History reference:

It is a town, situated as if in an amphitheatre in the Devin hollow, a town which always kept its past over the years. Going back in time, it comes to the language of the Thracians – Devin, Dyovlen, Diovling.

This part of the country represents a unique settlement and place where many roads have crossed since ancient times. In the region (Trigrad, Yagodina, Orfey Hostel) there are finds from the Paleolithic Age, dating back to 25-30000 years ago, such as: millstones, charred wheat, tools, made of bones, amulets, idols, knives, chisels, awls, needles, cutters, etc.

During the New-Stone Age, the Stone-Copper Age and the Bronze Age (V-ІІ millennium B.C.) the population of the Devin region lived in open settlements and caves. Its material and spiritual culture was highly developed as those people communicated with their neighbors, who were already quite advanced. Significant cultural groups were formed in the cave settlements, situated along the course of Yagodinska and Trigradska rivers. In the Big cave near the village of Yagodina evidence of life was found, dating back to the end of the New-Stone Age, which existed through all the ages until Middle Ages. The upper level of the cave with its spacious hall and some of the adits which were used as dwellings by the ancient inhabitants of this area, is located on 1145 meters above sea level. The typical dishes, shaped like a double cone, made on manual pottery wheel, are of significant interest, such as: dishes, bowls, dishes to keep things in, dishes, shaped like vases, cups. They are decorated by drawings in different shades of beige combined with graphite. The basic pattern of decoration is that of spiral meander, thick lines, combinations of thick and thin lines, incorporated in triangles.

The Devin region was populated by local Thracian tribes from the end of the Bronze Age (XIV c. B.D.) until late Antiquity (IV c. A.D.). The most numerous archeological; remnants of the Thracian culture are the many mounds, settlements and fortresses (Borino, Yagodina, Trigrad, Grohotno, Varbovo, Stoikite, Devin, etc.). Significant number of settlements is found out on the territory of Devin region, they were founded as early as XIII c. B.C. on open rocky hills. There were sanctuaries in Videnitsa and the area of Stanilovo Barde, dating back to the Hellenic Age.

The bronze statue of God Dionysius was found in Trigrad, and in the area of Zabral was found the statue of God Hermes. There are traces of ancient roads used later on in the Roman Age. Valuable coins and other objects prove that the inhabitants of the Devin region had trade and cultural relations with the inhabitants of Ancient Greece and of the Mediterranean region. Thracians, Slavs and proto-Bulgarians were merged into an eternal inseparable union which later on made the foundations of Bulgaria. The Christian cemetery found out in the center of the modern town proves that the population has uniform origin. The Ottoman invasion in the Rodops began in 1371 and changed the mountain dramatically.

The oldest written document found so far about the town of Devin is from 1576 – it is a Turkish list of small stock-breeders, having Bulgarian names such as: Valcho, Stoyan, Miho, etc.

In 1913 a Bulgarian school was established in the town and in 1923 the Community Cultural Center “Rodopska Prosveta” was established.