The Rhodopes have always been a mythical and mysterious mountain. Inhabited since ancient times, the mountain is even mentioned in one of the oldest written texts – the Homer poem Iliad (8th century BC). In the ancient historical documents, Herodot, Ovidiy, Tukidit, Pseudo-Plutarch left hints about Rhodopean mountain... They believed that the popular in the Hellenic world sanctuary of the god of joy Dyonisius was located there. Despite the wish of many modern researchers to localize it on one of the many Thracian sanctuaries on the Rhodopean mounts, it has remained undiscovered for the historical science so far, as well as the birthplace of one of the characters of the Thracian mythology — Orpheus. Now few people doubt that he has been a historical person any way, who lived in 8th century BC in the heart of the mountain where he fascinated people, beasts and birds with his unearthly music.
There are tens of cult places and sanctuaries in the region since Thracian times. They are not well researched, but the most popular of them are on mounts with attractive panoramic views that additionally provoke the interests of the tourists who want to visit them…
The Thracians inhabited the Rhodopes about 1000 BC, but they did not establish a uniform state. It is known that different tribes inhabited different parts of the mountain: Satris, Diis, Bessi, Odryses...
In 341 BC, Philip of Macedon conquered the Rhodopean Thracians but during the next 3 centuries they were liberated again, until they were conquered and included in the borders of the Roman empire.
In 5th century AD, Slav tribes settled on the whole Balkan peninsula, despite the resistance of the Eastern Roman empire known to us Byzantine. In the 7th century, the Slav tribe, referred to as Bessi, settled there, as there is evidence that the Smolyani tribe settled along the upper river valley of Arda River, the Ruptsi tribe — within the region of Vacha and Chepelarska River. Christianity was adopted in these lands much earlier than in the other Bulgarian lands — as early as in the 5th century — which is also evidenced by the early Christian basilicas (5th - 9th century). From the period of the First and Second Bulgarian Kingdom (681 - 1393), there are remains in the Rhodopes from many Medieval fortresses, localities and necropolis, some of which were even used since Thracian times. After the establishment of the Slav-Bulgarian state, within several centuries the Rhodopes and separate parts of it were joined to that state or to Byzantium.
When the Balkans were conquered by the Ottomans after the 14th century, the Rhodopes became part of the new empire, whose policy was to assimilate the local population, using brute force and economic leverages to change the religion from Orthodox to Islam over big chunks of the Rhodopes, even inhabited it with new ethnic groups — Tatarians, Yuruks, Cherkez, Albanians, etc., whose presence we find nowadays only in the toponymy of the mountain. The darkest period came for the Rhodopes when many monuments of tangible culture were destroyed, but what was most difficult to the locals was the encroachment upon their belief, which was also mentioned in numerous heroic legends of that time. The fortresses in the Middle Rhodopes had remained forgotten until recent times when, in the beginning of the 21st century, many archaeological researches, restorations and preservations of the discovered findings were done with the help of European programs.
After the Russian-Turkish war in 1828-1829 and the subsequent Treaty of Adrianople that regulated the right of Russia to be a guardian and protector of the Orthodox Christians in the empire, permissions for building churches started to be granted. In the following years of 19th century, religious freedom was given to the Christian population in Bulgaria and in the Balkans so that people could build their own churches and have freedom of belief.
The construction of new churches required to obtain a firman (permit) from Tsarigrad. Firmans could be given under certain conditions: the church should have been existing since old times and its original appearance should be preserved; the Christian population in the locality should be a majority; the church should not be close to a mosque and it should be distant from the houses of Muslims. Benefiting from the first reformatory rights, the Christian population in the Rhodopes region also started to restore old churches and build new ones.
For a part of this region, the Ottoman slavery continued longer than for the rest of the Bulgarian territories. The part of the Rhodopes south from the line between Rozhen and Pamporovo obtained its independence and was included in the boundaries of the Bulgarian state not before the end of the Balkan war of 1912.