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Little churchyard

The whole of the little churchyard is heaped up with them to the depth of three or four feet, and it is from here that the fearful odour comes. Some weeks after the massacre, orders were sent to bury the dead. But the stench at that time had become so deadly that it was impossible to execute the order, or even to remain in the neighborhood of the village.

The men sent to peiform the work contented themselves with burying a few bodies, throwing a little earth over others as they lay, and here in the churchyard they had tried to cover this mense heap of festering humanity by throwing in stones and rubbish over the walls, without daring to enter. They had only partially succeeded. The dogs had been at work there since, and now could be seen projecting from this monster grave, heads, arms, legs, feet, and hands, in horrid confusion Istanbul Private Tours.

We were told there were three thousand people lying here in this little churchyard alone, and we could well believe it. It was a fearful sight —a sight to haunt one through life. There-were little curly heads there in that festering mass, crushed down by heavy stones; little feet not as long as your finger on which the flesh was dried hard, by the ardent heat before it had time to decompose; little baby hands stretched out as if for help ; babes that had died wondering at the bright gleam of sabres and the red hands of the fierce-eyed men who wielded them; children who had died shrinking with fright and terror; young girls who had died weeping and sobbing and begging for mercy; mothers who died trying to shield their little ones with their own weak bodies, all lying there together, festering in one horrid mass.

They are silent enough now. There are no tears nor cries, no weeping, no shrieks of terror, nor prayers for mercy. The harvests are rotting in the fields, and the reapers are rotting here in the churchyard.

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Aziz Pacha

In the meantime, between the second and third appeals for help, Aziz Pacha sent two zaptiehs, or rural policemen. These zaptiehs, however, only remained a few hours, at the end of which time they said they would go to Ustuna and see what was going on there, borrowed two horses, went off, and never came back. Then there arrived two Bashi-Bazouks, with a message from Achmet-Aga, the chief of the Bashi-Bazouks, saying he was coming with 200 or 300 Bashi-Bazouks to protect them, as he had heard they had asked for protection. They, however, did not relish the protection of the Bashi-Bazouks, and told the two emissaries that they did not want to be protected, and that they were going to protect themselves.

The two Bashi-Bazouks insisted, however, that Achmet-Aga should come and protect them and refused to take back the message. Whereupon there was an altercation, in the course of which the two Turks were seized and killed. These facts were related to me by an Armenian woman, whose husband kept a kind of cafe in the place, and in whose house the interview with the Turks took place.

The Armenians and- Jews, I may remark, are the only people here who may be considered really impartial, as they are neither Turk nor Bulgarian in language or religion, and both parties treat them as friends. She said there was evidently no ill-feeling towards the two Turks when they arrived, as the Bulgarians had given them coffee in her house Guided Tours Turkey.

As Mr. Baring talked to this woman, I presume he will have obtained the facts from her very much as I give them.

There was not, so far as we can learn, any sufficient reason for killing these two Turks. It is true that they were Bashi-Bazouks, and that several villages had already been burnt by the Bashi-Bazouks, that they had come with what could only be regarded as a threatening message, but this was no excuse for killing them. It has been impossible to learn under exactly what circumstances they were killed, as it was not done in the village, and we do not know whether it occurred in a fight, or whether it was done in cold blood. What seems probable, however, is that they were asked to deliver up their arms, that they refused, and that they were then fired upon and killed.

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Between Russia and the Ottoman Empire

On 3rd March 1878 a preliminary peace treaty was signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in the Constantinople suburb of San Stefano. But the Western Great Powers – and most of all the United Kingdom and Austro-Hungary – were concerned that a big Slav state in the middle of the Balkan Peninsula would become an important fulcrum of the Russian influence. That is why the Congress of Ber-lin held in the summer of 1878 disrupted the territorial integrity of the newly created state to satisfy self-interested political ambitions. So Thrace – which was given the name Eastern Roumelia – was left in subordination to the Sublime Porte. Macedonia remained under Turkish power Holidays Bulgaria. Indigenous Bulgarian lands were included in the boundaries of Serbia and Romania. Thus Bulgaria was ruptured into five pieces. In fact, the Congress of Berlin set the charge of irreconcilable national and territorial contradictions in the relations between the young Balkan states…

The Third Bulgarian Kingdom Between Two Fateful Treaties and Through Two National Catastrophes: 1878-1919

The Liberation

Alarmed by the increasing prestige of Russia – as demonstrated by the eventual establishment of a Greater Bulgaria obedient to the will of the Tsar – the Western Powers convened the Congress of Berlin (July 1878) which revised the treaty of San Stefano. Its chairman, the German Chancellor Otto von Bismark, roared: “Gentlemen, we have gathered here to ensure the European peace and not the happiness of the Bulgarians!” Well, that far with the Bulgarian happiness… Northern Bulgaria, or the Bulgarian Principality, became a vassal state dependent on the Sultan and was to be governed by an elected prince. Macedonia and Lower Thrace were tached from the hew kingdom, thus depriving it

of a valuable outlet to the Aegean, and under the name Eastern Roumelia, with a governor designated by the Sublime Porte, would depend politically and militarily on Turkey.

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Rumeli Hissar citadel

Arnaut Keui, the next place the steamer calls at, is the Byzantine Michaelion, built on the site of the more ancient Hestiae. Its Byzantine name was derived from the church erected there to St. Michael by Constantine and rebuilt afterwards by Justinian, and pulled down by Muhammad II., who used the materials for building Rumeli Hissar citadel.

The current at the cape above the landing-stage sets with a velocity of 4 knots an hour, and is called Mega Reuma (‘ strong current ’) by the Greeks, who extend that name to the village also. Boatmen proceeding up the Bosporus find it more expedient to get out and tow past the cape. The Imperial Kiosk, with the lanterns on each side of the door, at the end of the quay is not used now. The charming villa farther on, near the next station, belongs to the sons of the late Egyptian Prince Halim.

Rebek, which comes next after Arnaut Keui, is built on the site of ancient Chelae. In the adjoining bay once stood a temple to Diana Dictynna. The picturesque situation of the place and the beauty of the surrounding scenery made it a favourite resort of various sultans, especially Sultan Selim I. and Selim III., the first of whom built a summer palace on the water-side, known to Europeans as the Palace of Conferences, where ambassadors were received in secret audience. On the top of the hill is the handsome college founded by Mr. A. Robert of Hew York in 1863, and called Robert College after him.            

The high road from Pera stops at Bebek. The cemetery lying between the village and Robert College is highly venerated by the Turks, as being the last resting-place of the first of their race who crossed into Europe from Asia, whom they are wont to style Sehid (martyrs) or Evlia (saints). On the top of the hill is a monastery of Bektashl Dervishes, commanding a splendid view.

Rumeli Hissar, or the Citadel of Europe, the next station, is a village mostly inhabited by Turks. The water-gates seen under the houses are to admit boats belonging to the house into the cellars, which in Bosporus water-side residences are generally used as boat-houses.

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Behind the Sultan’s private box

On the western side of the church, and behind the Sultan’s private box, is the Cold Window, so called from the cool wind which always blows through it; it is considered a place of exceptional sanctity, having been the spot whence the celebrated Sheik Ak-Shems-ed-Din, who accompanied the Conqueror, first preached the Koran in St. Sophia. In one of the windows in the western gallery is a translucent stone, called the Shining Stone. The two immense tapers, one on each side of the Mihrab, are only lighted during Ramazan, and are literally columns of wax. The inscription forming a pendant to the pulpit is a quotation from the Koran, and is a masterpiece of ornamental writing; it is the work of Sultan Mahmud II.

Despite the removal of most of the emblems of Christianity and the addition of those of Islamism, the interior of St. Sophia cannot be said to have much changed by its conversion into a mosque; but the addition of towers, walls, minarets, and other structures outside, has altered the exterior appearance of the building almost beyond recogni-tion. The four minarets are the work of different Sultans: that at the south-east corner is the oldest, having been erected by Muhammad II.; it is of different shape from the others; that at the northeast comer was built by Selim II., and those on the western side by Murat III.

Church of St. Irene (HarbiehAmbari = armoury), now used as a museum of ancient arms. Admission by imperial warrant. It is situated in the Old Seraglio grounds guided tours istanbul, and was never converted into a mosque. It was built by Constantine the Great on the site of the heathen temple erected to Irene (Elptfvrj), or Peace, and named after the fane it superseded, and has no connection with St. Irene, the Christian martyr. It was burnt down in 532 A.D. during the Nika riot, and rebuilt by Justinian. This church is in a fair state of preservation, though it suffered considerably during the earthquakes of 1894. The ornamentation is simple in character. According to most authorities the church of St. Irene was the place where the second General Council met in 381 A.D., during the reign of Theodosius the Great, and proclaimed the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity against the followers of Macedonius.

Christian union

It is, however, curious to note that this building, which was once the scene of this Christian union, has now been chosen, as if by the irony of fate, as a museum of objects of strife, and is crowded with ancient arms and armour, modern weapons, and trophies. Most interesting among these are the sword of Muhammad II.; that of Scanderbey; an armlet of Tamerlane; the gold and silver keys of numerous conquered cities, and more ancient tokens of surrender in the form of little bags of earth; and two standards, said to have been those of Ali, bearing three double-edged swords on a red field. The collection also contains a large quantity of chain- mail, some fine Circassian helmets, and numerous red and green banners and flags.

The Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, called Kutchuk Ayiah Sofia (St. Sophia the less) by the Turks, from the beauty of its columns and ornamentation, lies behind the Hippodrome, close to the railway line, and near the Marmora sea – shore. Admission 5 piastres per head. It was built in 527 A.D. by Justinian in the vicinity of the palace of Hormisdas, where he resided prior to his accession to the throne. According to tradition the church was erected and dedicated to these two saints by Justinian as a thanksgiving offering, for having, in reponse to his prayers, appeared in a dream to his predecessor, the Emperor Anastasius, and induced that monarch to release him from prison, where he had been cast with hie uncle Justin I. for alleged conspiracy against the throne. Justinian is said to have devoted all his private fortune to the endowment of this church. The building is nearly square, being 109 feet by 92 feet exclusive of the apse.

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WALL PAINTINGS FROM TOMBS IN THE NECROPOLIS OF SERDICA

The mosaic depicts the early Christian notion of the Paradise – the Garden of Eden, composed of symbols.

2. WALL PAINTINGS FROM TOMBS IN THE NECROPOLIS OF SERDICA 3 fragments

4th century Fresco 0,72 x 1,04 x 0,25 m 0,55 x 0,80 x 0,16 m 1,5 x 0,93 m

From tombs in the Eastern Early Christian necrop-olis around St. Sophia Church in Sofia

Decorated with candelabra and wine sprouts. K. M.

3. WALL PAINTING WITH THE IMAGE OF AN ANGEL

A fragment Triumphal Arch First half of the 4thcentury Fresco 1,40 x 1,60 m

A sector of the murals the interior. Removed from the arch in the Red Church, Perushtitsa, Plovdiv region, in 1920!

An Angel holds a medallion with Agnus Dei in hands raised above his head.

4. EPITAPHSFROMTHEEARLYCHRISTIAN NECROPOLIS OF SERDICA

5th- 6th centuries 4.1 MARBLE 39 x 43 x2,2 cm Inscription in Latin in 3 lines

+ HIC R …V1ESC1T/ T. IOANNES FIUVS bulgaria tour QEORGIINEVSTRIS

Epitaph ofTlitus]Ioanns, son of the illustrious Georgios

The inscription accompanied by a palmette and an ornament

4.2 MARBLE 21 x 51 x 5 cm Inscription in Latin in 3 lines

+ HIC REQUIESCET U1R THEUPREPIUS / EPISCOP +

Epitaph of the most beatific man Bishop

4.3 MARBLE

24 x 26,5 x 2,5 cm Inscription in Latin in 3 lines + DECIUS HIC I FAMULUS … / ANDRAE Epitaph ofDecius, servant of Saint Andrew An ivy leaf carved below the inscription

4.4 SANDSTONE

27 x 27 x 4,5 cm Inscription in Latin in 4 lines

+ CONTANTIA / NUSICEST POS / ITU- SUTREQI / ES CATIN CELI +

Epitaph of Constantine, interred to rest in heaven

A serpent carved below the inscription

5. EPITAPH OF EUGENIA DEACONESS

Local work June 12th 538 Marble 1,18 x 0,65 x 0,08 m 13-line inscription in Greek:

Here rests Eugenia who died as a deaconess, once living in the house (= church) of the famous Apostle Andrew, and ending her pious life on 12th June, indictio I under the reign of our God-like and devout Emperor Flavius Justinian, great Augustus and Autocrat, when the Consul was Flavius Julius

Discovered at Nebush site, nearby the Mineral Baths of the village of Eleshnitsa, Blagoevgrad re-gion, set up in the altar of the local church.

6. PORTRAIT OF A MAN

Eocal work out of a local stone 6th century Sandstone H. 26 cm; w. 11 cm; d. 19 cm

Discovered within the debris of a Byzantine fortress near Obzor (former Gyozeken, Kozyak grad), Burgas region.

One of the rare world examples of the heroes of the new age – a stiff, universal mask covering a soul striving for the God.

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Many partisans from Varna

During the struggles against fascism (1941-1945) the first sabotage group was set up. Many partisans from Varna fell m battle. ‘

Today Varna is a rapidly developing city with large shipyards, a dry dock, etc.

The Rock Monastery

The Asparouh Bridge is 2 kilometres long and 16 metres wide and rises about 60 metres above Varna Bay. Tankers with 2.000 tons displacement are able to sail beneath.

The Varna-Uyichovsk ferry service links the Soviet Union port with Varna. The line is serviced by two Bulgarian and two Soviet ships.

The Palace of Culture and Sport has a Congress Hall, a revolving stage, which can be converted into a rostrum, simultaneous translation facilities, a large conference hall, 7 small halls and an exhibition hall turkey sightseeing.

There are covered football and tennis facilities, a spacious press centre and snackbar.

Hotel Cherno More

Hotel Cherno More, three stars, has 414 beds and four suites, panoramic restaurant on the 22nd floor, winter garden, two conference rooms, bar, taverna and covered parking lot. Tel. 3-40-88.

The dolphin aquarium is an interesting sight. The glass hall of the main pool is 12 metres long and 12 metres wide and it is linked to a small pool with water tunnels where the dolphins rest. The water for the pools is taken from the deepest parts of

the Black Sea 80 metres from the shore.

DRUSHBA

1 . Hotel Kaliakra

2. hole I – resta uront Riviera

3. Hotel Rubin

4. Hotel lebed

5. Hotel Pronto A, Restaurant Emona

7. Sekfor B – Holzbungolows Secteur – B – Bungalows Sector B – Wooden cottages

8. Hotel Nezabravka

9. Hotel Emona

10. Hotel Rostca

11. Hotel Gloria

12. Hotel Rusalka

13. Hotel Norcis

14. Lbden f(Jr Rei»canaenken Ar]agosins ae souvenirs Souvenir skops

15. Hotel Bor

16. Restauront Varna

17. Restauront Manastirska izbo

18. Restauront Kiliite

19. Hotel Lotos

20. Hotel Praga

21. Administration

22. Freilicbtheaer und -kino Theatre-cinema de plein air Oper-air Theatre and Cinema

23. Hotel Odesos

24. Restaurant Cernomorec

25. Apotheke Pharmocie Chemist’s Shop

26. Post

27. Ldden for Rerseandenken Bator de souvenirs Souvenir stands

28. Hotel Rozo

29. Umkieiderdume Cabines Cloakrooms

30 Hotel Caika

31. Tonkstelle Pompe 6 essence Filling station

32. Zertiol AutobushalteStelle, T«te de I gne d’autobus, Central bus station

33. Camping £aika

34. Camping

35. Hotel Korol

Varna hosts the annual Varna Summer International Festival of Red Cross Films, opera performances, concerts, etc. 1 here is also a symphony orchestra.

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Gorna Oryahovitsa

Some ten kilometres to the left a road leads to Gorna Oryahovitsa (pop. 39,000) — the largest railway junction of North Bulgaria. It was a craft and trade centre during Ottoman rule. After the Liberation it developed as a railway station following the construction of the Varna-Sofia line. Hotels: Raho- vets, two stars, 5 floors, 3 suites and 146 beds, restaurant, night club, national tavern, cafe (tel. 4-16-30).

Return to E-85 and enter the picturesque Derventa Gorge, where, facing each other on the rocks, are the Tiansfiguration Monastery and the Holy Trinity Monastery.

The Transfiguration Monastery is 6 km north of Veliko lumovo. The ruins of the old mediaeval monastery are some half a kilometre in the woods, south of the present-day monastery. It was probably founded during the reign of Ivan Shishrnan, in the 1570s. It fell into oblivion for several centuries, after repeated plundering. The frescoes were painted by Zahari Zograph of the Samokov school of painting. He painted the whole church and icons from 1849 to 1851. Interesting from an ethnographic point of view is the Doomsday fresco painted on the eastern side of the vestibule. Also remarkable is the Wheel of Life fresco on the outside southern altar wall, showing human life from a philosophical point of view.

In 1838 the Tryavna master-engravers made a magnificent iconostasis which is one of the masterpieces of the Tryavna school of wood-carving. They also made the iconostasis in the small Anunciation Church. The large monastery library holds valuable incunabula, historical documents, etc.

The Holy Trinity Monastery is situated among rocks op posite the Transfiguration Monastery, on the steep banks of the River Yantra. It is supposed to have been founded by Patriarch Euthimius. Several prominent literary figures worked there.

Veliko Turnovo

Veliko Turnovo (pop. 63,500; is one of Bulgaria’s most beautiful towns. It was capital of the Second Bulgarian State from 1187 to 1396. There was a Byzantine fortress on the Tsarevets hill in the 5th-6th century, built by Justinian, which was captured by the Slavs in the 7th century sofia sightseeing. In 1185 Turnovo was the centre of a nationwide uprising led by the brothers Assen and Peter. The uprising was successful^eter was declared Tsar and Tumovo capital of the new Bulgarian state, which lasted for two centuries until Bulgaria fell under Ottoman domination. The town maintained lively commercial links with Dubrovnik, Genoa and Venice. It became one of the largest literary centres of its time. Magnificent works were written here, some of which are still presented — Manasses9 Chronicle (in the Vatican library) and Tsar Ivan Alexander’s Tetraevan- gelia (in British Museum, London). In 1350 Theodosius of l umovo founded Kilifarevo Monastery near Turnovo which was a literary school.

Students from all over the country, from Russia, Wallachia and Serbia, studied here; Patriarch Euthimius was among them. He founded a second literary school in the Holy Trinity Monastery, known as the Turnovo School. His disciples, Grigorii Tsamblak and Konstantin Kostenechki, continued their teachings in Wallachia, Serbia and Russia. On July 17, 1393, after a three-month siege, 1 urnovgrad fell under Ottoman domination. The capital was burnt, destroyed and plundered, but the spirit of people remained alive and many uprisings broke out in the 16th, l7th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century the town was a major craft centre. A Bulgarian men’s school was opened followed by a girl’s school in 1845. In 1835 the town was the centre of an uprising, known as the Velcho conspiracy. In 1870 Vassil Levski founded the Turno- vo revolutionary committee. During the Uprising of April 1876 Tumovo was the centre of the First Revolutionary District. Troops led by General I.V.Gurko liberated the town on June 25, 1877.

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Bulgarian population

By this treaty a Bulgarian state was established on the lands of the Balkan peninsula inhabited by a predominantly Bulgarian population. Under the Treaty of Berlin, however, the countify was torn into three: the area from the Timok to the Black Sea and around Sofia formed the Principality of Bulgaria; Southern Bulgaria became Eastern Roumelia under the direct military and political rule of the Sultan and the rest remained under Turkish rule. The Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia were united in 1885 after a revolutionary uprising.

The development of ties with capitalist countries and the growth of the working class gave rise to socialist political consciousness. In 1891, the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party was founded which later became the Bulgarian Communist Party. The Bulgarian Agrarian Union was set up in 1899.

During 1912-1918 Bulgaria took part in the Balkan Wars and in World War I. Following parliamentary elections, an Agrarian government led by Alexander Stamboliiski came to power. It did not last very Jong. A military fascist coup d’etat was carried out on 9th June 1923 and in September 1923 the world’s first anti-fascist uprising broke out and was led by the Communist Party of Bulgaria. It was brutally suppressed. The period between 1924-1941 was marked by acute Glass and political struggles city tours istanbul. In 1941, the establishment consented to the Nazi forces entry into Bulgaria. Following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, the Bulgarian Popular Front formed a resistance movement. Victory was achieved on 9th September 1944 with the assistance of the Soviet Army. In 1946, a referendum proclaimed Bulgaria a People’s Republic and a period of accelerated economic and cultural development ensued. The People’s Republic of Bulgaria is a socialist state governed by representatives of the working people, headed by the working class. The National Assembly is the supreme body of state power and the sole legislative body. It has 400 national representatives, elected for a term of five years.

Economy

Economy — Great changes have occurred over the last four decades: from a backward agricultural country with poorly developed industry, Bulgaria has become a modem industrial and agricultural state. Before World War II the ratio between industry and agriculture was 25:75, whilst in 1975 it had grown to 83:17. New industries have been developed which were non-existent in old Bulgaria: machine-building, metallurgy, chemical industry and power generation. The country’s national income has shown a 13-fold increase in the last 40 years, with industry accountmg for some 57%, closely followed by agriculture, construction and trade.

Industry A prominent feature of the country’s economic development is Its industrialization. Production in machine-building, chemical, metallurgical industries and power generation have grown at enormous rates. Bulgarian electric trucks, hoists, electronic calculators and automatic equipment have world-wide recognition. Vessels built by Bulgarian shipyards are sold to countries which themselves have also developed dynamically together with the chemical industry, petrochemical industry, plastics, artificial fertilizers and the pharmaceutical industry. Power generation is key to the country’s development; in 1939 the production was 266 million kwh whilst in 1983 it reached 4,300 million kwh. Numerous thermal and hydroelectric power stations have been built over the years and are now complemented by a nuclear power station in the whole of the Balkan peninsula.

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Bulgaria Land of Ancient Civilizations

The Thracians had developed the artistic crafts to a high degree. Decorative motifs taken from the animal world were widely used in them. The use of the animal body or its parts, conventionalized and freely combined in such a way as to produce bizarre and fantastic motifs, suitable for the ornamentation of the most ordinary objects used by man in his daily fife, is characteristic of the animal style in art; it was used on weapons, implements of production, vessels, and particularly as ornaments sewn on waistbands or placed on horse’s trappings, etc. As it is characteristic of the deccrative art of those tribes and peoples among whom hunting and animal husbandry play an important part in economy, and among whom totemism developed early on, at the stage of the clan order, the animal style found similar favourable conditions for developing in the decorative art of the Thracians.

The earliest example of the Thracian animal style in the Bulgarian lands is a bronze plaque found at Gurchinovo (Kolarovgrad district), on which a number of animal bodies or parts are represented in a highly conventionalized way; the character of the organic original is, however, perfectly clear in them. This plaque dates back to the end of the 6th or beginning of the 5th century B. C. The figure of a lion is represented in its entirety on a gold pectoral found at the Bashova mound near Douvanlii; in this the division of the body into its component parts is clearly marked. Certain finds from the necropolises near Panagyurishte, Bednyakovo (Pazardjik district), Brezovo (Plovdiv district) holidays bulgaria, Radyuvene (Lovech district), Mezek (near Svilengrad) and elsewhere show the following stage in the development of the Thracian animal style in the 4th century; here a variety of buckles and ornaments used on reins are shaped as separate parts of animal bodies or combinations of them.

Completely abstract character

Moreover, their organic forms are so highly conventionalized that they acquire a completely abstract character. In the silver treasure found near Loukovit in 1953, and consisting of numerous objects — vessels, reins and their ornaments — the animal forms in the decoration of two of the pieces are so greatly changed that they unnoticeably merge into the group of plant motifs and are completely lost amid the many-leaved rosettes.

The Thracian animal style is so close to the Scythian that many scholars do not recognize its existence to this day, and consider the objects found in Thrace as of Scythian origin, or directly produced under the influence of the Scythian animal style. Actually, the Thracians had long had Scythian tribes as their neighbours in the northeastern parts of the peninsula, as already mentioned above. They had long established political and cultural relations with them. Nevertheless, the extensive distribution of objects decorated in the animal style all over Thrace, the number of which increases on both sides of the Balkan Range, can now be traced as far as the lower reaches of the River Maritsa at Mezek (near Svilengrad), which leaves us no choice but to recognize the fact that in this case we are dealing with the products of an original Thracian art.

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STARA ZAGORA

One of the big towns in the Thracian Plain, in the past the centre of a rich agricultural region, today an industrial centre. Star a Zagora (102,000 inhabitants) also remembers many a heroic day in the past and that is why it is in the front ranks of today’s new life of the country.

The town’s beginnings go further back in history. It made its appearance on the map as a Thracian settlement known as Beroe.

Sights:

The Stara Zagora Mineral Baths – on the site of the Roman baths of Augusta Trajana.

The Archaeological Museum, in which interesting exhibits are kept from this region which is so rich in ancient finds.

The new excavations – in the centre of the town, next to the District People’s Council.

TOWNS AND VILL AGES – MUSEUM RESERVATIONS

Many civilizations flourished on the present territory of Bulgaria through the ages, and vestiges of these cultures have been preserved to this day in different parts of the country: Thracian, Hellenic and Roman, Slav and Proto-Bulgarian fortresses, necropolises, baths, villas, mosaics ephesus daily tour, churches, houses, whole towns. By decision of the Council of Ministers of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria the old parts of certain towns and villages or whole settlements have been given the status of architectural museum reservations and have been placed under the protection of special organs.

KOPRIVSHTITSA

The town is situated at an altitude of 1,060 m above sea level on both banks of the Topolnitsa River, in a picturesque gardenlike valley. The climate of Koprivshtitsa is one of the healthiest in the country. Tucked away in the folds of the Sredna Gora Mountains, it is sheltered from the cold northern winds.

Every street, house and even every door in the town recalls the heroic past of the Bulgarian people. Koprivshtitsa is the birthplace of many prominent Bulgarians, fighters against Ottoman domination. It was here that the first shot was fired on April 20, 1876, to mark the outbreak of the April Uprising against the Ottoman Turks. Many historical and architectural monuments from the Bulgarian National Revival period and from the April 1876 Uprising have been preserved. With its spacious and picturesque houses, its typical high walls and wide gates, with its stone fountains and arched bridges, Koprivshtitsa has a unique character and charm all its own.

The oldest architectural monument in the town is the Pavlikenska House, which has existed for more than 300 years, witnessing the repeated burnings of the town in the 18th and 19th centuries. Also of great interest is the Oslekov House, which has now been turned into a museum. Its original architecture dates from the National Revival period, featuring beautiful woodcarved ceilings and murals. Valuable wood-carvings, embroideries and mural paintings have been preserved in the old houses of Naiden Gerov, Markov, Madjarov, Mluchkov, Stahradev, Doganov, and others. Worth special attention are the houses in which Bulgarian writers, politicians and revolutionaries were bom, which have now been transformed into museums: Lyuben Karavelov, Dimcho Debelyanov, Todor Kableshkov, Georgi Benkovski and Yako Dorossiev.

At the spot where on April 20, 1876 the first shot was fired against the oppressors now rises the monument called The First Rifle Shot. On the square is the Mausoleum of the Glorious Dead in the April Uprising. In the Church of the Holy Virgin there is a valuable wood-carved iconostasis. An exquisite wood- carved cross and a hand-written illuminated gospel from 1644 are kept here.

Two and a half hours’ walk from the town are the peaks Bogdan (1,604 m) and Bounaya (1,594 m ) in the Sredna Gora mountains. A picturesque panoramic road leads to the Panagyurishte Colony. 18 km south-east of Koprivshtitsa in an ancient beech forest is the Barikadite locality, closely linked with the anti-fascist partisan struggle in 1942-1944. Next to the monument of the anti-fascist victims rises the first-class Barikadite Hotel, with 140 beds, a restaurant and a folk-style room.

The easiest way to get to Koprivshtitsa is along the Sofia- Bourgas highway. At the 99th km, beyond the village of Anton, the new road to this town branches off. From Koprivshtitsa railway station to the town the distance is 12 km, which the bus covers in 15-20 minutes. In Koprivshtitsa there is a hotel of the same name – lst-B class, with 60 beds, a restaurant and folk-style room.

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Founders of Religions in the East

It so happens that almost all of the Founders of Religions in the East are known to us by certain familiar names, which are obviously not the actual names they bore -in their lifetime; but which for centuries have passed current in the literary speech of Europe. Confucius, Mencius, Buddha, Zoroaster, Mahomet, Moses, and Jesus are popular adaptations of names which the European languages could not easily assimilate. As such those names are embedded in a thousand works of poetry, history, and criticism, and have gathered round them an imposing mass of interest and tradition.

Is it not almost an outrage to discard these old associations and to re-baptize these, hoary elders with the newfangled literalism of phonetic pedantry? K’ung- Foo-tsze, Mang-tsze, Sakyamouni, or Siddhartha, Zarathus- tra or Zerdusht, Muhammad, Mdsheh, and Jehoshua, may be attempts to imitate the sounds emitted by their contemporaries in Asia, but they are an offence in Europe in the nineteenth century, which has long known these mighty teachers under names that association has hallowed to our ears. If scholarship requires us to sacrifice these old familiar names, the necessity applies to all alike. If we are henceforth to talk of the Qur’an of Muhammad, we had better give out the first lesson in church from the Torath of the law-giver Mdsheh.

And, of course, our Roman history will have to be ‘restored.’ ‘Romans,’ ‘Etruscans,’ ‘ Tarquin,’ ‘Appins Claudius,’ and the rest are now the Ramnes, the Ras- ennce, Tarchnaf, and Attus Clauzus. What is to be the final issue of that bottomless pit of Roman embryology, Dr. Mommsen only knows. All that we now behold is a weltering gulf of Ramnes, Titles, Sabelli, Ras, Curites, where archaic and ethnologic fumes roll upwards incessantly, as from an unfathomable crater. Some day we shall know what was the true, unpronounced sightseeing turkey, and undivulged name of Rome; and what is the true phonetic equivalent of ‘ Romulus’ and ‘ Numa,’ of ‘ Tarquin ‘ and ‘ Brutus.’

Kereth Hadeshoth

We are even now in a position to speak with accuracy of the later history. When they come to the Punic wars, our boys and girls in the Board-schools of the twentieth century will learn to say: — ‘The great contest now begins between the Ramnes and the Chna-ites of the mighty city of Kereth-Hadeshoth; “ Au-nec-baal,” the son of “ Am-Melech-Kirjath,” proved himself the greatest general of antiquity; but, when he was overwhelmed in the final defeat of Naraggara, the city of Queen Jedi- diah fell before the irresistible valour of the worshippers of Diovispater.’ And when the young scholars get down to the Kym-ry and the Galtachd, the Vergo-breiths, Ver- kemirkedo-righ, Orkedo-righ, Cara-dazvg, and Heerfiirst, may mercy keep their poor little souls ! There are Gal- tachd-ic, and Kym-ric, and Duitisck enthusiasts, as well as those of Wessex and Gwent. I understand there are people even now who want us to call Paris — Lonkh-teith.

A very large proportion of famous men have been known in history and commemorated in literature under names other than those given to them by their godfathers and their godmothers in their baptism, or those that were entered in the parish register. Under those names we love them, think of them, and feel akin to them. Their names are household words: a part of European literature, and fill us with kindly and filial feelings. These good old names are being steadily supplanted by the alphabetic martinets who recall us to the register with all the formalism of a parish clerk or a Herald from the College. Not Molibre, but Poquelin; not Voltaire, but Aronet; not George Sand, but the Baroness Dndevant; not Madame de SvignS, but Marie de Rabutin-CJiantal. It will soon be a sign of ignorance to speak of Tom Jones and Becky Sharp. It will be Thomas Summer, Esq., Junior, J.P., and Mrs. Joseph Sedley. We shall soon have the Essays of Vis- count St. Albans, and the Letters of the Earl of Orford.

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Marseilles and Rouen

It has thus increased exactly three and one half times. There is nothing abnormal in this. London in the same time has grown quite fourfold, and a similar rate of increase has been seen in Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Lyons, Marseilles, and Rouen.

The increase of many English centres of industry, and of nearly all the American, has been vastly greater and more rapid. Still, the increase of Paris, within a hundred years, of three or four times in population and five or six times in area, is a sufficiently striking fact. In 1789 there were about one thousand streets: there are now about four thousand. There were fifteen boulevards: there are now more than one hundred. The Invalidcs, the Luxembourg, the Bas-tille, the line of the inner boulevards, and the Place Venddme then marked the utmost limits of regular habitations; and thence the open country began. There were within the barriers immense spaces, gardens, and parks; but they were closed to the public. Paris which is now covered with gardens, parks, plantations, and open spaces was in 1789 singularly bare of any.

The Jardin des Plantes, the Jar din des Tuileries, were royal possessions; the Champs Elystes and the Palais Royal were favourite walks. But these were almost the only accessible promenades. Of some forty places of importance which Paris now possesses, few existed in 1789, except the Place de la Concorde, the Esplanade of the Invalides, the Cha77ip de Mars, the Place Ve7ido77ie, and the Place Royale (now des Vosges) private turkey tours. Within the circuit of the older city there was hardly a clear space, a plantation, a parterre, or a free walk, except in the Pa7′- vis de Notre Da7tie, the March des l7moce7its, and the Place de la G7’bve. From the Loire 7’c to the Hotel de Ville there lay a labyrinth of dark and tortuous lanes, such as we may still see in the Ghetto of Rome or round about the Canongate at Edinburgh.

Revolution came, the Convention

The change that has taken place is that of a dream, or a transformation in a theatre. The Revolution came, the Convention, the first Empire, the Orleans monarchy, and the third Empire — and all is new. Streets only too symmetrical, straight, and long; open spaces at the junction of all the principal streets, boulevards, avenues, gardens, fountains, have sprung by magic into the places so lately covered with labyrinthine alleys.

As we stand today in the Place dn Carrousel, in the Place de Voptra, du Theatre Franqais, du Chatelet, de la Bastille, des Innocents, St. Michel, St. Germain, Notre Dame, or de I’Hdtel de Ville, each radiant with imposing buildings, stately avenues, monuments, fountains, columns, and colonnades, with everything that modern architecture can devise of spacious, airy, and gay, it is hard indeed to understand how in so few years (and much of it within the memory of men still living) all this has been created over the ruins of the dense, dark, intricate streets of the last century, where lanes still followed the ramparts of Louis the Stout and Philip Augustus, where the remnants existed of chateaux built by mediaeval seigneurs, or during the civil wars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The clearance has been most cruel of all ill the old City, the original Paris of the earliest ages. Down to the Revolution it had a population of about 20,000, which has now almost wholly disappeared, along with the sixteen churches, the oratories, and streets. The ancient island — Lutetia — is now occupied almost solely by six enormous public buildings; and the spot, which for eighteen centuries has been busy with the hum of a city life of intense activity and movement, is now covered only by a lonely but glorious cathedral, an enormous hospital, a huge barrack, courts, offices, and official buildings. The oldest bit of Paris, the oldest bit of city in all Northern Europe, now looks for the most part like a new quarter laid out on some vacant space. Notre Dame, the Sainte Chapelle, the Conciergerie, have been restored and furbished up till they almost might pass for modern buildings. The barrack, the hospital, the geometric streets, the open square, might do credit to Chicago.

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The siege of Tyre by Alexander

The siege of Tyre by Alexander, of Syracuse by Nicias, of Carthage by Scipio, the two sieges of Jerusalem by Titus and by Godfrey, the successive sackings of Rome, the defence of Rhodes and Malta against the Turks — none of these can quite equal in vivid colour and breathless interest the two great captures of Constantinople, and certainly the last. It stands out on the canvas of history by the magnitude of the issues involved to religion, to nations, to civilisation, in the glowing incidents of the struggle, in the heroism of the defence and of the attack, in the dramatic catastrophe and personal contrast of two typical chiefs, one at the head of the conquerors and the other of the defeated. And by a singular fortune, this thrilling drama, in a great turning-point of human civilisation, has been told in the most splendid chapter of the most consummate history which our language has produced.

The storming and sack of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade by a mixed host of Venetian, Flemish, Italian, and French filibusters, a story so well told by Mr. E. Pears in his excellent monograph, was not only one of the most extraordinary adventures of the Middle Ages, but one of the most wanton crimes against civilisation committed by feudal lawlessness and religious bigotry, at a time of confusion and superstition. It is a dark blot on the record of the Church ephesus sightseeing, and on the memory of Innocent HI., and a standing monument of the anarchy and rapacity to which Feudalism was liable to degenerate. The sack of Constantinople by the so-called soldiers of the cross in the thirteenth century was far more bloodthirsty, more wanton, more destructive than the storming of Constantinople by the followers of Mahomet in the fifteenth century. It had far less historic justification, it had more disastrous effects on human progress, and it introduced a less valuable and less enduring type of civilised life. The Crusaders, who had no serious aim but plunder, effected nothing but destruction. They practically annihilated the East Roman Empire, which never recovered from this fatal blow.

Byzantine Empire

It is true that the Byzantine Empire had been rapidly decaying’ for more than a century, and that its indispensable service to civilisation was completed. But the crusading buccaneers burned down a great part of the richest city of Europe, which was a museum and remnant of antiquity; they wantonly destroyed priceless works of art, buildings, books, records, and documents. They effected nothing of their own purpose; and what they indirectly caused was a stimulus to Italian commerce, the dispersion through Europe of some arts, and the removal of the last barrier against the entrance of the Moslem into Europe.

The conquest by the Ottomans in the fifteenth century was a very different thing — a problem too complex to be hastily touched. Europe, as we have seen, was by that time strong enough to win in the long and tremendous struggle with Islam; it was ready to receive and use the profound intellectual and artistic impulse which was caused by the dispersion of the Byzantine Greeks. The Ottoman conquest was no mere raid, but the foundation of a European Empire, now in the fifth century of its existence.

The wonderful tale of the rise, zenith, wane, and decay of the European Empire of the Padishah of Roum — one of the least familiar to the general reader — is borne in upon the traveller to Stamboul in the series of magnificent mosques of the conquering sultans of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, in the exquisite fountains, the mausoleums, the khans and fortresses, minarets and towers, and the strange city of kiosques, palaces, gates, gardens, and terraces, known to us as the Seraglio. In these vast and stately mosques, in the profusion of glowing ornament, porcelains, tiles, and carvings, in the incongruous jumble of styles, in the waste, squalor, and tawdry remnants of the abandoned palace of the Padishahs, we read the history of the Ottoman Turks for the last five centuries — splendour beside ruin, exquisite art beside clumsy imitation, courage and pride beside apathy and despair, a magnificent soldiery as of old with a dogged persistency that dies hard, a patient submission to inevitable destiny beside fervour, loyalty, dignity, and a race patriotism which are not to be found in the rank and file of European capitals.

But Stamboul is not only a school of Byzantine history; it has rich lessons of European history. We see the Middle Ages living there still unreformed — the Middle Ages with their colour and their squalor, their ignorance and credulity, their heroism and self-devotion, their traditions, resignation, patience, and passionate faith. We can imagine ourselves in some city of the early Middle Ages, the meeting-place of nations, Venice or Genoa, Paris or Rome, or even old Rome in the age of Trajan, where races, religions, costumes, ideas, and occupations meet side by side but do not mix.

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IMPRESSIONS OF ATHENS

On a recent visit to Athens, I was introduced to a beautiful and patriotic Athenian lady, the wife of an official of rank, who begged me to write about Athens on my return home (this, I may say, is an ordinary form of politeness in that capital). When I promised rather rashly that I would try to do something, she took my breath away by asking if I meant to write about ancient or modern Athens? This question did seem to me one of startling naivett; and I helplessly replied that, whatever I said, should be about Athens — one and indivisible. My daring paradox was rewarded with a gracious smile.

My answer was, however, not at all so extravagant as at first sight might appear. It is true that of all cities of the world of any pretensions, Athens is the one of which the ancient history (and the ancient history of a very short period) is all absorbing. We all dream of having seen Athens, or dream of one day seeing Athens, for the sake of the overpowering memories of some two or three centuries at most. When we are at Athens, our eyes and our thoughts are filled with the sublime and up-soaring remnants of that brief epoch in the great age of the Republic. From that epoch until our own lifetime, the history of Athens, except for a few trivial scuffles and isolated notices, has been a mere blank, almost as much as if it had been another Pompeii buried under the dust of a volcano and recently disinterred.

But, within the last thirty or forty years, we may say, Athens has risen up out of its tomb:—not like Pompeii, dead, silent, deaf, and voiceless, but eagerly revivifying the city of Pericles after some 2300 years; reproducing the language, the political habits, the names, the intellectual peculiarities, even the architecture and the tastes of the ancient city — rising up, like Lazarus, after all these centuries, talking and living, as if the death of twenty-three centuries had been a trance. This fact, however superficial and artificial it may be in many ways, however little the modem city can compare with the art and thought of the ancient city, is a striking fact psychological, social, and historical. And hence, there is a strong tendency to consider Athens as it is, even whilst studying what Athens was. At Rome, or at Alexandria, there is almost nothing but the stones and the sites, to remind one of the ancient people bulgaria vacations.

At Athens

At Athens, the first impression is a sort of seriocomic fancy revival of the old city. We stand in the Forum or the Piazza Navona at Rome without imagining that the cab-drivers or the fruit-sellers have anything in common with Coriolanus or Camillus. They do not speak the language, or use the names, or imitate the forms of the Republic. But as one walks along the 0S0? ‘Epfzov in full view of the Acropolis, or listens to Tricoupi addressing the SrjiAos ‘Onvaio? in the open air in a language which Thucydides could understand, and which he would have rejoiced to cast into stately epigrams, as we pass under the Doric colonnades, in dazzling Pentelic marble, of the Academy, and the Museum —it is difficult to be quite indifferent to the revival — as some say, the scenic revival — but, in any case, a most suggestive historical renascence. As Byron felt, as competent historians feel, it is impossible to be wholly blind to the living Athens of to-day.

My own two visits to Greece were too short to allow any-thing that can be called research, and these pages will aim at nothing but the recalling a few first impressions. When one arrives in Greece, the first thing that strikes us is that we have left Europe behind. It is true that Greece is not in Asia or in Africa, and hardly in the East; but in spite of the maps, it is only conventionally in Europe. Greece is something between Europe and the East, with a certain dash of the South.

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Plays festivals illuminations races concerts

They were expected to provide plays, festivals, illuminations, races, concerts, fountains, baths, temples, and works of art. At Rome they pleaded the causes of their clients in the law-courts, pro-tected them in difficulty, and ultimately supported them in need, they threw open their gardens, and often they bequeathed their mansions, gardens, estates, and wealth to the city as their heirs. The wealthy and the ambitious were expected to take the lead in peace and in war, in matters sacred or profane, in art and in law. On the great festivals and civic gatherings they were called on to make what are called in the States public orations ’ in honour of the city, its sons, and its deities.

Public men in Europe, like ‘ prominent citizens ’ in America, are also accustomed to make ‘ orations ’; and Lord Rosebery or Mr. Balfour can hardly play a game or eat a dinner without being called on for a few words. But at Athens or at Rome, it was a more serious and perhaps a more artistic performance than our after-dinner witticisms. And those who stood in the forum and listened to Pericles and to Demosthenes, to Scipio and to Cicero, took home more material for thought and a higher standard of public debate than what we usually carry away with us from a crowded town’s-meeting city tour istanbul.

Into Parliament

Men did not make speeches in public meetings in order ‘to get into Parliament ’: because every adult citizen was himself a member of Parliament, or at least a legislator. At set times, the citizens were gathered in the agora or forum round the bema or rostrum, listened to those who addressed them, and then and there voted decrees and made laws. In many Greek cities any citizen had a right to stand up and propose a decree or a law or amendment; and if he could persuade his fellow-citizens, or such of them as chose to attend the meeting, his proposition was at once carried out. A citizen’s trade or profession, if he had one, was practically determined by custom; and, as a rule, it could not be exercised freely in any other way or in other place.

The public places, gardens, temples, colonnades, and monuments were perpetually thronged with citizens who knew each other by sight and name, who spent their lives in a sort of open-air club, talking politics, art, business, or scandal — criticised Aristophanes’ last comic opera and Cicero’s furious attack on Clodius. And in the cool of the day they gathered to see the young lads wrestle, race, leap, and box, cast the javelin or the stone; and the younger warriors practised feats with their horses or with the spear and the shield.

Of course such a city was of moderate size. No city in Greece proper exceeded in size such cities as Edinburgh or York; and most of them were of smaller area than Lincoln and Oxford. Even Rome, Syracuse, and Alexandria, the largest cities of the ancient world, were not so vast but what one could walk round their outer walls in a summer afternoon. In Greece and Italy, every considerable city was beautiful and set in a beautiful site — with a central citadel crowned with porticoes, colonnades, and temples; and in some cities, such as Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Byzantium, Sparta, Corcyra, Naples, Ancona, Rome, with a panorama of varied splendour.

Within the walls there would be ample space for gardens, groves, parks, and exercise grounds; and on issuing from the walls without, the open country at once presented itself, where game could be chased or the mountain-side could be roamed. There were no leagues of dull and grimy suburbs, no acres of factories and smoky furnaces, fetid streams, and squalid wastes; there was no drunkenness in the streets, and practically no rates and taxes and no poor-houses.

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Great confederation of the Rhine

This is the age of the great confederation of the Rhine, and the rise of the Hanseatic League; for in Germany and in Flanders, where the towns could not count on the protection of a friendly and central monarchy, the towns formed mutual leagues for protection and support amongst themselves. It would need a volume to work out this complex development. But we may take it that, for Northern Europe, the thirteenth century is the era of the definite establishment of rich, free, self-governing municipalities. It is the flourishing era of town charters, of city leagues, and of the systematic establishment of a European commerce, north of the Mediterranean, both inter-provincial and inter-national.

And out of these rich and teeming cities arose that social power destined to such a striking career in the next six centuries — the middle class, a new order in the State, whose importance rests on wealth, intelligence, and organisation, not on birth or on arms. And out of that middle class rose popular representation, election by the commons, i.e., by communes, or corporate constituencies, the third estate. The history of popular representation in Europe would occupy a volume, or many volumes: its conception, birth, and youth fall within the thirteenth century sofia daily tours.

The Great Charter

The Great Charter, which the barons, as real representatives of the whole nation, wrested from John in 1215, did not, it is true, contain any scheme of popular representation; but it asserted the principle, and it laid down canons of public law which led directly to popular representation and a parliamentary constitution. The Great Charter has been talked about for many centuries in vague superlatives of praise, by those who had little precise or accurate knowledge of it. But now that our knowledge of it is full and exact, we see that its importance was in no way exaggerated, and perhaps was hardly understood; and we find it hard adequately to express our admiration of its wise, just, and momentous policy. The Great Charter of 1215 led in a direct line to the complete and developed Parliament of 1295.

And Bishop Stubbs has well named the interval between the two, the eighty years of struggle for a political constitution. The Charter of John contains the principle of taxation through the common council of the realm. From the very first year after it representative councils appear; first from counties; then, in 1254, we have a regular Parliament from shires; in 1264, after the battle of Lewes, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, summoned two discreet representatives from towns and cities by writ; in 1273, Edward 1. summoned what was in effect a Parliament; and, after several Parliaments summoned in intervening years, we have the first complete and finally constituted Parliament in 1295.

But our own, the greatest and most permanent of Parliaments, was by no means the earliest. Representatives of cities and boroughs had come to the Cortes of Castile and of Arragon in the twelfth century; early in the thirteenth century Frederick 11. summoned them to general courts in Sicily; in the middle of the century the towns sent deputies to the German Diets; in 1277, the commons and towns swear fealty to Rudolph of Hapsburg; in 1291, was founded in the mountains of Schwytz that Swiss confederation which has just celebrated its 600th anniversary; and, in 1302, Philip the Fair summoned the States-General to back him in his desperate duel with Boniface vm. Thus, seven years after Edward 1. had called to Westminster that first true Parliament which has had there so great a history over 600 years, Philip called together to Notre Dame at Paris the three estates — the clergy, the baronage, and the commons. So clear is it that the thirteenth century called into being that momentous element of modern civilisation, the representation of the people in Parliament.