In the first half of the 19th century, in compliance with the growing economic and social influence of Haskovo in the life of European Turkey, the city became a district center. It was the venue of trade and handicraft activity. The broad market stimulated many trades: leather-dressing, goldsmith’s, silversmith’s, shoemaking, homespun tailoring, furrier’s, building-trade, bread-making, market-gardening, coppersmith’s, making of goat’s-hair rugs, etc. Alongside the advancement of trades, the commercial activity intensified. To its upsurge contributed, besides the Uzundjovo Fair, the cobblestone road built in the late 18th century and the Maritsa waterway, whereby Haskovo goods arrived to the port of Enos. The old ties of the Haskovo merchants with Plovdiv and Edirne were enhanced. Trade was of great importance to the socioeconomic progress of the city during the Revival and it became an important link and an integral part of the Bulgarian national economy. Entire crafts and shopping streets emerged, where more than 200 workshops and offices found a place. The craftsmen, united in guilds, acted as leaders of the public and educational life.

This prosperity brought on an upsurge in all spheres. The spiritual flame in our history, called Revival, flared up in Haskovo too. In 1857 a telegraph and post office was opened. The water supply was improved. New public and church buildings were erected, schools and streets were built. In 1837 the Holy Virgin Church was constructed, in 1861 – St. Archangels Michael and Gabriel Church, and in 1865 – St. St. Cyril and Methodius Church. Revival-style mansions were raised, a manifestation of the affluence of a number of Haskovo families, and of the Haskovites’ sense of harmony and beauty.

    The most popular and organized public power of the Bulgarians during the Revival Period was the Haskovo Parish. On its board were wealthy merchants, entrepreneurs, real estate owners, tradesmen. First epitrop – parish councillor – was one of the richest and most influential merchants, Hristodul V. Shishmanov. With the growth of the Bulgarian population in the city and its financial status, the role of the Parish grew accordingly. Having established itself as a body of limited local self-government, the Parish performed a number of important tasks: it took care of church construction, opening of schools, finding and supporting teachers, it sent young people to study in other cities, bought books, opened chitalishta, etc. This activity made the Parish a motor of the Revival processes in the city.

   In the second quarter of the 19th century the Bulgarians on a national scale started to distance themselves from the Greek spiritual domination, and sought ways to church independence. (After the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman domination, the Bulgarian Church went under the control of the Constantinople Patriarchate, which was recognized as sole representative of all Christian peoples in the Empire.) Two powerful movements started: for new Bulgarian education and culture, and a struggle for church and national independence. The prerequisites were there for a massive popular movement against the Greek bishops and priests. The Bulgarians in Haskovo did not shun these struggles, even though the Greek influence was very strong here. The Greek propaganda had struck deep roots in the city under the sway of Plovdiv and Asenovgrad. There were Grecomanic parties, which put up great resistance to the champions of independent Bulgarian church and education. The Haskovo Grecomanics were strongly influenced by their Plovdiv counterparts and maintained close contacts with them. The collision became extremely acute with the arrival of Hadji Stavri in Haskovo, who headed the Grecomanic party for years and created serious problems to the church, educational and national liberation movements in the city.

    The struggle for church-Slavonic liturgy and Bulgarian clergy reached its height and resulted in serious perturbations in the 1860s. These passions lasted unabated throughout the pre-Liberation period. Therefore, when on February 27, 1870 by a Sultan’s firman the Ottoman government recognized the Bulgarians’ right of independent church, the people of Haskovo were filled with joy. The bells of the Holy Virgin Church rang festively and summoned the citizens. Celebrations were organized, the people exulted.

The family of the weighty merchant Hadji Ivancho Minchev will go down in the city’s history with their patriotism

    The Bulgarian monastery schools no longer satisfied the grown cultural and educational needs of the Bulgarians, and above all of the newly emerged Haskovo bourgeoisie. Being well off, Haskovites sought Bulgarian teachers to teach their children in their native language. In 1846 the beginnings of the new Bulgarian education in the city were laid. In 1851 Bulgarian language teaching by the mutual-teaching method was introduced and the foundations of the modern class school were laid. A girls’ schools was opened. In 1864 a new school building was constructed. The care of the Parish for education did not end here. Thanks to it, teachers during the Revival were Todor Zaprianov, Nestor Markov, Yurdan Nenov, Stoyan Zaimov, Peter Berkovski, Dimiter Dushanov, Rahil Dushanova. The donor spirit of Haskovites is evidence of their high national consciousness.

Peter Berkovski chaired the Haskovo Revolutionary Committee	After the hanging of Vasil Levski, it was Atanas Uzunov who was in charge of the liberation movement in Southern Bulgaria

    In their striving for cultural renovation, in 1858 Haskovites established Zarya Chitalishte (library/cultural club), the first of its kind in Southern Bulgaria and fourth in the country after Svishtov, Lom and Shumen. Its founders were Hristodul Shishmanov, Hadji Ivancho Minchev, Hristo Zlatarov, Yani Kozhuharov, Father Hrisant Atanasov, etc. At first it was accommodated in one of the school rooms, where newspapers and magazines were arranged and the books were kept in bookcases. People came and read, often aloud for others to listen, and discussed public affairs. In 1870 a Sunday school was opened with the chitalishte. Lectures, cultural events and student’s mornings were organized. A prime activity was the raising of charity funds to buy books and textbooks for the needy, to support students studying abroad, and organize teacher’s conventions.

    With the coming of Peter Berkovski, associate of Panayot Hitov and comrade of Vasil Levski from his stay in Belgrade, as teacher in the town, the chitalishte experienced an upsurge. Berkovski became chairman of the secret revolutionary committee in Haskovo. “Under the veil of scientific lectures, read on behalf of the Haskovo chitalishte, the Haskovo committee started its revolutionary propaganda,” Stoyan Zaimov wrote. The teachers and chitalishte workers laid the beginning of the organizing of the national liberation movement and the revolutionary committee. The first one to exert influence for the formation of national liberation ideas in Haskovites was Georgi S. Rakovski who came to the Uzundjovo Fair in 1849. His contacts with leaders of the Bulgarian National Revival in Haskovo went on for years. Todor Zaprianov even became his correspondent for the Danube Sawn newspaper.

    An active propagandist of the revolutionary ideas was also the teacher Nestor Markov. In 1869 Vasil Levski visited Haskovo for the first time, when fierce struggle was going on between Bulgarians and Grecomanics. The Apostle met with Hristo Zlatarov, a public-spirited young merchant, founder and chairman of Zarya Chitalishte. In the autumn of 1872 Levski again visited Haskovo to set up a revolutionary committee. He had information about individuals whom he could trust. He sought out the teacher Peter Berkovski. With his assistance, the Apostle founded one of the most active revolutionary committees in Southern Bulgaria. Berkovski was elected chairman, and the meetings were held in his room. Levski acquainted the members with the Statutes and program of the committees’ organization and set the tasks. Great assistance was rendered by Hristo Zlatarov, chairman of the chitalishte, which was at the root of the propaganda among the population.

    In November 1872, Levski came to Haskovo for the third time, to set up a regional revolutionary centre. The Haskovo committee started an organized revolutionary activity in the villages, too. Revolutionary committees were formed in 36 villages. They all prepared for an uprising. When in late 1872 Levski was captured by the Turks, the Haskovo revolutionary committee made plans for his rescue, organized by Atanas Uzunov.

    But where there is bravery there is treachery also. The overt Grecomanic Hadji Stavri handed over to the Turkish authorities a list with the names of the revolutionary functionaries in Haskovo. The committee decided he should be killed. In end April 1873 Atanas Uzunov was assigned this task. Being young and inexperienced, he failed in his attempt against Hadji Stavri and was arrested. Followed by 23 other functionaries from Haskovo, Stara Zagora, Chirpan, Plovdiv and Simeonovgrad. The long and racking trial ended in the end of 1873 with 21 severe sentences – life imprisonment in Diyarbakir. Later some of these brave Bulgarians escaped from prison and made their way to Romania. In 1877 they joined the ranks of the Bulgarian volunteer corps. The rest were amnestied in 1878, under the San Stefano Peace Treaty. The big trial, called „The Haskovo assault of 1873”, dealt a heavy blow on the Haskovo revolutionary committee. Nevertheless, later it took part in the Stara Zagora Uprising.

    The Karmilo Women’s Society founded in 1869, among the first in the country, and the Saglasie Student’s Society founded in 1872 and directed by the teacher Zahariya Boyadjiev, kept the chitalishte going.