Vetren dol

It is first mentioned in a Turkish document from 1633 by the name of Novo selo. In 1674 the name was changed to Ieli dere, which turned into Eli dere later on in 1845. On a map from 1878 it was called Elme dere, but the most popular name remains Eli dere. The village has been wearing the name Vetren dol or Valley of the winds since 1934. The village was situated in the lower parts of the Karkaria ridge, where even today there are still some remains of the old settlement: a church and houses - all made of stone. The old vineyards used to be here – between the “Red soil” area which was called after the clay in the ground and Vrashtika River. On a later stage the village went down at the foothill of the mountain or the old Vlahova neighborhood. It has expanded northeast recently. The population today is about 2000 people. There are 580 houses and 70 villas. Its total area is 5 200 decares. The forestry area is 12 500 decares and the villa zone-550. The holiday of the village is celebrated on Saint George’s Day on 6 May. On this day people gather near the Saint George’s chapel in the area “Batalite” to dance and sing and have a good time. Another holiday is Todorovden, when the horse races are held. On the first of January there are Kukeri games. People wear masks from sheep and goat fur and bells to chase the evil away. There are also a group, called the "Wedding", who go to every house and receive money, wine and food for health. Only men are allowed to wear masks on that day. In the past there was a bagpiper along with the group. Today there are two accordionists.

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The legend

A legend says that once upon a time there was a sea in the Chepino valley and then the mountains tumbled down and all its water came down through the Chepino gorge, where Chepinska River flows today. There was a huge beast like a whale, which lived in the sea and when the water came down the huge animal died without water between the villages Vetren dol and Bratanica and the dogs ate its flesh for a long time. That's why they call the field there Dog's field. They called the ridge with the Greek word archiarch after the beast - from and then the Turks turned it into Karkaria from Harharia. Another tale talks about a huge horse, which trapped on the Golak hill and that's why the area there resembles a horse shoe. The horse was chased and injured and that was the reason to hide in the Rhodopean mountains.

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According to the statistics in principality Bulgaria there was a school in 1895-1896 in Vetren dol and this school had existed since 1870. It was a primary school and one teacher taught 38 schoolboys and 5 schoolgirls. The building of the school was built in 1855 and was situated next to the church and it belonged to the municipality. It wasn’t supposed to be a school at first - it had two rooms, but only one was used as a classroom. The estimated price of the building and the yard was 200 leva. The school had no globe, no maps or other teaching stuff. It had only two science books and 12 magazines. Their estimated price was 50 leva. The first teacher was the priest Tomah from the village of Malko Belovo. Other teachers in the beginning were: Papironkov from Pazardjik, Bubarev from Kozarsko, Miladin Dossev from Chepino, Ilia Krastin from Skrebatno and Todorka Stoimenova from Pazardjik. In 1892 the pupils from first, second, third and fourth grade still studied in the only room of the church’s extension. Their teacher was Angel Popov from the village of Patalenica. The teaching was quite primitive those days. In 1894 Angel Popov was replaced by the teacher Nicola Zaikov, who had third grade education. In 1895 Zaikov quit and his substitute was Ivan Dimitrov from the village of Gelemenovo- also with third grade education. In 1898 the school was moved into the house of Dimitar Madjunov. The teaching in this house lasted two years. In 1910 a new small school was built. The teaching was only in one class. In 1915 due to the increase of pupils two united classes were formed in two classrooms. Another teacher came - Doctor Todorka Pocepuhova. The need for junior high school grew in the village, because the students had to study in Cruncha after leaving the school in Vetren dol. In January 1922 the first junior high school class was founded in one of the rooms of the municipality building - the town hall. Rujana Vassileva was appointed headmistress of this school. In October 1922 a second junior high school class was opened. The junior high school class was on the first floor of the town hall along with two other rooms for the primary school. The rooms were small and inconvenient. On the same floor there were the rooms of the taxman and the doctor. The classes were often disturbed by the regular visits of ill people in the building. This was the reason for the municipality to give all the rooms on the first floor for the needs of the school.

In September 1923 a third junior high school class was opened. The headmistress was Dimitria Angelova. This same year the school began to function with full seven classes - three in the junior class and four in the primary school. In 1925 - 1926 school year, regular junior high school teachers were sent to the school of Vetren dol with different specialties. The head master was Petko Frangov from the village of Cerovo. In 1926-1927 the number of the classes increased. In 1930 a new convenient school was built. The classes were then held in normal conditions. Physics and chemistry classrooms were equipped and in the fifties a workshop for woodworking was built in a separate building. In 1953-1954 a half day kindergarten was founded in the school and in 1961-1962 it was moved to a new independent building. The first name of the kindergarten was “Detelina Mincheva”, which turned later in “Detelina” only. The name of the school was “Queen Joanna” first and then the school accepted the name of the Bulgarian poet Hristo Smirneski, and it still has this same name today. Nowadays 204 pupils study in the school; there are 17 teachers and 4 people who work as additional staff. All teachers are professional qualified teachers. There is a canteen, a library and a playground with basketball, volleyball and football ground, a gym, a work shop and a separate building for the primary school. The headmistress is Sevdalina Popova.

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The initiators for founding the reading room in the village were the teachers, Nastevi family, Siika Kostova and others, but the founder was Iakov D. Matakiev. They created the reading room and the theatre. For the hall for the theatre they used two small shops in the village: Filodorov and Karmov. The year was 1901. The first play was “Doctor of necessity”! The next ones were “Hadji Mihalaki” and “Hashove”. There were also posters for the performances. In 1910-1912 the reading room was founded and it was named “Iakov D. Matakiev” but the name was changed to “Kultura” later. Firstly they used the teacher’s room from the old school for a reading room. The second room they used as a library. Later they tore down the wall between the two rooms and made a hall for the village with chairs for the spectators. The theatrical scenery was painted by the Russian artist Alexander Seergeevich, who lived in Vetren dol. A play by a local author Karmov was shown in this hall. The name of the play was “The new Cleopatra”, named afterwards “The new way”. The present cultural house-reading room was built in 1972. The opening was with the play “Boriana” by Jordan Iovkov. There was a children theatrical group and a school for traditional national dances in this building. There was a hall inside with 300 seats and a balcony with another 100, a library with 6000 books. A cinema existed in this hall until 1992. Many actors from different theatres came to play on Vetren dol scene. A summer cinema existed in the village from 1958 till 1965. The wall still stands. 200 - 250 people gathered to watch the latest films on the benches in the garden of the summer theater. The reading room was a cultural centre for Vetren dol and the surrounding villages for many years.

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In spite of the fact that the monastery “Saint Peter and Paul” in the village of Batkun (Patalenica now) - the spiritual centre for the area is very close to Vetren dol, the inhabitants of Vetren dol had their own church.
We find out about this fact in a copy of the Evangelist, written by Angel from Patalenica and left in the village of Eli dere (Vetren dol). The copy dates back to 15 of March 1748. The oldest building in the village is the church. Above the gate there was a plate with a sign of the year of foundation and the name of the donators. In the area of Vetren dol there were 8 churches: “Sveta Nicola”, Sveti Helena”, Sveti Archangel Michael”, “Sveti George”, “Sveti Dimitar”, “Sveta Troica” and a church which was known as “Bochova cherkva” according to the legend. They were all destroyed. The only one left was the chapel “Saint George”, which was also destroyed and robbed in 1960-1975. It was recovered and reopened officially on the 25 May 1996 by the Plovdiv bishop Arsenii.
The church “Sveta Bogorodica” was expanded and rebuilt in 1849 and all the old signs on the walls were removed. It was made of stone. On the outside wall there were two marble plates of a Thracian horseman. All the icons in the church are donated. The icon of Sveti Vasilii was donated personally by Mito Damianov - the local hero. In 1928 the church suffered an earth quake. It was repaired by the priest Angel Shopnikolov, who spent 12 years of his life in Vetren dol. The present church is subordinated to the Plovdiv eparchy and to the Pazardjik vicarage. The present priest is Georgi Pashev.

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The first building of the town hall is on the place of the Krachamunova water mill, next to the place where Mito Damianov was hanged. It was built somewhere around 1880. The clerks worked on the second floor and the school was situated on the first floor for a short period.

It was repaired couple of times. A wooden staircase connected the two floors. After 1950 there was a medical service in the town hall with a doctor and a dentist. In 2002 the building was destroyed and replaced by a new modern town hall with spacious rooms and enough room for all the clerks and the medical service.

Here we mention some names of mayors of the village: Angel Mitov-around 1912, Karmov, Vasil Mihailov-around 1930, Vladimir Mihailov- lawyer from Sofia 1942-1945, Stoian Genchin, Cokov from Pazardjik,Georgi Macanov, Krustyu Lazov, Georgi Kazakov, Georgi Zlatanov-1966-1990, Dimitar Petrov 1991-1995, Georgi Uzunov-1995-1999, Dimitar Genchin –from 1999-2007 and the present mayor Ivanka Todorova from 2007.

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The Vetren dol people were farmers, stock-breeders, millers, because there were many water mills, one saw milling one filling mill. Carpentry was also developed. Compared to Varvara the agriculture in Vetren dol has the great advantage of the watering to the forestry. Undisputedly the agriculture is the most important part of the economy of the village. In Turkish time the old iron production industry was partly developed here. In this industry the power of the water was mainly used. No one knows why this industry was abandoned

Agriculture: The areas and the distribution of the agricultural and the forestry spaces in the village of Vetren dol are as follows: from north to south: Peso pole-fields, , Oreshaka-fields, Baba Tepe-fields and vineyards, Chukura- meadows, vineyards, corn and rise fields, Cherkovistata-the old vineyards and Kutela-fields, gardens and grazing ground. In the forest these are the name of the areas: Elashkoto dere, Karmova cheshma/koliba, Golec, Dupkata, Gruyova skala, Oriahov dol, Ievata, Sechimek, Studeniat kladenec,Lesteniak, Bukov dol, Hadjiev kladenec, Kradjov kamak, Manastiristeto and down to Chepinska river. The total workable area of Vetren dol is 6 408 decares. The corn cultivation takes the biggest share. There were a lot of rye fields in the past, but today it is mainly wheat. Maize is grown as second and third cultivation. There are a lot of meadows -500 decares. The orchard is developed in and outside the village. There are a lot of vegetable gardens. There are also some strawberry fields. The tobacco growing, which came here after the Liberation especially after the Balkan war in 1913 takes a big area almost 1/5 of the land due to the watering. In Turkish time still second best was the vine-growing. The old vineyards were high around the old settlement. The old vineyards were destroyed by the phylloxera disease and people began to grow the new vineyards in the sandy soil. American vines were grown here after 1919, but also a lot of local sorts. In the Turkish time they tried to develop rose growing, but unsuccessfully, because the wind took away the dew from the flowers. The cooperative farm yard in the northeast part of the village was founded in 1949. It is now owned by a new cooperative farm called Sunrise.The Vetren dol people develop the stock breeding due to the many natural and human made meadows with a total area of 1860 decares. They mostly breed cows, sheep and goats. Silkworm breeding was developed in the past.Vetren dol had about 15 000 decares of forest - now 12 500 decares - mainly beech, some oak, hornbeam, lime trees and some pine trees to the top of the ridge Karkaria. The village is also known for its poplar trees, which were more than 100 in the past. There were two lime kilns due to the limestone above the village, which no longer exist. There was an inn in the village in Turkish time to serve the travelers from the Chepino gorge to Pazardjik. After building the road in 1887 through the gorge another 6 or 7 inns opened for the needs of the traveling people. After building the railroad in 1926 these inns gradually became useless and disappeared. Until the Second World War there were 7 pubs, 4 groceries, one cafe, two Cartwright’s, two blacksmiths three tailors, two shoemakers, one bakery, two barber’s shops, three butcher’s shops, three pastry-shops and one lemonade vendor. Today there are more than 20 shops and cafes and about 60 companies. A consumers and credit cooperation was founded in 1912 with the name “Raifeisen”

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In Vetren dol there is an opportunity for developing an alternative tourism. There are excellent conditions for fishing tourism due to the fact, that all the wetlands and rivers in and around the village permit fishing all year round. Other opportunity is rural tourism. The gardens of Vetren dol have so many fresh fruits and vegetables and the food which is offered by the housewives is only home-made or home-grown. In the ridge Karkaria there are possibilities for trekking. The paths should be marked. The nature also offers some options for tourism - botanical or bird watching tourism is welcomed here. The species of birds are more than 150

Accommodation: In the village there are about ten homes, which are willing and able to accept guests. You will enjoy the spirit of the Bulgarian hospitality in these homes. Other options are the hotel and motel in the neighboring village Varvara!
Come to Vetren dol!

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