stamer. In both schools, classes are attended by about 1.970 students from first to eighth grade and about 100 children in preschool education, while the educational process is performed by 134 teachers and educators. In 1961 in Delchevo was opened a secondary school – Secondary school "Metodi Mitevski Brico". Today, it's attended by about 1.120 students, and 64 teachers are involved in the teaching process. The school has a branch in the neighboring municipality – Makedonska Kamenica.

Churches and monasteries built in the middle of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century are landmarks for Delchevo and the surrounding areas. The most important and oldest is the church of St. Petka in Selnik, built in the 13th century and painted in the 16th century.

The church "St. Tsar Constantine and Helena "in Razlovci, built in the middle of the 19th century is of particular importance because among the portraits of the saints is the portrait of priest Stojan, the leader of the Razlovci uprising. It is even more significant that here is an application of the Ancient Macedonian heraldic symbol – the sixteen-pointed star from Kutles.

Next to the city, to the left of the road Delchevo – Golak, on the foundations of the old monastery is built a new one, dedicated to St. Bogorodica (St. Mother of Jesus). The construction of a new Cathedral church in the center of the city is underway, which will be named after the all-Slavic educators, the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius.

No less important historical sites are the medieval tower near Petrashevec and the ancient site "Gradiste" near the village Grad. There are a number of sites on the territory of the municipality that have not been explored yet.

The abundance of wool, hemp and cotton in the past provided favorable opportunities for the development of textile creativity in which the skill, ingenuity and spirit of living of a woman as a folk artist are woven.

They processed the textile raw materials with self-made tools, made with a lot of feelings.

The basic element of the women's costume is the long-sleeved cotton shirt on which they wore woolen clothes "saya" and "anteria" long below the knees, with and without sleeves, opened in advance along the entire length, decorated with braids and belts. The women's everyday costume also includes the woolen skirt "futa", a belt, woolen knitted socks and a head covering.