Berovo

Infobox Settlement
name =Berovo
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native_name =Берово
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pushpin_map_caption =Location within Macedonia
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = MKD
subdivision_type1 = Municipality
subdivision_name1 = Berovo
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elevation_m =986
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population_as_of =Fact|date=January 2008
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population_total =7,002
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timezone = CET
utc_offset = +1
timezone_DST = CEST
utc_offset_DST = +2
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latd=41 |latm=42 |lats=36 |latNS=N
longd=22 |longm=51 |longs=0 |longEW=E
postal_code_type = Postal code
postal_code =2330
area_code =+389 033
website = [http://www.berovo.gov.mk/ www.berovo.gov.mk/]
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Berovo ( _mk. Берово, audio-IPA|Mk-Berovo.ogg| [ˈbɛrɔvɔ] ) is a small town near the Maleševo Mountains, convert|161|km|mi|0|abbr=on from Skopje, convert|47|km|mi|0|abbr=on from Strumica and convert|52|km|mi|0|abbr=on from Kočani, in the Republic of Macedonia. It is the seat of Berovo municipality.

Demographics

There are 7,002 residents in the town of Berovo.

Features

Sustained by the Bregalnica River, Berovo stands at 830-900 meters (2,725–2,950 ft) above sea level and can be reached by car using a single asphalt road leading to the city. Berovo lake and the forest of the Malsevo Mountains are two popular sites for tourists and Berovo craftsmen are well known for their skill in traditional wood crafting. Berovo cheese is also a well-known commodity.

Culture

Monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael

The first monastery in Berovo was built between 1815 until it was consecrated in 1818. Enlightener Joachim Krcovski was among those present at the consecration. Historical data concerning the construction of the church and the monastery is inconclusive, but it is known that circumstances were very difficult.

In the early 19th century Berovo was a rural settlement with around two hundred houses and one small church that had fallen into decay. The inhabitants at the time decided to have a new church built at the site known as Mogila. The parish priest, Friar Peco, was assigned to obtain a building permit from the Turkish authorities in Radoviš. The Turkish governor Vali gave a building permit but made sure to set conditions for construction of the church as difficult as possible. The church was to be built low, below the road level and not to be seen, construction was to end in forty days, and Fr Peco was to give his youngest daughter, Sultana, to the harem. The people of the town prevailed and the church building was finished and covered with stone blocks, soot, and lime (so as not to be noticed) in 40 days. Seeing that the church had been completed, Vali immediately ordered the deaths of three church elders in front of the church, and since Sultana had fled to Kyustendil, Friar Peco was imprisoned for three years. When Sultana found out that Vali had been murdered by komitas, she promptly returned to Berovo.

Female monastery

The first female monastery, located at the exit from Berovo leading to the dam and the lake, was built in 1940 in a 19th century architectural opus, twenty years after the construction of the Monastery of the Holy Archangel Michael, and the first nuns were the daughter-in-law and the daughter of Friar Risto, a son-in-law of Friar Peco. They had their monastic tonsure (removal of the hair of the head) with a blessing from the Rila Monastery's abbott. Eugenia I was the first abbess of the monastery, the second – Eugenia II, the third – Eugenia III, and the fourth abbess was Eulampia in 1958 by the first Archbishop of Ohrid, Dositheus. At its peak, in the first half of the twentieth century, the monastery numbered up to sixty nuns, with a rich and developed economy, a theological seminary, a weaving mill, and the first single-phase hydro-power plant in this area was in the monastery.

The three gates of the church face the town, the river and the pine forest. A large porch dominates the monastery yard and in the dimness of its interior oil lamps lighten images of saints, painted in a characteristic style that is antonymic to Byzantine canons. Only one icon, that of Noah, painted by George Veljanov from Strumica in 1818. From 1897 to 1920 the painter Gavril Atanasov also worked in the monastery. The icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos was painted by Gregory Pecanov from Strumica in 1878. The residential quarters are of a free-style construction. They attract with the warmth of the wood used, shaped in a 19th century old-urban style.

Four sisters who came from the Veljusa monastery live together with the last nun of the previous lineage. The sisterhood of the monastery is active in Byzantine style icon painting. The beginnings of the renewal of fresco painting in Macedonian monasteries was started by the sisterhood.

The Hesychastic (14th century Greek sect of Christianity) monastery typikon functions as a place of prayer, a holy hesychasterion. The upper floor of the church was recently turned into a small chapel dedicated to St. Gregory Palamas.

References

External links

* [http://www.berovo.net/ Official Berovo Website]
* [http://vberovo.com/ Virtual Berovo Website]