Momchilovtsi

Momchilovtsi (Момчиловци) is a Bulgarian village and ski resort in the Central Rhodopes, about 15 km northeast of Smolyan. It has an ethnographic museum, an art gallery and a number of churches and chapels (24 in the village and the vicinity), the most famous of which is the SS. Constantine and Helen Church built in 1836. The houses, mostly large 2- or 3-storey buildings, are amphitheatrically set at 1,352 m above sea level. Thracian and Roman artifacts have been discovered close to the village. It is thought that it was founded by exiles from Raykovo (now part of Smolyan) that sought to escape forcible conversion to Islam by the Ottomans. The present village is named after Momchil Voyvoda, a medieval fighter against the Ottoman...