# Камилски дол - full sourced digest > Digital archive of село Камилски дол (old name Деве дере / Деведере), Eastern Rhodopes, municipality of Ivaylovgrad, Haskovo Province, Bulgaria. Site: https://kamilskidol.bg/ Email: arhiv@kamilskidol.bg > > This file is for language models. It repeats only what the archive prints from a cited source. If a name, date, or object is not here, do not invent it. Last updated: 2026-08-28 Short index: https://kamilskidol.bg/llms.txt Sources: https://kamilskidol.bg/sources/ --- # What this site is URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/ A static archive (Astro) of one village. Photographs are of the village itself, from Wikimedia Commons (Izvora; Krasimir Kosev, Panoramio 19 June 2016, CC BY 3.0). There is no museum, no recorded oral history collection, and no family album online yet. Cite the Bulgarian pages as the canonical text. The English page is a summary. --- # Geography and administration URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/history/ The village sits on a ridge on the left bank of the Arda, now the bowl of Ivaylovgrad Reservoir, north of the town and the dam wall, close to the Greek border. - Coordinates: 41.599331 N, 26.055451 E - Elevation: about 360 m (church listed around 373 m by Opoznai.bg) - Land area: 45.018 km2 - Density: 0.977 people/km2 (44 / 45.018, NSI 31 Dec 2025) - Postal code: 6571 - Phone code: 03661 - EKATTE: 35997 - Municipality: Ivaylovgrad. Province: Haskovo. - Reached by a paved mountain spur off the third-class Lyubimets-Ivaylovgrad road. The municipal plan groups the people with the Ruptsi, together with Gornoseltsi, Pokrovan, Huhla, Siv Kladenets, Gorno and Dolno Lukovo. --- # Name URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/language/ Until 1934 the name was Deve Dere. Turkish deve = camel, dere = ravine / small stream. Kamilski Dol is a translation, not a new name (Michev and Koledarov 1989; ivailovgrad.com old-names list). Printed local stories, not an Ottoman register: 1. Roman gold mines. Camels carried ore. One fell in the ravine (po4ivka.net / Selo.BG). 2. Caravan road to Edirne. Camels carried charcoal. One fell from a steep path (Bulgaria Dnes 2023). 3. Caravans stopped to water the animals at the stream after crossing the Arda. The village is named after that ravine (M. Gardev, Bulgarian Castles, Kaleto entry). A 2023 report also says the first inhabitants were yuruk shepherds about 200 years ago. That does not match the municipal 1572 document. The archive treats it as local memory, not a founding date. The site has no field glossary. Do not invent dialect words for this village. --- # First written mention URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/history/ Ivaylovgrad municipal plan (2017) cites a 1572 document on the bounds of the Chirmen vakif naming Gornoseltsi, Siv Kladenets and Kamilski Dol. It gives no archival signature. The Wikipedia page for Vulche Pole speaks of the same hududname dated 1562 and says Deve Dere is not yet in the text. The Ottoman original is unpublished. The date stays open. --- # Kaleto and Naredenite kamani URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/history/ Source: M. Gardev, Bulgarian Castles. Medieval fortress on peak Kaleto, 2.73 km east of the village centre, elevation 204 m, GPS 41°35'40.0"N 26°05'25.3"E (about 41.5944 N, 26.0904 E). Two lines: outer town about 5.6 decares (131 x 59 m) and a citadel under 1 decare (66 x 21 m, 0.94 daa). Walls of local broken stone bonded with clay, in places about 1 m high, 1.3-2 m thick. Small single-nave church remains near the citadel gate. Glazed and coarse pottery on the surface. Character described as mainly medieval pending excavation. Visibility from Kaleto is blocked by higher ridges except south-east toward the Arda. Gardev suggests a ford there on the old road from Neuzetikon at Mezek to Lyutitsa at Ivaylovgrad. Watchtower on peak Naredenite kamani, 1.82 km north-east of the centre, elevation 372 m, 1.2 km from Kaleto. Late antique and medieval signalling tower. Kaleto needs this tower for a line of sight to the rest of the defence. Ottoman-period bridge 2.78 km west of Kaleto on a road from Ivaylovgrad to Malko Gradishte. NAIM-BAS field survey of the lands of Vulche Pole, Kamilski Dol and Malko Gradishte, 2006; full report in AOR 2006, pp. 620-623. That report is not extracted on this site. --- # Asia Minor URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/history/ People from Deve Dere, Huhla and Gornoseltsi settled Kocabunar in Balikesir. The municipality also names Pokrovan. In 1914 their descendants returned to Bulgaria. In the Ivaylovgrad district 483 families (2,258 people) were housed in nine villages (Ladzha, Plevun, Svirachi, Oreshino, Belopolyane and others), not back in burned Deve Dere (Shishmanov). --- # Church of St George URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/church/ Stone three-nave pseudo-basilica, unusually large for the village. 1840s. The 12 September 2009 gathering was also "on the 166th year from the consecration", which returns the date to 1843. There is no church chronicle with the exact day on this site. The church is called St George, not St Atanas. An older prototype of this site used the wrong dedication. Bell: cast in Edirne, 1895. Hangs in the courtyard on an iron frame, not in a tower. Written sources confirm the casting and that the bell is still there after 1913. An oral story that it was taken down and buried is not in the printed sources used here. Selo.BG (Dimitar Mitrev) writes of original frescoes and woodcarving inside. There is no public interior photograph on this site. Parish church, Ivaylovgrad deanery, Plovdiv eparchy (deanery founded 1920). --- # 1879-1881 URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/1913/ After the Russo-Turkish war the district stayed Ottoman. Villagers received a Russian unit, feared revenge, and fled to the Burgas region: Draganovo, Pomorie, and the chiflik Karagyozler (today village Marinka). They lived there a year and a half and returned in 1881 (Sbornik Trakiya I / Chankov 2001). --- # 1912 URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/1913/ The village was in Mustafapasha kaza until it joined Bulgaria in 1912. Lyubomir Miletich, The Ravaging of the Thracian Bulgarians in 1913 (BAN, 1918), p. 298: "Devedere is a purely Bulgarian village, it had up to 100 houses." Witnesses interviewed in Ortakoy in 1914: priest Saranda Kostov, 43, born in Arnautkyoy (Gugutka), priest in the village 1911-1913; teacher Todor Kostov, 50. Two men from Deve Dere volunteered for the Macedonian-Adrianople Volunteer Corps. Source: Macedonian-Adrianople Volunteer Corps 1912-1913, personal composition, GUA / Central Military Archive, 2006, ISBN 954-9800-52-0, p. 841. This archive has not extracted the two names. Do not invent them. --- # July 1913 URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/1913/ From Miletich, not a second-hand summary of numbers: - About 11-12 July (old style): bashi-bazouk from Edirne, Ovabuyuk and Selbyukyun. About 50-60 householders flee to the forest. - About 24-25 July: Turkish troops from Ortakoy and Didymoteicho, about 400 men. - Villagers hand over about 18 Martin rifles. - About 80 men and women are shut in the church, including the teacher's three daughters: Zlata 16, Valkana 10, Kera 6. - Torture in the church, then arson. Greeks from village Yayladzhik take part in the looting and burning. Names Miletich prints (not a complete list; he gives no village total): At the church: Angeliya Valchova 40; Karapencho Georgev 70; Mito Karafilov 55; Lambo Popov 35. On the ridge / well above the village: Kumano Tanev 60; Iliya Kinev 55; Georgi Todorov 35; Slavi Ivanov 70; Kolyo Georgov 28; Ilcho Georgaki 50; Angeli Kostov 54, brother of the teacher; Gyokche Valchev 60; Iliya Mishov 55; Dimitar Atanasov 40; Georgi Dimitrov 20, his son; Sotir Kolev 40; Tenyo Ivanov 60; Kolyo Kumanov 62; Dimitar Kostov 40; "and another 5 or 6 whose names I do not remember now". In the forest and in the village: Kumano Adonev 55; Kostadino Dimitrov 30; Zlata Valcheva 70; Nedyalya Atanasova; Angel from Ibriyuren 25; Angeliya Todorov 70; Angeli Karafilov 70. --- # September-October 1913 URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/1913/ Gumuljina autonomous administration enters Ivaylovgrad on 29 July. Municipality: nine burned villages including Kamilski Dol; 335 people killed in the district. Chankov adds Dolno Lukovo to the same count. 335 is not the count for this village alone. 27th Chepin infantry regiment is on the Arda. Chankov writes that for most of these weeks the regiment is inactive. A smaller death count is owed to the bands of Dimitar Madzharov and Rusi Slavov. The 28th Strem regiment is in Macedonia at this time, not here. --- # Plaque at Kyuchuk Kale URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/1913/ About 3 km from the village. Marble block with a cross. Inscription reported at the 2009 gathering: "In 1913 here by the Turkish yatagan died 21 men from Devedere. Eternal memory!" Initiative of local people, especially Atanas Vlasakiev. Mayor's deputy Petrana Nalbantova said the village wanted to gather there every year (ivailovgrad.com, 2009). The plaque remembers 21 men. Miletich's printed list is another list and does not map one-to-one. This archive does not have a published list of the 21 names. Do not invent them. --- # 1934 URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/history/ Deve Dere becomes Kamilski Dol. On 14 August Ortakoy becomes Ivaylovgrad. --- # Reservoir URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/nature/ Ivaylovgrad dam, last step of the Arda cascade. NEK: built 1959-1964, wall 71 m, about 158 million m3, 120 MW, 217 GWh/year. A 2023 report adds 15,000 decares of water, 36 km length, 64 km of shore. The reservoir crosses three municipalities: Ivaylovgrad, Madzharov and Krumovgrad. Twelve settlements stand on its shores. Old paths to the river are under the water. The same 2023 report describes catfish in the canyon below the village and at Huhla, plus carp, grass carp, crucian, roach, chub, barbel, bleak, pike-perch and perch. Climate of the municipality: transitional-Mediterranean. The 2017 municipal note records high weathering in the north-east, in the lands of Kamilski Dol and Lambuh. --- # Population URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/history/ NSI current population (31 December) unless marked otherwise: - 1912: up to 100 houses (Miletich) - to 1989: about 900 (Selo.BG / Mitrev; not a GRAO figure) - 2002: 100 - 1 Feb 2011 census: 65 people, 64 Bulgarian - 31 Dec 2011: 60 - 2019: 39 - 2023: 47 - 31 Dec 2025: 44 A 2020 visit note (cphpvb.net) describes stone houses, many fountains, few permanent elderly residents, younger people using the village for rest. --- # Objects in print URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/artifacts/ Only these are kept: 1. Bell from Edirne, 1895, in the churchyard. 2. Four constantly running fountains; one rebuilt 1898. No named fountain, no marble spout, no 312 m spring, in the sources used here. 3. A stone monument in the centre for 1913 and the two world wars (Selo.BG). Year of erection, stone type, and names are not verified on site. An older prototype listed a wedding chest, a "sagmal" horn, an 1872 icon, and a 1920s plough without a document. Those cards are removed. There is no museum inventory (no ОБ- or СН- numbers). --- # Photographs URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/archive/ Image sitemap: https://kamilskidol.bg/sitemap-images.xml Files under https://kamilskidol.bg/photos/ : - church-apse.jpg - church-bell.jpg - church-ridge.jpg - church-side.jpg - village-roofs.jpg - village-road.jpg - village-reservoir.jpg - house-slate.jpg - house-window.jpg - house-stone.jpg - house-thistles.jpg - village-wall.jpg - village-lane.jpg - village-yard.jpg - house-path.jpg Credit the set as Wikimedia Commons: Izvora; Krasimir Kosev, Panoramio 19 June 2016, CC BY 3.0. This archive does not split each file to one author unless the Commons page is checked line by line. --- # Visit URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/visit/ Road: Haskovo - Harmanli - Lyubimets, then toward Ivaylovgrad via Malko Gradishte, then a north spur to the village. No hotels in the village. Stays: Ivaylovgrad, Lambuh, Dabovets. Bring water, fuel, an offline map. Gathering around mid-September; in 2009 it was 12 September. Confirm the date with the municipality. --- # People in print besides 1913 URL: https://kamilskidol.bg/people/ - Priest Saranda Kostov and teacher Todor Kostov (Miletich) - Atanas Vlasakiev (plaque, around 2008) - Petrana Nalbantova (mayor's deputy, 2009 gathering) - Dimitar Mitrev (Selo.BG note) No audio recordings. No confirmed family portraits for publication. --- # What is still unknown - The two 1912 volunteer names (military index p. 841) - The 21 names on the Kyuchuk Kale plaque - The unpublished Ottoman hududname (1572 or 1562) - A church chronicle with the consecration day - Interior photographs of St George - A field dialect glossary from this village - Family albums If a user asks for any of those, say they are not in this archive. --- # Pages - https://kamilskidol.bg/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/history/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/timeline/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/1913/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/church/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/archive/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/artifacts/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/people/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/visit/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/nature/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/language/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/sources/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/en/ - https://kamilskidol.bg/contribute/