Belasitsa Village

A village of Petrich Municipality, located at 12 km southwest of Petrich Town, at 385 m a.s.l. Its name was Eleshnitsa up to 1960. It has a regular bus connection (every hour) to Petrich and the other villages below Belasitsa Mountain.
There were several settling ‘waves’ in the village: after the Allies War in 1913; after WWI in 1914-1918; in 1925 and in 1940 from the village of Gorni Poroi (today in Greece). In recent years, the population of the village has decreased. At present, there are 350 houses (450 househods), the number of citizens is 1300 and their average age – 40 years.
Local people grow mostly tobacco, vegetables and fruits (cherries, peaches). Some Renaissance houses have been preserved belonging to the Ograzhden-Maleshevo architectural style; 5 of them are designated Cultural Monuments. Electrification covers 95% of the village; sewage – 99% and water supply – 100%. All mobile communications are available. The village has a primary school – Hristo Botev – with about 80 pupils. The Prosveta Chitalishte was founded in 1945. Remains of Roman settlements can be found in the localities of Pandevitsa (north of the village) and Platonik (east of the village). Clay pots have been discovered during excavations. Traces of smaller settlements have been registered at Lyashitsa locality  (northeast of the village) – Roman or Medieval and at the localities of Syuzo (northeast of the village) and Brachno Pole (north of the village) – from the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman Period. Traces from the ottoman Period have also been detected in the localities of Pandevitsa and Manolitsa (to the north) and Loparcheto (to the south).
Under the name of Leshnitsa, the village was mentioned in Ottoman registries from 1570 and 1664-1665. It occupies its present location since the second half of the 18th c. Two legends have been preserved. According to the first one, the citizens of the old village in Markovitsa locality (west of today’s Belasitsa) settled here after a heavy draught. According to the other, it was the citizens of the old village in Lyashnitsa locality who came here after an epidemic disease. In the 19th c., main means of livelihood were agriculture (wheat, maze, rice, sesame, tobacco, cotton, vineyards, linen and fruits) and stock-breeding (sheep, goats, pigs). Sesame oil and wine were produced. Economic relations were kept with the village of Gorni Poroi and the towns of Petrich, Doiran and Strumitsa. In 1875, they opened on the first primary schools in the area. The church of Sveti Prorok Ilia (Cultural Monument) was built in 1897. Because of the name of the church, the village holiday is celebrated on Ilinden.
At the end of the 19th c., Eleshnitsa had 830 citizens – 600 Bulgarian Christians and 230 Turks. Volunteers from the village took part in the Balkan War in 1912-1913. The village was liberated in 1913 when the Turkish population left. The main means of livelihood after 1912 remained agriculture.
Phone code of Belasitsa Village: (0)7423; postal code: 2881.