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 After the reconstruction of the church in the village of Yunatzite, our efforts were directed to the needs of the temple in Debrashtitza, where one of the oldest churches in Bulgaria is located. Built in 1761 by settlers coming from Macedonia, the church "St. Matryr Nedelya" is still an important part of the Christian spiritual life. Its history is almost legendary.
Group of people in Debarska Macedonia have been casted out from the Turkish army in the middle of the 18-th century. For that reason they had to run out of their own country in searching for a safe shelter. Finally they reached the area of Pazardjik and established the village we call today "Debrashtitza".
As keen Christians, the Macedonian refugees started to build a church, but before doing that they had to receive permission from the Turkish bey of the nearby village. It took long time until the bay agreed to allow them to have their own church. After getting very sick, the Turkish bay gave his permission with the words: "If your Christian God helps me to rise on my feet again, I will give you the oak forest, but you have to build your church so small that it should be invisible when I ride my hourse in the area."
It is unknown if the Turkish bey recovered from his suffer, but the building of the church "Sent Matryr. Nedelja" is undisputable fact. At first the church was made of wood, but later, thank to the voluntary donation from the people of already growing village of Debrastitza, the church was rebuilt of stone and sun-dried-bricks. In 1900 the building of the church was enlarged and church tower was made.
With the desire of keeping the tradition of the oldest church in area of Pazardjik, we follow the good deed of our forefathers by supporting the rebuilding of the reception home in the churchyard, that will not only help the clergymen and people in divining their worships, but also to treasure the Christian spirit. The project of the building in is ancient style work of arch. Gerasimov.
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