Nevrokop

Nevrokop lies on a broad plain between the Pirin and Rhodope mountains, near the Mesta River and the routes linking Macedonia with the Balkan interior. An Ottoman register of 1445 recorded it as a sizeable Christian village. Over the following century it grew into a town with Christian and Muslim neighborhoods, mosques, schools and baths.

Around the end of the 15th century Mehmed Bey endowed a mosque and school and built a bridge over the Mesta, adding to Nevrokop's importance in the surrounding district. Another benefactor, Koca Mustafa Pasha, founded a mosque, religious school and bath. As crafts and trade developed, the town's great fair became an important event in the local economy, drawing merchants to a market among the mountain valleys.