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

Southern Bulgaria Southern Bulgaria (, ''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 and a southern part. Besides th ...

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

, Municipality

Brezovo Brezovo ( ) 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: * Babek * Borets * ...

. 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 in

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 ...

. 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 an essential oil that is extracted from the petals of various types of rose. ''Rose ottos'' are extracted through steam distillation, while ''rose absolutes'' are obtained t ...

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 the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

and have been taking active parts in

VMORO The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO; ; ), was a secret revolutionary society founded in the Ottoman territories in Europe, that operated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Founded in 1893 in Salonica, it initia ...

. Men from the village have actively participated in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

, 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 ( ) is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated south of and parallel to the Balkan Mountains and extending from the river Iskar (river), Iskar to the west and the elbow of river Tundzha north of the city of Yambol to the east. ...

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