Ochin dol

The village is located on both slopes of a river valley at an altitude of 750 m. Its land is mountainous. The village is relatively small - the population reached 890 people in 1946, and now there are less than 200 people. Until 1951, the village of Ochin Dol consisted of a central settlement and several neighborhoods. Today, there is a population only in the huts (neighborhood) Rekàta. Until 1962, the village was not electrified, and the road was asphalted only in 1973.

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  1.5 km from the central village to the west in the Presvetitsa area are the foundations of a large single-apse early Christian church. In the Mirovo Selishte area northwest of the village are the remains of a large late antique and medieval settlement. With its current name, the village of Ochin Dol was recorded as a timar with 32 households in an Ottoman document from 1453. In a population register from 1866, the village of Ochin Dol was noted with 45 households and 208 inhabitants, only men being counted. According to local tradition, the village moved several times during the Turkish occupation. First to the Presvetitsa area, then to Manastirishte and to Mirovo Selishte. The reasons for the move were mainly plague epidemics. Then the individual families scattered to the surrounding hills in order to be isolated from each other. Interestingly, the places where they settled were located so that they could see each other and talk to each other from a distance (separated by both sides of the ravines). The name of the village Ochin Dol arose in the Bulgarian Middle Ages before the Turkish slavery. It comes from the long-lost personal name Ocho. It means to see well with one's eyes, like the toponyms Okomir, Okoslav and Ochin - derived entirely from personal names until the 14th century. An interesting fact is that in the village until the 1920s and 1930s, people did not use ripe tomatoes because they considered them unfit for food. A teacher from Lovech demonstrated to them that tomatoes, like all fruits and vegetables, are tastier and healthier when ripe. As in many places along the Gorge, here too the locals grew hemp (bunches). The processing of hemp involves soaking for 10-15 days in gullies (pots) by the river or a spring. Then they are dried and pounded to remove the hard outer part. The waste was used to make lamp wicks. Fibers – tows – were obtained from the bast of the processed stems. Ropes, fabrics, paper, etc. were produced from hemp fabrics. Hemp fibers were added to plasters for reinforcement. The residue from the processing of the bunches was used as bedding for animals in the stables.
  In 1936-1937, an entrepreneur bought the forest in the area of ​​Kozata Voda and Rachov Trap. For a short period, the beech forest was cut down and transported by ox carts to the Gorge. Now a beautiful beech forest grows there. Before the Liberation in the village, like other settlements in the Gorge, a room in the house of Mincho Magalski was initially adapted for educational purposes. Then they used the building of the Turkish administration. In 1924/25, a school was built in the Rekata village - a two-story, rickety building. In Ochin Dol, in 1938-39, a two-story building for the new school was built with voluntary labor. It was a primary school (only between 1952 and 1960 did it have junior high school classes). It operated until 1971. The building was preserved and in 2014 was converted into a youth eco-camp by the administration of the Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park.