The municipal centre, Belitsa, is located in the southern part of the Rila mountains and is connected to the Razlog-Velingrad route (with international E79 and E80) but off to the side by four kilometres.

In The Ethnography of the Vilayets Adrianopole, Manastir, and Salonica in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1878 and statistics reflecting the male population from 1873, Belitsa (Bielitsa) is shown as a village with 303 households, 640 Bulgarian Christians, and 250 Pomaks.

[4] In agreement with the statistics of Vasil Kanchov, c. 1900, Belitsa (in old Bulgarian orthography Бѣлица) is a mixed Bulgarian-Christian and Bulgarian-Muslim village.

Construction was unusually slow due to opposition from the local Turkish government, which would often destroy what progress the Christians had made.

As a compromise, Belitsan Christians convinced the local authority to bring a clock face from Vienna, which would be mounted on the highest dome.

[citation needed] In 1903, during the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, the church was burned down and the clock fell to the ground, stopping at 16:00.

[citation needed] During the Russo-Turkish War from 1877 to 1878, under the Samara flag, 19 Belitsan volunteers fought at Svishtov, Rousse, Sheinovo, and Shipka.

[citation needed] After the beginning of the First Balkan War, 49 people from Belitsa took part in the Macedonian-Adrianople volunteer regiments.

[9] The economy of Belitsa is based primarily on small workshops in the wood processing and sewing industries.

It was created as a workshop in 1885 by returning war volunteers, who brought Russian books from free Bulgaria, with which to enlighten Belitsans.