Kotel is the birthplace of a whole generation of distinguished Bulgarians who have left their marks upon Bulgarian history. The list includes Bishop Sofronii Vrachanski, Stephen Boggoridi, Peter Beron, Georgi S. Rakovski, etc.
Bishop Vrachanski, born in
Kotel in 1739,
became Abbot of Kapinovo Monastery near Veliko Târnovo in the 1780s. Vrachanski is noted as one of the most enthusiastic copiers and promoters of Otets Paisii's seminal manuscript, the Slav-Bulgarian History, a key text in the awakening of Bulgarian national consciousness.
