Раковски

A city in the Thracian lowland, called the "capital of Catholicism" in Bulgaria.

The lands of today's city of Rakovski during antiquity fell within the borders of the Thracian state of the Odrissians, which existed for about 150 years between the beginning of the 5th and the middle of the 4th century BC. Later, the region passed successively under Roman and Byzantine rule, and during the Middle Ages its lands and population passed through Bulgarian, Byzantine and Latin control, with the migrations of the Paulicians - a religious community whose successors later shaped the specific spiritual appearance of the three villages - leaving a strong mark on their character. During the Ottoman rule, the settlements that later formed the city of Rakovski developed as independent economic and spiritual centers. General Nikolaevo (then Kalachlii/Sara Kalachla) was mentioned in Ottoman tax registers from 1488 and 1576, Sekirovo (Baltadzhii) was noted in 1576, and Parcevich (Alifakakh) was named after the Ottoman cleric. It was in these villages in the 17th-19th centuries that Catholicism gradually spread among the descendants of the Paulicians, a process that began as early as 1623, when Father Anton Bator from Nikopol began to visit and baptize the surrounding Paulician villages. During the Renaissance, the villages developed their own ecclesiastical and enlightened life — the first schools were opened in them as early as 1863 and 1879. From the beginning of the 19th century to 1835, Kalachlii (today's General Nikolaevo) for some time established itself as the center of the Catholic diocese for the region, and the three villages became the cradle of numerous Catholic clergy. After the Liberation in 1878, the three villages remained within the boundaries of the new Bulgaria and gradually built church and social infrastructure - Catholic churches were built in 1887 and 1891, and a hospital opened its doors in 1925. In the 20th century, five Catholic bishops came from their communities - Vinkentiy Peev, Ivan Romanov, Simeon Kokov, Samuil Jundrin and Georgi Yovchev, which strengthens the reputation of the region as a spiritual center of Bulgarian Catholics. In 1966, the three neighboring villages — General Nikolaevo, Sekirovo and Parcevich — were united into one town. From the names discussed at the time — Parcevich, Trakia and Rakovski — the name Rakovski was chosen, in honor of the prominent Bulgarian national revolutionary Georgi Sava Rakovski. In the following decades, the city established itself as an industrial and agricultural center of the Plovdiv region. A symbolic peak in its modern history was the visit of Pope Francis on May 6, 2019, when he celebrated mass and met with the Bulgarian Catholic community, an event later commemorated with a monument in the city.