Historic church "St. Archangel Michael”

Overview

The Historical church "St. Archangel Michael “was built from 1847 to 1849, entirely with donations from citizens of Perushtitsa. Consecrated on 8 November – Archangel’s day. It is a massive stone church with a pavement made from variously shaped rocks. The temple contained icons painted by the famous painter Stanislav Dospevski.

The church was the last stronghold and refuge of insurgents (inhabitants of Perushtitsa) in April 1876 against the Ottoman domination. Many of its protectors prefer to put an end to their own lives than to fall in the hands of the bloodthirsty irregular Turkish troops. After a few days of siege and shelling, the church fell into the hands of the enemy on May 1, 1876. The few survivors of the defenders, many men, women, children and old people left Perushtitsa and where taken into in Plovdiv.

The heroism of perushians was immortalized by the patriarch of Bulgarian literature Ivan Vazov in the ode "Kocho" from the cycle "Epic of the Forgotten".

In 1966 a stone sarcophagus was placed in the church and in 1971 it was declared an architectural monument of culture. In 2007, a project designed by Nikola Stoyanov a conservation was carried out on the right nave of the church. Currently the reconstruction activities continue.