ALTERNATE�NAMES: PAZARDZHIK and ????????? [BULG], PAZARCIK [TURK], PASARDSCHIK [GER], TATAR PAZARD�IK, TATAR PAZARDZHIK, TATAR PAZARDJIK, TATAR BAZARD�IK, TATAR-BAZARDZHIK, PAZARD�IK, PAZARDJIK, PASARDSHIK. 42�12' N, 24�20' E, 22 miles W of Plovdiv. Its location on the highest navigable section of the Marica river rendered Pazardzhik a place of some import. Literally ?small marketplace?) Pazardjik,�along the banks of the�Maritsa river in southern�Bulgaria, is the capital of�Pazardzhik Province. Sephardi Jews probably were in this town as early as 1492. 17th-century Jewish gravestones have been found . By the end of the 19th century, about 10 percent of the 17,000 inhabitants were Jewish when Jews had a monopoly in the trading and distribution of grain. They sponsored several public buildings.
- Small Synagogue: Built between 1825 and 1850, the Small Synagogue is one of the oldest in Bulgaria. Now a coffee shop, the 7�13-meter building blends local and Western European influences.
- Large Synagogue: Assen Zlatarov 11. Stavri Temelkov of the Bratsigovo architectural school designed this five meters high synagogue, built in 1850. Its Balkan Revival architecture is characterized by its many windows - thirty in all. �Geometrical patterns are carved in the wooden ceiling; the walls are covered with decorative paintings. Like many 19th-century, Ottoman era Balkan synagogues, the four wooden pillars forming in the center of the building probably once used to supported a canopy over the bimah in the now empty building.
- Pictures of the Synagogues
- Wikipedia [Sept 2014]
CEMETERY:
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The 660 square meter, still active Jewish section of the municipal cemetery is located at the NE entrance of town, facing Dobrinishte village. Purportedly Sephardi Jews settled here as early as 1492, but today the Jewish population numbers about 45 people. Surrounded by a fence with no gate, the site is divided between old and new sections, latter established after 1991. The old section contains about 720 gravestones (mostly nineteenth�century) and the new section about 100. The granite and marble gravestones have Bulgarian and Hebrew inscriptions. The Jewish community occasionally clears the overgrowth that poses a year round problem. [Sept 2014]
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US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad has photos. [Sept 2014]