Razlog ( ) is a town and ski resort in Razlog Municipality, Blagoevgrad Province in southwestern Bulgaria. It is situated in the Razlog Valley and was first mentioned during the reign of Byzantine emperor Basil II. The municipality The municipality of Razlog comprises the villages of Banya, Gorno Draglishte, Dolno Draglishte, Dobarsko, Bachevo, Godlevo and Eleshnitsa with a total population of 20,410 inhabitants. Each has its own charm. The fairy-tale village of Dobarsko, hidden in the outskirts of Rila, maintains the legends of the Dobarsko Singing School. One can see here the church "Saints Theodor Tiron and Theodor Stratilat" (1614) — a National Monument of Culture with high architectural and artistic culture. The murals depicting Jesus Christ in what observers claim to be a jet rocket astonishes foreigners as well as Bulgarians. The icons in the Tzar (King) Row of church "Sretenie Gospodne" (1860) were painted by Simeon D. Molerov, a representative of the Bansko Painting School. History During his 1894–1896 trip in the region of Macedonia, Bulgarian geographer Vasil Kanchov visited Razlog (then known as Мехомия, Mehomiya) and reported that it numbered 820 households, of which 500 of Eastern Orthodox Bulgarians, 300 of Muslim Bulgarians (Pomaks), 16 of Protestant Bulgarians and 5 of Eastern Orthodox Aromanians, for a total population of around 4,620. According to the same author's 1900 study on the population of Macedonia, Razlog was populated by 4,970 people, of which 3,200 Christian Bulgarians, 1,460 Muslim Bulgarians, 80 Turks, 200 Romani and 30 Aromanians. The town's population actively participated in the Kresna-Razlog and Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, Razlog, which was part of the Sanjak of Siroz in the Salonika Vilayet as "Razlık", itself being liberated from Ottoman rule in 1912. In 1925, the town was renamed from Mehomia to Razlog. The municipality of Razlog and the whole Razlog valley possess rich inheritance of cultural monuments from different ages and civilizations. There are seven cultural monuments in the territory of Razlog. These are the Christian temples: Saint Georgi Pobedonoset (built in 1834 in Razlog); Saint Gerogii (built in 1834 in Banya village); Uspenie Bogorodichno (built in 1835 in Dolno Draglishte village) — the iconostasis in this temple was made by one of the most prominent representatives of the wood-carving school in Tryavna: Dosyu Koyuv; Saint Bogoroditsa in Dolno Draglishte village, specialists suppose that the temple was built before the 16th century; Sretenie Gospodne (built in 1860 in Dobarsko village); and