Petar Parchevich

Petar Parchevich ( ; ) or Petar Mihaylov Parchev (; – 23 July 1674) was a Bulgarian Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat, scholar, baron of Austria and one of the architects behind the anti-Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising.

A native of Chiprovtsi and one of Bulgaria's most educated people of the 17th century, Parchevich was among the leaders of the Bulgarian Roman Catholics. His numerous diplomatic visits to the royal courts of Europe were mostly in an attempt to garner support for an anti-Ottoman uprising in Bulgaria, which he did not live to witness. Nevertheless, his efforts in defending Christianity earned him a noble title from the Austrian emperors, and he took up several important positions within the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy.

Education and early diplomacy Petar Parchevich was born circa 1612 in Chiprovtsi to an influential Parchevich (Parčević) family, having Croatian roots and being the ancestral house of the House of Pejačević, a distinguished noble family in the 18th and 19th century Kingdom of Croatia. Chiprovtsi was then a Catholic-populated town in the northwestern Bulgarian lands under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. In the 17th century, Chiprovtsi was a rich merchant town in its cultural heyday. Like many Bulgarians from Chiprovtsi at the time, Parchevich was sent to be educated in Italy. Having studied in Rome and Loreto, he returned to Bulgaria in 1643 as a doctor of theology and canon law,

Upon his return, Parchevich engaged in diplomacy with the ultimate goal of ensuring the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. Receiving papal support, Parchevich visited the royal courts of Europe and advocated the formation of an anti-Ottoman alliance which would drive out the Ottoman Turks from the Balkans. Parchevich was received by the courts of the Austrian Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Republic of Venice, the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, and Pope Innocent X himself.

Parchevich made several visits to Poland, such as once in 1647, when he was met by Władysław IV Vasa, and once in late 1649, when he was received by the new king John II Casimir Vasa. In his speech before the Senate of Venice from 1650, Parchevich referred to the "unbearable Ottoman yoke" and told of the Bulgarian people's long struggle against the Ottomans. After meeting with Innocent and persuading the pope that Bulgaria could collect an army of 20,000 for an anti-Ottoman campaign, Parchevich remained in Rome until the spring of 1651. As an Austrian noble, he was styled Peter Freiherr von Parchevich.

In spite of Parchevich's efforts, conditions would not be favourable to a Bulgarian anti-Ottoman uprising until well after his death. While on a diplomatic mission to Pope Clement X, he died of illness and Shumen. A Catholic football club known as SK Parchevich was founded in Plovdiv in 1923 and later merged into what is today PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv. One of the neighbourhoods of the mostly Catholic-populated town of Rakovski in Plovdiv Province is also known as Parchevich. In addition, three schools, in Plovdiv, Rakovski and Chiprovtsi, are named after him, as is a community centre (chitalishte) in the Banat Bulgarian village of Asenovo, Pleven Province. Parchevich Ridge in the Breznik Heights on Greenwich Island of the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, also bears his name thanks to the efforts of the Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria.