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Delčevo Делчево (Macedonian) | |
|---|---|
 Town centre of Delčevo | |
 Flag  Seal | |
  Location within North Macedonia | |
| Coordinates:41°58′N22°46′E / 41.967°N 22.767°E /41.967; 22.767 | |
| Country |  North Macedonia |
| Region |  Eastern |
| Municipality | Delčevo |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Ivan Gocevski (VMRO-DPMNE) |
| Highest elevation | 640 m (2,100 ft) |
| Lowest elevation | 590 m (1,940 ft) |
| Population (2002) | |
• Total | 11.500 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 2320 |
| Area code | +389 033 |
| Vehicle registration | DE |
| Climate | Cfb |
| Website | www.delcevo.gov.mk/ |
Delčevo (Macedonian:Делчево[ˈdɛɫtʃɛvɔ]ⓘ) is a small town in the eastern mountainous part ofNorth Macedonia. It is the municipal seat ofDelčevo Municipality. The town is named after the revolutionary leaderGoce Delčev.
Delčevo, according to a legend inByzantine times, was called Vasilevo, as a Greek variant of theSlavonic Tsarevo. For the first time, Tsarevo Selo is mentioned as a settlement in a charter ofSerbianTsar Dushan from 1347 to 1350. With it he gave several places and fields from Pijanec to theLesnovo Monastery.[citation needed]
In Turkish times, Delčevo was also called Sultania, by analogy with the original name.
Until the 17th century, the settlement laid on the right side of the riverBregalnica on the present toponym Selishte, more precisely under the hill Ostrec near the road leading toBulgaria. From the first centuries of Turkish rule there is not much information about the position of Delčevo. In the middle of the 17th century, Sultan Mehmed IV lived in its vicinity. At the time of his visit to Pijanec, massIslamization was carried out on the population. Due to the oppression and pressure, many Bulgarian 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 writerEvliya 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 Delčevo is today.
In 1856, the construction of a church was completed. The area around the church was at this time mainly inhabited by Bulgarians fleeingTurkish oppression from the surrounding villages. There was a larger emigration of Bulgarians from the area in 1878 after theRusso-Turkish war. After the end of the war the Christian population, fearing for their safety, fled the region seeking refuge on the territory of the newly createdBulgaria. About 150 households from the villages and the city moved to theKyustendil region.[citation needed] A small number of those refugees later returned. Turkish refugees fromBulgaria and evenBosnia and Herzegovina settled in the place of the emigrated Bulgarians. The invading Turkish population, 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 thebazzar andinns were, the construction of the trade and craft shops along the two narrow streets started. With that, the bazaar was finally formed and Delčevo grew into a city settlement.
During theBalkan Wars, a large number of Turks left the city, so that in 1914 the population was 1.701. After these wars, Bulgarian settlers came from the surrounding villages, mostly from the passive villages ofBigla,Selnik andDramče, 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 riverBregalnica began.
After the liberation, on April 23, 1950, the Presidium of the National Assembly of thePeople's Republic of Macedonia decided that Tsarevo Selo should be renamed Delčevo, in honor ofGoce Delčev.
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 Delčevo, the number of the population in it also grew. Today Delčevo is a modern urban settlement with wide asphalt streets and boulevards, sewerage network and parks and greenery.
Delčevo is located 164 km (102 mi) east of Skopje, along the riverBregalnica at the foot of Mount Golak. It is the largest settlement in the Pijanec area, which stretches over an area of 585 km2 (226 sq mi), located between theOsogovo Mountains (north) andMaleševo (south). The city lies at an altitude of 590 m (1,940 ft) to 640 m (2,100 ft). Despite being located in the easternmost part of the country, Delčevo has a relatively good geographical position and traffic connection. It is a crossroads foreastern Macedonia. ThroughPehčevo (27 km (17 mi)) andBerovo (34 km (21 mi)) it is connected withStrumica to the south, and throughMakedonska Kamenica (24 km (15 mi)) andKočani (51 km (32 mi)) it is connected withŠtip to the northwest. To the west isVinica (39 km (24 mi)), and to the east is the border crossing withBulgaria, called "Arnautski Grob" (Arnaut's grave) (11 km (6.8 mi)), through which the capital ofPirin Macedonia -Gorna Dzumaja (Blagoevgrad) (34 km (21 mi)) can be reached.
The climate in Delčevo is continental Eastern European. The average annual temperature in Delčevo is 11 °C (52 °F), with an absolute minimum of -26 °C (-15 °F) and an absolute maximum of 39 °C (102 °F), while in higher areas the average annual temperature drops to 3.5 °C (38 °F). The warmest month is August, and the coldest is January. Spring is always colder than autumn.
The cloudiness isn't strong, so the year is dominated by sunny and clear days. The average annual rainfall in Delčevo is 548 mm (22 in), and in the mountains over 1.600 meters (5,250 ft) above sea level. and up to 1.000 mm (39 in). Precipitation, although relatively low, their distribution in the vegetation period (April–September) is favorable and is over 50% of the total annual precipitation.
The vegetation period with a temperature higher than 10 °C (50 °F) lasts 191 days during the year. This favorable climate allows the growth of various plants, and is also a very suitable natural condition for the development of tourism in this area.
According to the statistics ofVasil Kanchov ("Macedonia, Ethnography and Statistics",1900), there were 1.520 inhabitants in Tsarevo Selo (Delčevo), of which 575Bulgarians wereMuslims, 520 Bulgarians were Christians and 425 wereTurks.[1]
In the first organized census ofSFR Yugoslavia from 1948, there were 20.159 inhabitants in the Tsarevo Selo area, of which 3,173 in Tsarevo Selo (Delčevo) and 16.986 in the villages (Pijanec, Osogovo). From an ethnic point of view, the population consisted of 15.669 (77.7%)Macedonians, 4,036 (20%)Turks, but some of them wereMacedonian Muslims, 300 (1.48%)Roma and 154 others.
According to the 2002 census, the city had a population of 11.500 and belonged to the group of medium-sized towns.
The main ethnic group isMacedonian.Romani people are the biggest minority.
| Year | Macedonians | Roma | Turks | Serbs | Albanians | Aromanians | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 3.173 |
| 1953 | 1.596 | 178 | 1.127 | 90 | 2 | 0 | 40 | 3.033 |
| 1961 | 2.645 | N/A | 318 | 56 | 0 | N/A | 128 | 3.147 |
| 1971 | 4.464 | 172 | 353 | 51 | 11 | N/A | 53 | 5.104 |
| 1981 | 7.349 | 450 | 170 | 32 | 7 | 0 | 57 | 8.065 |
| 1991 | 9.832 | 551 | 161 | 29 | 8 | 0 | 83 | 10.664 |
| 1994 | 9.845 | 521 | 121 | 29 | 9 | 0 | 29 | 10.554 |
| 2002 | 10.761 | 564 | 97 | 25 | 7 | 3 | 43 | 11.500 |
| 2021 | 11,949 | 475 | 112 | 9 | 20 | 5 | 108 | 13,585 |
The official language of themunicipality isMacedonian.
| Language | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Macedonian | 10.851 | 94,36 |
| Romani | 402 | 3,50 |
| Turkish | 188 | 1,63 |
| Serbian | 26 | 0,23 |
| Albanian | 7 | 0,06 |
| Bosniak | 2 | 0,02 |
| Aromanian | 1 | 0,01 |
| Other | 25 | 0,22 |
Delčevo is asecular town. The main religion isOrthodox Christianity.Islam is mostly practiced by the Roma and Turkish minority. The town has manychurches and amosque for its citizens.
| Religion | Number | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Orthodox Christian | 10.594 | 92,12 |
| Islam | 660 | 5,74 |
| Protestantism | 4 | 0.03 |
| Catholicism | 3 | 0,03 |
| Other/Atheism | 239 | 2,08 |
The football clubFK Bregalnica Delčevo play their home games at the City Stadion "Goce Delčev", which has a capacity of 5,000 people. A festival in celebration of the Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary leaderGoce Delčev is held every year on August 2. The ruins of the (Byzantine) village ofVasilevo lie about 3 km (1,9 mi) southeast of the town, and the Monastery of Sveta Bogoridica (St. Mother of Christ), noted for its bright frescoes, is situated about 3 km (1,9 mi) to the southwest.
Delčevo istwinned with:
Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Bornova, Turkey
Goražde, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jagodina, SerbiaMladost (Varna), BulgariaSimitli, Bulgaria
Vyshhorod, Ukraine
Żyrardów, Poland
Vălenii de Munte, Romania
Felsőzsolca, Hungary
Cities ofNorth Macedonia by population | ||
|---|---|---|
| 50,000+ |  | |
| 10,000+ | ||
| 2,000+ | ||
