Panagyurishte (Bulgarian: Панагюрище, also transliterated Panagjurište, pronounced [panɐˈɡʲuriʃtɛ]) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, situated in a small valley in the Sredna Gora mountains.

[1] Panagyurishte is a town of significant historical importance, being the center of the 1876 April Uprising against the Ottoman Empire.

The convenient location, the nature and the favourable climate of the area attracted people to this region in the Middle Ages.

In the Middle Ages there was a settlement near the modern town, near the fortress of Krasen some 6 km south of the current location.

When the Turks seized the village of Asenevtsi near Sliven which guarded the road to the capital of the Bulgarian Empire Tarnovo, its population moved to Panagyurishte.

Even today the population uses language which is characteristic for both eastern and western Bulgarian dialects and the town is in the so-called Yat border.

According to testimonies of American missionaries who visited the town in 1861, it had 12,500 Bulgarian inhabitants who maintained a large school.

In the autumn of 1870, Vasil Levski founded a revolutionary committee here, and the meeting was held in the house of Ivan Duhovnikov, preserved to this day in the courtyard of the Historical Museum.

The uprising was bloodily suppressed after 10 days of declared freedom, and the town was burnt down and almost completely destroyed by the Ottoman Turks.

Lady Strangford arrived from Britain later that year with relief for the people of Bulgaria following the massacres that followed the April Uprising.

Textile industry, ore mining, high technologies in opto-mechanical and electronic instrumentation were developed.

Cultural activity is concentrated in the Videlina Community Centre, the Memorial House Theatre and the Historical Museum, and numerous monuments.

[4] Panagyurishte had a fast-growing population across the years, mainly during the Communist era, where its highest peak was 22,011, recorded in 1985.

This was due to two facts: during the time of the Janissary, the town was obliged to pay the Devshirme, which gave it the privilege of not being inhabited by Turks.

The Asarel Medet copper extracting and processing plant is the largest single employer in the municipality with over 1,200 direct employees and also the biggest one in the Balkans.

They and manufacture a wide range of military and civilian procducts, such as optical sights; thermal imaging devices; night vision goggles, scopes and systems; surveillance cameras; infrared lenses, etc.

There are roads leading to the north (Panagyurski kolonii), south (Popintsi), west (Oborishte) and east (Strelcha).

A large regional hospital is located in the southernmost outskirts of the town on the western banks of the Luda Yana river.

Panagyurishte is overshadowed in tourism by nearby Koprivshtitsa, which has a much larger collection of conserved Bulgarian Revival style houses because they paid off their city to the Ottomans instead of fighting.

Like Koprivshtitsa, Panagyurishte has a picturesque location in the Sredna Gora mountains, and is one of the towns associated with the historic April Uprising in 1876.

The town also gained fame for the Panagyurishte golden treasure discovered there in 1949 and the Apriltsi National Memorial Complex erected in 1976 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the April Uprising.

[16] The exposition of the museum includes documents and objects from the 19th century, also preserved archaelogical finds from excavations of the lands near Panagyurishte.

The history museum complex includes the houses of Petar Dudekov, Ivan Tutev and Marin Drinov.

The Apriltsi Memorial Complex which commemorates the April Uprising dominates the sky-line of the town and can be seen from almost every neighbourhood.

It was built on the top of a hill just above the central square and includes several granite compositions which encircle the main figure.

The resort village Panagyurski kolonii, literally "the colony of Panagyurishte" is located at 15 km north of the town.

At 6 km to the east is the famous Oborishte locality where the plan of the April uprising was discussed and accepted by delegates from all over the province.

One frosty morning on 8 December 1949 three brothers – Pavel, Petko and Michail Deikovi – worked together in the region of "Merul" tile factory near Panagyurishte.

When finally unearthed, it was found to consist of a phial and eight rhytons, one shaped like an amphora and the others like heads of women or animals.

Notable natives include historian and philologist Marin Drinov (1838–1906), writer and literary critic Nesho Bonchev (1839–1878) and revolutionary Rayna Knyaginya (1856–1917).