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French Consul Bashi-Bazouks

The French Consul tells me of Bashi-Bazouks relating to circles of admiring listeners how the cut off the heads of little children, and how the dismembered trunks would leap and roll about like those of chickens; and I shut my ears and say, “ This is enough; I do not want to hear any more ; I do not care to investigate any further/’ It does not matter to me that a few more or less have been committed. You cannot increase or diminish the horror of the thing by mere statements of round numbers. I shall leave the statistics to Mr. Schuyler and Mr. Baring, and shall be quite willing to accept their estimates.

It has been said that these acts were committed by irregular troops, over whom the Government had no control, for whom the Turkish authorities were in no way responsible, and that the latter would, on the contrary, have been very glad to restrain them. Unfortunately, there are many facts connected with the business which show that this view of the case is altogether erroneous.

Had the Government really been in earnest in making these protestations, it would have seized some of the principal leaders of the Bashi-Bazouks, some of those who had particularly distinguished themselves by their ferocity, and punished them summarily. Chefket Pacha, for instance, who burned the village of Bazardjik, and slaughtered nearly all of its inhabitants under more than usually revolting circumstances, should have been one of the first to feel the strong arm of the law City Tours Istanbul.

Sultan at Constantinople

But having done all this, he has been promoted to a high position in the Palace of the Sultan at Constantinople. Again, there is the case of Achmet Aga, a captain of a company of Bashi-Bazouks, who likewise distinguished himself by his ferocity. He wished to burn Philip- popolis, and was only withheld from doing so by the energetic action of the governor, who has since been removed, and who threatened to attack him with the regular troops. It was he who slaughtered 8,000 people at Batak, and burned 200 women and children alive in the school.

He is a low ignorant brute, who can neither read nor write, and yet he has been promoted to the rank of Pacha, and with that exquisite mockery of European demands for justice, for which the Oriental is so distinguished, he has been named a member of the commission appointed to prosecute and punish the Bashi- Bazouks. The reason is clear and simple. These men carried out the wishes and intentions of the Government, if not the positive orders. They did their duty, and have been rewarded.

But it has been said that the Bulgarians set the example of committing atrocities, and even Lord Derby, upon the authority of Sir Henry Elliot, made the statement before the House that both sides had been equally guilty in this respect. It might be interesting to learn where Sir Henry Elliot obtained his information. As I have already explained, the English Government had no agent here capable of sending information until the arrival of Mr. Baring. He could not have obtained it from other Governments, for the reason that the various consuls here, with all of whom I have talked, never reported any atrocities on the part of the Bulgarians to their respective Governments.

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French Consul Bashi-Bazouks

The French Consul tells me of Bashi-Bazouks relating to circles of admiring listeners how the cut off the heads of little children, and how the dismembered trunks would leap and roll about like those of chickens; and I shut my ears and say, “ This is enough; I do not want to hear any more ; I do not care to investigate any further/’ It does not matter to me that a few more or less have been committed. You cannot increase or diminish the horror of the thing by mere statements of round numbers. I shall leave the statistics to Mr. Schuyler and Mr. Baring, and shall be quite willing to accept their estimates.

It has been said that these acts were committed by irregular troops, over whom the Government had no control, for whom the Turkish authorities were in no way responsible, and that the latter would, on the contrary, have been very glad to restrain them. Unfortunately, there are many facts connected with the business which show that this view of the case is altogether erroneous.

Had the Government really been in earnest in making these protestations, it would have seized some of the principal leaders of the Bashi-Bazouks, some of those who had particularly distinguished themselves by their ferocity, and punished them summarily. Chefket Pacha, for instance, who burned the village of Bazardjik, and slaughtered nearly all of its inhabitants under more than usually revolting circumstances, should have been one of the first to feel the strong arm of the law City Tours Istanbul.

Sultan at Constantinople

But having done all this, he has been promoted to a high position in the Palace of the Sultan at Constantinople. Again, there is the case of Achmet Aga, a captain of a company of Bashi-Bazouks, who likewise distinguished himself by his ferocity. He wished to burn Philip- popolis, and was only withheld from doing so by the energetic action of the governor, who has since been removed, and who threatened to attack him with the regular troops. It was he who slaughtered 8,000 people at Batak, and burned 200 women and children alive in the school.

He is a low ignorant brute, who can neither read nor write, and yet he has been promoted to the rank of Pacha, and with that exquisite mockery of European demands for justice, for which the Oriental is so distinguished, he has been named a member of the commission appointed to prosecute and punish the Bashi- Bazouks. The reason is clear and simple. These men carried out the wishes and intentions of the Government, if not the positive orders. They did their duty, and have been rewarded.

But it has been said that the Bulgarians set the example of committing atrocities, and even Lord Derby, upon the authority of Sir Henry Elliot, made the statement before the House that both sides had been equally guilty in this respect. It might be interesting to learn where Sir Henry Elliot obtained his information. As I have already explained, the English Government had no agent here capable of sending information until the arrival of Mr. Baring. He could not have obtained it from other Governments, for the reason that the various consuls here, with all of whom I have talked, never reported any atrocities on the part of the Bulgarians to their respective Governments.

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Lord Derby made the statement

When Lord Derby made the statement in the House of Lords that the Government had received no information from the consuls at Scutari, Belgrade, and Galatz about the atrocities of the Bashi-Bazouks, was he indulging in fun at the expense of his noble auditors?

If he had said that the Government had received no information from the consuls at St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna respecting the Dublin riots, he would not have made a more irrelevant statement. As far as the difficulty of communication is concerned, and the time required for the transmission of a letter, Galatz and Belgrade are further away from Philippopolis and the scene of the atrocities attributed to the Bashi-Bazouks than Vienna or St. Petersburg are from Dublin.

The consuls in Belgrade and Galatz know absolutely no more of what is passing here than do the consuls in Bordeaux or Lyons. It is therefore to be fairly presumed that until Mr. Baring was sent out, the Government had absolutely no means of obtaining news, except through the papers, and that they will have obtained no direct information until Mr. Baring shall have made his report.

Compare Statements

As before stated, I also came with the mission of investigating and making a report. I think I came in a fair and impartial frame of mind. I had determined to see for myself wherever it was possible; to make inquiries, to weigh and compare statements, to carefully sift evidence and get at the plain unvarnished truth, and not allow my mind to be influenced by unsupported assertions on either side.

I had looked at the question first from the Christian and then from the Turkish point of view. I had heard the violent assertions of the one party, and the soft-worded apologies of the other City Tours Istanbul, with equal coolness and impartiality, and had especially made a large allowance for the “gross exaggerations of the Christians.”

I had, in truth, listened to both sides with such equal impartiality that I had grown somewhat sceptical, a state of mind, I take it, peculiarly adapted to the spirit of scientific inquiry. I had besides resolved to keep up this frame of mind to the end. It is generally easy enough to bear the ills of other people, and to be calm and judicial where others’ woes are concerned. I am now obliged to confess that I had miscalculated the circumstances.

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The civilised part of Europe

There were three schools in the place—one for girls and two for boys; and, to judge by the ruins which I saw, they were fine large buildings that no village of the same size, even in the civilised part of Europe, need have been ashamed of. There were six teachers in all—three male and three female; and the number of children that attended the schools was 680, of whom 500 were boys, and 180 girls.

The teachers were well paid—better, I think, everything considered, than they are in England, France, and Germany. The three male teachers and Raika received each sixty pounds a year, a sum which, in this country, where living is cheap, where no great expenditure is required in the way of dress, and in a mountain village far away from railways and telegraphs, was really a very comfortable income.

For a young girl like Raika especially, who had her home, it was a great deal of money. She applied half of it, however, to paying back to the literary society the money spent on her education. She soon became the head mistress of the girls’ school, and as she was the only one of the teachers who was a native of the village, she was a great favourite of the people.

Bulgarians voluntarily

It should be remembered that the schools in Bulgaria are supported by a kind of tax which the Bulgarians voluntarily levy upon themselves ; and the flourishing condition of the schools in one little place like this, and the way in which they were supported, will enable us to form an idea of what they are all over the country, and of the efforts these poor people are making to rise from the grovelling condition in which they have been held for so long. Raika’s position as schoolmistress in a place like Panagurishti was by no means an unenviable one Private Turkey Tours.

A schoolmistress in a place like this is a different sort of personage, it should be remembered, from a schoolmistress in London. With her cleverness, her education, her good looks, the esteem and respect in which she was held by everybody, her position was a very pleasant one, and she was in reality a sort of village queen.

I asked some of the people there if she had no sweet heart all this time, and what had become of him. They said there seemed to be nobody who aspired to her hand, for the reason that she was so far superior to the young men of the place, that they did not dare to hope for such a prize as she would have been. Poor girl; not one of the young men who then thought her so far above them would marry her now.

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The civilised part of Europe

There were three schools in the place—one for girls and two for boys; and, to judge by the ruins which I saw, they were fine large buildings that no village of the same size, even in the civilised part of Europe, need have been ashamed of. There were six teachers in all—three male and three female; and the number of children that attended the schools was 680, of whom 500 were boys, and 180 girls.

The teachers were well paid—better, I think, everything considered, than they are in England, France, and Germany. The three male teachers and Raika received each sixty pounds a year, a sum which, in this country, where living is cheap, where no great expenditure is required in the way of dress, and in a mountain village far away from railways and telegraphs, was really a very comfortable income.

For a young girl like Raika especially, who had her home, it was a great deal of money. She applied half of it, however, to paying back to the literary society the money spent on her education. She soon became the head mistress of the girls’ school, and as she was the only one of the teachers who was a native of the village, she was a great favourite of the people.

Bulgarians voluntarily

It should be remembered that the schools in Bulgaria are supported by a kind of tax which the Bulgarians voluntarily levy upon themselves ; and the flourishing condition of the schools in one little place like this, and the way in which they were supported, will enable us to form an idea of what they are all over the country, and of the efforts these poor people are making to rise from the grovelling condition in which they have been held for so long. Raika’s position as schoolmistress in a place like Panagurishti was by no means an unenviable one Private Turkey Tours.

A schoolmistress in a place like this is a different sort of personage, it should be remembered, from a schoolmistress in London. With her cleverness, her education, her good looks, the esteem and respect in which she was held by everybody, her position was a very pleasant one, and she was in reality a sort of village queen.

I asked some of the people there if she had no sweet heart all this time, and what had become of him. They said there seemed to be nobody who aspired to her hand, for the reason that she was so far superior to the young men of the place, that they did not dare to hope for such a prize as she would have been. Poor girl; not one of the young men who then thought her so far above them would marry her now.

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Bulgarian massacres

As it is intimately connected with these Bulgarian massacres, and will at the same time give an idea of the condition of the Bulgarian people, I may as well give it in full, as she gave it to me. Her name is “ Raika,” and she is the daughter of a priest in the village of Otlukkui, or Panagurishti, about twenty miles from Tatar-Bazardjik. At the age of twelve she had been already remarked for her intelligence and beauty, and a kind of village literary club, which exists in the place, decided to send her to school and educate her.

For this purpose a subscription was set afoot, and the requisite funds were soon raised. They decided to send her to Eski-Zara, where the American missionaries had established a school for girls, which they afterwards turned over to the Bulgarians, by whom it is now conducted Private Turkey Tours.

American and English

It may not be amiss to remark here that the American and English missionaries have done an immense deal of good in Bulgaria by establishing schools throughout the country, educating teachers, and showing the Bulgarians how to organise and establish schools for themselves. In this they have succeeded so well that there is scarcely a village in Bulgaria without its school.

Raika remained at this school four years, and acquired seemingly a very fair education; better, perhaps, than many an English girl gets in a better school. She had a particular fondness for needlework, and she acquired so much skill in all sorts of curious and tasteful embroidery that she became famous throughout all the country.

When she returned to her native place, after four years’ study in a boarding-school, she was looked upon as a veritable marvel by all the people around her. It was particularly the wonders she worked with her needle that astonished and pleased them, and this, with her wonderful education and her sweetness of character, made them begin to look up to her as a being of a superior order.

She was now sixteen, and there was a career already marked out for her— that of a teacher ; and she entered upon it gladly. The schools in Otlukkui, or Panagurishti, as it is called by the Bulgarians, were at that time in a very flourishing condition. Since hearing Raika’s story I have been there, and I took pains to inquire into the matter.

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Bulgarians stood a great statesman

In the beginning of the 9th century ahead of the Bulgarians stood a great statesman – Khan Krum (803-814) who expanded his kingdom to the north, reaching the Carpathian Mountains. Meanwhile, the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I launched an attack against him. In 809 Krum seized the Byzantine fortified citadel of Serdika (Sofia) and made peace proposals to the emperor. Nicephorus turned them down, attacked the capital Pliska with his big army, reduced it to ashes and looted it, then headed back home with the spoils. But the Bulgarians laid an ambush in a mountain pass and on the 25,h of July 811 they defeated the Byzantines.

Nicephorus I himself was killed and the Khan Tour Packages Bulgaria – following an old pagan tradition – plated the emperor’s skull in silver and drank wine from it. As the next peace proposals were rejected again the Bulgarians seized Philipopolis (Plovdiv) and undertook a victorious march to the south. In 813 their cavalry reached the walls of Constantinople. A siege of the Byzantine capital went in preparation, so the new emperor Leo V sent for help from Charlemagne, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. But in the spring of 814 Khan Krum died of a heart attack.

Peace treaty with Byzantium

Krurn’s successor, Khan Omurtag (814-831), concluded a 30-years peace treaty with Byzantium. Then he expanded the territory of the state to the north-east and north-west defeating the Hazars and the Emperor Louis II. Omurtag reconstructed the capital Pliska, enlarged it and ordered the building of several new fortresses. His son Malamir (831-836) and his grandson Presiyan (836- 852), after subjugating some more Slavic tribes, added territories in the southwestern part of the Peninsula – the Rhodopes, Aegean Thrace and South Macedonia – to the Bulgarian state. So in the mid 9th century Bulgaria established itself as the third political power in Europe – after Byzantium and the Holy Roman Empire…

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Tiara on head

The foot or southern panel, represents four young men standing in pairs, as if engaged in conversation, clad in short tunics, girded at the waist, and carrying sticks in their hands.

The panel on the eastern side is carved to represent a satrap, tiara on head, clothed in a long flowing mantle, or cloak, and seated in an arm-chair, with a sceptre in his left hand. He is watching the departure of a four-horse chariot, into which the driver, closely veiled and wearing a short tunic girded at the waist, is in the act of mounting. At the horses’ heads stands a groom leaning on a staff, holding the fretting steeds, and at the same time looking in the direction of a fellow-servant on his right holding a saddle-horse. Behind the satrap are two figures apparently in the act of conversing with each other.

The western panel represents a hunting scene, in which the central figure is that of the satrap, on horseback, in a long flowing cloak, and with raised lance holding a lion at bay. Opposite him is the figure of another horseman with couched lance charging the king of beasts. Towards the right is the figure of a frightened horse galloping off, and dragging along the ground its dismounted rider, whose hands still clutch the reins. Behind the satrap are the figures of a wounded hind, and of a horseman pulling up his galloping steed.

Hamdl Bey at Saida

The Weepers or Mourners’ Sarcophagus, No. 4,9. —This was discovered by Hamdl Bey at Saida in 1887, and is of white marble; it was originally coloured, and traces of blue, red, and yellow are still visible on it. During the process of excavation a corner of this sarcophagus, and another of its cover, as well as a head on one of its panels, were broken.

This monument belongs to the Attic school of art of the fourth century, and is in the form of a Greek temple. Its frieze is ornamented with about a hundred little carved figures of archers and hunters, in Phrygian caps, short tunics drawn in at the waist, and flowing cloaks, engaged in hunting bears, lions, panthers, wild boars, etc. The carvings on the sides represent incidents of the chase, while those at the head and foot depict the return of the hunters loaded with game.

At each of the four corners is a pillar, and each side is divided into sections by five Ionic columns, while the head and foot are each divided by two only. Every alternate column bears the figure of a woman; in all there are eighteen of these female figures, all in mournful attitudes, and clad in variously draped long robes which cover them from head to foot. These figures are most symmetrically arranged; in the centre of each side are two women standing up, and to the right and left of them is another woman in a sitting posture, and at the corners another standing ; at the head and foot of the sarcophagus is the figure of a woman seated, and to the right and left of her another female figure standing.

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Regularly held in the Mosques

The prayers are regularly held in the Mosques, the Moslem places of worship, attendance at which, however, is not considered indispensable, so long as devotions are performed at the appointed hours, and with the face turned in the direction of Mecca. These Mosques have no bells, like churches, but have one or more tall, slender, round spires, called minareh, from a gallery near the top of which a special official, the Muezzin, or deacon, calls the Faithful to prayer five times in the twenty-four hours, by chanting, in as loud a voice as possible, the Muhammadan creed, which is as follows:—

‘ Allah Akber (four times); Essehadou Allah il laha il-allah (twice), Essehadou annch Muhammadan ressool-ul-lah (twice) ; Haayah allah sal-lah (twice); Haayah al ul-fellah (twice); Allah Akber (twice); La il lah il Allah ; meaning: ‘ Great one, I avow there is no God but God; I avow that Muhammad is his Prophet; Let us go and pray; Let us go save our souls; God is Great; There is no God but God.’

While this is being chanted, the Faithful file into the mosque after having performed the indispensable ablutions, and this latter without regard to the season of the year. This over, the Muezzin comes down from the minaret gallery into the mosque, and takes his place on the maafil, whence he conducts the service. The form of worship followed consists of genuflexion and prostration every time the words ‘ God is Great ’ are uttered by the head priest from the mihrab. After this some leave the mosque, while others remain, seated cross-legged, to devote more time to private prayer, and to repeat the ‘ El-esmau-ul-Husnah’ or Divine attributes. These latter originated in the words of the Prophet guided istanbul tours: ‘ The most beautiful names hath God.’

Sub-hana- Allah

They are ninety-nine, and those reciting them use a rosary composed of ninety-nine beads and a hollow cone, the latter being told at the word ‘ Allah.’ This rosary, called Tesbih, is subdivided into three sections of thirty-three beads each, separated from each other by a bead of different form. A bead is told for every Divine attribute uttered; and when the worshipper has reached the bead dividing the first section from the second, he ejaculates Sub-hana- Allah ’ (‘ How far is God from every imperfection ’) ; at the bead dividing the second section from the third, he exclaims ‘ El Hamdu Lillah ’ (‘ Praise is due unto God ’); and at the hollow cone winds up with ‘ Allah ATcber ’ (‘ God is Great ’). The use of the Tesbih is not confined to prayer-time at the mosque only, or to Muhammadans alone; it is also used at all times out of prayer hours, both by Moslems and non-Moslems, as a plaything for the owner’s idle fingers. The rosaries, however, used by non-Moslems are not restricted to ninety-nine beads, but vary according to the owner’s fancy.

Money.—The Turkish currency is composed of gold, silver, and silver-plated coins. The copper coinage previously current is now obsolete, having been abolished in 1879, and replaced by the old silver-plated copper coins known by the name of ‘metallic.’ Time, wear and tear, and the industry and ingenuity of those who hanker after lucre as long as it can be obtained without honest work, have long ago divested these ‘ silver-plated ’ coins of any particle of silver that formerly adorned them. Turkish coins, from their small size, are extremely inconvenient and ill-adapted for easy handling, and are easily lost.

The monetary unit throughout Turkey is the gurush or piastre (as it is called by Europeans), and is subdivided into 40 paras. The coins now current are:—

Gold is at a premium, which, for the last few years, has been fixed at 8 per cent. Thus the lira,

which is worth 100 piastres in gold, is worth 108 in silver currency. On the other hand, small change is also at a premium owing to its scarcity. This dearth of small change is artificial, and is caused by the numerous money-changers and by the banks buying it up and keeping the amount in circulation under their own control, by which means they are able to sell small change at a good profit.

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Corinthian capitals

Inside the cathedral six pairs of slim columns ending in splendid Corinthian capitals divide the nave into three aisles covered by a solid vaulted ceiling. The Debur School masters, the brothers Andon and Dimiter Stanishev, were commissioned to carve the iconostasis and they executed it in the Empire style. The icon of the Assumption and most of the other icons were created by renowned Nikola Odrinchanin, newly-settled in Plovdiv at the time.

Bulgarian Church

At the end of 1859 a religious service, the first in decades, was held in Bulgarian in the church of the  Holy Virgin – an achievement in the struggle for an autonomous Bulgarian Church. On March 12th 1860 Bishop Paisii served the first lithurgy in Bulgarian. 40 Bulgarian priests from the main towns in Plovdiv Diocese attended the great event and celebrated officially the separation of the National Church from the Istanbul (Constantinople) Patriar- chate.lt was in this church that, after the estab-lishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1872, Plovdiv welcomed its first Bulgarian bishop – Metro-politan Bishop Panaret travel bulgaria. After the Liberation in 1881 architect Joseph Schnitter added a belfry to the western door of the cathedral designed in the currently modern style of Russian Classicism. It is an imposing three-storey structure crowned by a dome.

On its western side there is an inscription: ‘In memory of the liberators’ – a dedication to the Russian troops who liberated the town on the 4th January 1878. A thanksgiving service was held in the church in honour of the Liberation on the same date. An old cemetery lies to the east of the cathedral under whose elaborately wrought tombstones are buried eminent Plovdivian clerics and notable citizens. People who fought for an independent Bulgarian church were laid here, such as the metropolitan bishops Panaret, Natanail and Maxim as well as national Revival figures – Hristo Danov, Yoakim Gruev, Stoyan Chalukov and Iskro Kesyakov.

SS. CONSTANTINE AND HELENA CHURCH

Years of archaeological research, conservation and restoration work at the site of the SS. Constantine and Helena Church, rising very near the eastern Hisar Gate into the acropolis, have created a remarkable antique and Revival architectural complex.

The excavations uncovered a considerable section of the fortress of the antique city to the south of Hisar Gate and as far as the round tower on the corner. At the end of the antique period this part of the Three Hills became a Christian sanctuary devoted to Severian and Mnemon who died for the creed together with 38 Plovdivian martyrs killed here in the time of Emperor Diocletian in 304. Later on the church was dedicated to the apostles SS. Constantine and Helena. At the beginning of the 19th c. the church at Hisar Gate was in a tumbledown state.

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The Imaret Mosque

The Imaret Mosque built 1444-1445 is one of many monuments from the Ottoman period. An inn near the mosque has been restored and is now a branch of the archaeological museum.

The Djoumaya Mosque, 19 Noemvri Square built mid- 15th century, TheeFriday mosque Jiad a big service held every Friday, Its domes are covered with lead sheets. Four solid columns carry nine impressive vaults inside.

The clock tower is one of Europe’s oldest and is built on Sahat Tepe hill. It was restored in 1812.

On Liberators9 Hill is a monument to Russian soldiers who died during the liberation from Ottoman domination in 1878, and a Monument to the Soviet Army.

On Suedinenie (Union) Square a monument has been unveiled to commemorate the Union of the two Bulgarias in 1885. The sculptor is a famous Bulgarian — Velichko Milenkov private tours istanbul.

The Archaeological Museum, Suedinenie Square, has four departments: pre-class and early class system, slave system, feudal system and a numismatic department. On display in the slave system department are finds from Philippopolis and the Panagyuristhe gold treasure — 6.149 kg of solid gold. It is comprised of 9 vessels: an amphora-rhyton, four rhytons, 3 jugs and one phial and dates back to the 3rd century B.C.

The State Art Gallery, 15 Vassil Kolarov St.

Zlatyu Boyadjiev

Hotels: Novotel Plovdiv, 2 Zlatyu Boyadjiev St,, 5 stars, 7 floors, 8 suites and 314 double rooms, restaurant, day bar and night club, national restaurant, coffee shop, free shop, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, sauna, bowling alley, hairdresser’s, post office, covered parking lot, air-conditioning. Tel. 5-51-71. Inmontium, 2 Kapitan Raicho, 3 stars, 4 floors with 4 suites and 260 beds, restaurant, night club, national restaurant, coffee shop, hairdresser’s, post office, information and rent- a-car bureau. Tel. 2-55-61. Leningrad Park-hotel, 97 Moskva Blvd, 3 stars, 21 floors with 26 suites and 675 beds, restaurant, night club, day bar, indor swimming pool,free shop, hairdresser’s, post office, coffee shop, information bureau. Tel. 2-58-03. Maritsa, 5 G. Dimitrov St., 3 stars, 11 floors with 4 suites, 47 single and 120 double rooms, restaurant, day bar, coffee shop, hairdresser’s, rent-a-car office. Tel. 5-27-35. Leipzig, 70 Rousski Blvd, 2 stars, 10 floors, 2 suites and 250 beds, restaurant, night club, information bureau. Tel. 3-22-50. Buh garia, 13 Patriarch Evtimii St., 2 stars, 4 floors, seven suites, 25 single and 46 double rooms, restaurant, information and rent-a-car bureau. Tel. 2-60-64.

Camp sites:

Maritsa — 9 km west of Plo\div, 3 stars; Trakiya — 4 km east, 2 stars; Chaya, 2 stars, 13 km east of Plovdiv.

Motels:

Maritsa, 3 stars, 9 km west.

Tourist information bureau, 39 Vassil Kolarov St., Tel. 2-48-71.

Balkantourist Bureau, 35 Vassil Kolarov St. Tel. 2-25-60.

Union of Motorists, 129aG«Dimitrov Blvd., tel. 2-47-81.

Entertainments:

Trakiiski stan, 35 Puldin St., tel. 2-45-10

Alafrangite, 17 Kiril Nektariev St, tel. 2-98-09 in a 19th-century house. Puldon, 3 Knyaz Tseretelev St.

There are restaurants in all large hotels.

Plovdiv. Leningrad Hotel

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Bulgarian winter resort

The best known Bulgarian winter resort, Borovets, is ten kilometres from Samokov.

Sofia, The 1300 Years Bulgaria Monument

An asphalt road from Govedartsi leads to the mountain resort of Malyovitsa (1,750 m), one of the most scenic areas of the Rila Mountains. South of the complex rise the steep slopes of Malyovitsa Peak {2,729 m). The resort has excellent facilities for both summer and winter holidays. Malyovitsa Hotel ’ (1st class) has 40 double rooms with showers and 30 three bedded rooms, restaurant, night-club and other facilities.

It is an ideal winter sports centre: skiing grounds for competitions and for amateur downhill runs, a slalom track, and nursery slopes with drag lifts.

The Malyovitsa complex is a starting point for hikes in the Rila Mountains: Malyovitsa Chalet, at an altitude of 2,050 m. Malyovitsa Peak (a three hours5 walk), Ourdina Lakes or the Seven Lakes (a walk of 4-5 hours), Rila Monastery (6-7 hours away), etc.

Borovets

Situated at an altitude of 1,300 m in the northern folds of the pine-covered Rila Mountains, it has an excellent climate for summer and winter holidays: low humidity, good sunshine record and temperatures ranging between +2l.0°C in summer and 1.1°C in winter contribute to its pleasant atmosphere.

As a winter holiday centre, Borovets offers many ski runs, the longest being Yastrebets (3,100 m with a drop of 860 m) served by a cable car, downhill run (2,400 m with 450 drop), slalom track (450 m, drop 120), 80 m ski jump, nursery slopes, etc. Every year, international ski competitions held here form a part of the European skiing championships.

Balkantourist hotels are in the centre of the resort: Bor Hotel — (three star) with 8 single rooms, 37 double rooms and three de luxe suites, restaurant, orchestra, night club, tavern, etc. Edelweiss Hotel — (two star) with 14 single rooms, 64 double rooms and two suites, restaurant and bar. Skis, sledges, skates and other equipment are available for hire. Mous- sala Hotel — (three star), with 11 single rooms 85 double rooms, restaurant, bar, rent-a-car service and an exchange bureau.

Near the main skiing area is Hotel Iglika, run by the Pirin Tourist Bureau with 17 double rooms tours sofia, with private baths, 22 double rooms and 48 rooms with four and eight beds each. A small restaurant caters for the area around the hotel.

Places to reach from Borovets are: Mount Moussala(2,925 m) — the highest peak in the Balkans. Malyovitsa Peak 2,729.

BOJANA

Sto bracks and ski tows close to the Vitosha resort complex m), the Black Rock, the former palaces of Sitnyakovo, Bistritsa and Sarugol, Sokolets. To Zavrachitsa Peak (2,178 m) is a 6-hour climb from Borovets. The chalet at the top caters for 80. The skiing area on Zaveachitsa Peak is excellent. Yastre- bets Peak (2,350 m) is a 3 hours climb or you can take a lift right up to the peak.

Borovets has a post office, a medical clinic, exchange bureau,tourist information office and souvenir stands. The resort is recommended for the treatment of chronic inflammation of the respiratory tract, bronchitis, laryngitis, hypertonia, atherosclerosis, diabetis and silicosis.

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Bulgarian Slavs settled in this stronghold

Later, probably about the 8th century, the Bulgarian Slavs settled in this stronghold and as they felt secure from external danger, utilized the old building materials of the fortress for new buildings. Semi-dugout dwellings of that day were found, with hard clay floors, wooden walls plastered with clay, and fine stone hearths. Articles used in daily life, such as iron implements, ploughshares, axes, sickles, knives and so on, pottery vessels, bone awls, belts, jewelry and many other objects, reveal different sides of the life of this population at a period when the Bulgarians were forming a united people.

Archaeological excavations and studies in the surroundings of Popina revealed traces of another Slav settlement as well; this one, however, lay at a distance of about 2 km. to the west of the Kale (fort) in a place known as Djezhovi Lozya (the Djezhov’s vineyards). Its three cultural strata correspond to the three stages in the development of a Slav settlement, which was lounded here as early as the 7th century. A primitive type of handmade pottery is typical of the oldest period. The second stratum reveals the introduction of a primitive potter’s wheel which was set in motion by hand private tour istanbul. The pottery of this period was still made by hand, but was finished on the wheel.

Djezhovi Lozya

The uppermost and last stratum belongs to the time in which the Slavs learnt to throw their pottery on an ordinary wheel, which increased production, and at the same time enabled them make pots of a great variety of forms and ornamentation. The excavations of the settlement at Djezhovi Lozya enabled us for the first time to learn something of the life of the Slavs in the earliest period after they settled in the Peninsula. The settlement consisted of a considerable number of dwellings of the dug- out type, gathered in several separate groups. Besides the rectangular stone hearths in the dwellings, cupola-shaped ovens had been built of clay outside in the yards.

The local production of pots is evidenced by the presence of patters’ kilns. One of them is in an excellent state of preservation, and shows its particular construction. It is round, made of clay, with a hearth and a thick grid on which the unbaked clay vessels were placed to be fired. About 70 pots in a great variety of forms were found around this kiln, as well as a heap of the clay used in making them. These pots were thrown on a hand-worked wheel, and therefore belong to the second period of the settlement. Among the pots of the earliest period, the small clay dishes, used in baking bread on the hearth, are of particular interest.

Most of them, like the pots, are not ornamented. The pottery of the second stratum is mostly ornamented, however, with groups of undulating or horizontal lines placed at certain intervals. The pottery of the third and uppermost stratum is widely known with its undulating and horizontal lines, often combined, or with its polished bands, forming a network of diamond-shaped ornaments. It is precisely this type of pottery with polished bands, which certain scholars ascribe to the proto-Bulgarians.

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LOGEMENTS CHEZ L’HABITANT

A defaut de chambres libres a Fhotel, vous pourriez vous faire installer chez l’habi- tant. L’ambiance et le confort en dependent de la categorie. La premiere categorie propose une chambre meublee a un ou a deux lits, W.C. prive, chauf- fage. Les logements prives de categorie luxe offrent un hall, poste de T.S.F., televiseur, etc. Pour la reservation de logements prives, adressez-vous aux bureaux touristiques sui- vants:

SOFIA-2, bd. Dondoukov, tel.: 87-58-29, 87-44-81 PLOVDIV-5, bd. Chr. Botev (la gare) – tel.: 2-65-69; par Sofia – 032-2-65-69 .

VARNA – pi. Slaveikov (la gare) – tel.: 2-22-06; par Sofia

– 052-2-22-06

BOURGAS – rue K.Fotinov (la gare) – tel.: 4-27-27; par Sofia – 056-4-27-27.

Les prix des lits chez l’ha- bitant varient pour les villes de Sofia, Varna, Veliko Tirnovo, Sozopol, Baltchik, Hissar, Ve- lingrad et Pomorie, entre 8.301 leva et 1.90 leva suivant la categorie. Pour les autres localites, les prix varient entre 8.80 et 1.90 leva.

Les prix des lits dans les hotels des complexes de ville- giature sur le littoral de la mer Noire varient de 29 a 9.60 leva. Du 16 au 30 septembre, et du ler au 15 juin, les prix sont reduits de 25%, et hors- saison, du ler octobre au 31 mai – de 40% private tours bulgaria.

TOURISTES EN VOITURE

Formalites D’arrivee pompes a assence assistance routiere

La Bulgarie offre aux tou- ristes en voiture des conditions excellentes des routes bien entretenues — pavees ou asphaltees, qui traversent des contrees et des agglomerations pittoresques. Plus de 300 pompes a essence jalonnent les routes.

En Bulgarie la circulation est a droite. Vitesse maximum – 60 km/h dans les agglome-rations, et 100 km/h ailleurs.

Les touristes de la route en Bulgarie doivent presenter au point d’entree a la frontiere le permis de conduire, delivre du pays respectif. Aucune taxe d’entree n’est perdue pour les automobiles. Les cartes d’assurance – vertes et bleues – sont valables en Bulgarie. Pour les touristes etrangers, qui traversent le pays avec un visa de transit, seule l’assu- rance «responsabilite civile» est obligatoire. Au moyen de lettres de credit, les touristes etrangers peuvent s’as surer d’avance les prestations dans les stations-service ainsi que TOURISTE et de l’Union des automobilistes bulgares ven- dent des bons aux points d’entree a la frontiere avec une reduction de 12% contre devises convertibles.

Aux touristes en voiture qui voyagent individuellement, BALKANTOURISTE offre pour 1’annee 1976 des itinerai- res speciaux a prix reduits,

mettant en outre a leur dispo-sition une quantite determinee d’essence gratuite. Les itipe- raires sont etablis selon le desir des touristes ou des agences qui organisent leur voyage.

Ses postes d’essence vendent aussi des huiles a moteur etrangeres: british petroleum, mobiloil, castro, adgip, etc.

Les voitures de «l’Assis- tance routiere» sillonnent les routes et sont a la disposition des automobilistes.

En cas d’accident, adres- sez-vous a l’entreprise d’assu- rance BULSTRAD, 5, rue

Dounav, Sofia, tel.: 88-53-41.

Les touristes qui voyagent sans voiture ont la possibility de louer des automobiles avec ou sans chauffeur. Les taxes de location de voiture sans ‘chauffeur est de 0.16 a 0.24 lev par kilometre, selon la capacite et la puissance du vehicule.

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SOUTHERN COAST BULGARIA

The calm warm sea, the endless beaches and dunes, the cloudless days, the picturesque little bays and romantic scenery of the Bulgarian southern coast attract thousands of foreign tourists from the beginning of May to the end of October.

Modem hotels, motels, camp sites, bungalows and restaurants, bars and shops offer comfort and all conveniences to all wishing to spend their holiday amid nature.

The southern Bulgarian coast may justly be called a paradise for campers. Over a stretch of 70 km scores ofcamp sites have been built, and besides them tourists have at their disposal thousands of private lodgings with the romantic atmosphere of the old houses combined with the comfort of up-to- date modern dwellings.

Sozopol tourists

Five km south of Sozopol tourists will Find a motel with 70 beds, Smokinya Camp Site, special class, with accommodation for 1,200 persons, Kavatsite Camp Site – for 600, Vesselie Camp Site – 3rd class, for 450. Besides, there is a 1st-class restaurant, a night club and a small grocer’s shop. Information and managing offices at Smokinya Camp Site.

13 km south of Sozopol lies one of the most attractive corners of the Southern Bulgarian coast – the complex of a motel and camp sites, Arkoutino. The motel is two-storeyed, with 2- and 3-bed rooms and showers. The First-class restaurant next to the motel serves excellent Bulgarian and French dishes and choice drinks. Lilia Night Club is noted for its exotic atmosphere.

Arkoutino Camp Site, 1st class, for 1,200; Lilia Camp Site, 2nd class, also for 1,200. To the south of them flows one of the most picturesque guided tour ephesusand interesting Bulgarian rivers – the Ropotamo.

The village of Primorsko lies 27 km south of Sozopol and 59 km from Bourgas. There are 800 private lodgings for tourists, many restaurants and holiday houses. Perla Camp Site, special class, is one of the best organized in the area. Capacity – 4,000 guests at a time with 1,000 cars – plus all modern conveniences. The Less Camp Site, 1st class, for 1,900 and Atliman Camp Site, 1st class, for 1,000, are also near Primorsko.

For information and full details, please contact the Balkan- tourist Bureau on the central village square or the one at Perla Camp Site.

3 km south of Primorsko in a young oak forest is the Inter-national Youth Tourist Centre, with its three modern hotels, hundreds of bungalows, restaurants, night clubs and folk-style taverns, etc. The complex has room for 3, 000 holidaymakers. Stays at the centre are organized by the Orbita Youth Bureau for International Excursions in Sofia.

Right next to the Youth Centre and south of it lies the town of Kiten with several camp sites: Coop – 2nd class, for 700, Youg – 1st class, for 600, Koral – 2nd class, for 1,200.

The picturesque fishing port of Michurin lies 76 km from Bourgas and offers lodgings in private homes. In the town centre there is a restaurant and a tourist bureau.

The nearby village of Bulgari is well-known for its ritual folklore nestinarski dances (barefoot dances on live coals.)

Another 15 km further south lies the smallest town on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast – A htopoi Near it is the Ahtopoi Camp Site, 2nd class, for 400. The picturesque River Veleka ,flows into the sea nearby.

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Wealthier neighbours

The ultimate destiny of this huge agglomeration of houses is now vested in the hands of the vast masses of the working population. They have far more keen interests in the city than their wealthier neighbours, who look on London as a centre of labour, amusement, or struggle for a season or a period, whilst they often ‘get away ’ from it, and hope at last to retire to a calmer place. In the meantime, the richer classes seldom know London as a whole, or care for it as their home, or regard it as having any claim on them as their city. Far different is this to the working men: to whom London is their home, their ‘ county,’ their permanent abode. It is a city which they quit only for a few hours or days, which many of them are forced to traverse from end to end under the exigencies of their trade, where they expect to pass their old age and to lay their bones. The healthiness, convenience, pleasantness of London, are all in all to them and to their household.

Mismanagement is to them, and to those dear to them, disease, discomfort, death. There is every reason to look forward to the complete transformation of London into an organic city, with a people proud of its grandeur and beauty, so soon as the new institutions have been fully matured. We have seen a local municipal patriotism break forth with extraordinary rapidity and energy in several of the new boroughs, such as Battersea, Chelsea, and St. George’s-in-the-East. And this interest in city life will grow and deepen, as it has done in Midland and Northern towns, until ultimately we may look to see London as a whole develop the spirit of pride and attachment which the great cities of the Middle Ages bred in their citizens of old.

Central Communications

The big collective problems which deal with Water, with Fire, with the Sick, with the Dead, with central Communications, and with the Housing of the poor population — can only be undertaken by a supreme central municipality, but not by vestries private tour istanbul, or boroughs. And unhappily in London no supreme municipality has as yet a free hand, or can count on the aid of the Legislature.

But in spite of division of authority and legislative obstacles, not a little has been done and much more has been attempted and prepared in every one of these departments. It is fair to say that both the ancient Corporation and the County Council have striven to attain these ends; and in not a few cases with combined energies and resources. And although in the case of the Water Supply no final solution has been reached, an immense amount of scientific study has been directed to the problem; and a great improvement both in quantity and quality has been obtained. At the same time determined efforts and a large expenditure have visibly improved the condition of our great river; and fill us with hope that living men may yet come to see a pure and healthy Thames.

The great problem of how to bring London up to the level of its position in the world and to make it a really noble and commodious city has been continually attacked: as yet with incomplete results and a better understanding of the difficulties which beset it. It is mainly a financial and political question. The greatest and richest city in the world is also the city which now seems to practise the most rigid economy in its own improvement. With the greatest river of any capital in Europe, with boundless energy, wealth, and opportunities, London is put to shame by Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, and New York.

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Mr. Loftie’s History of London

Till the appearance of Mr. Loftie’s History of London (2 vols. 1883), we had not a single scholarly history of our great city. But for more than two centuries there have been produced a long series of works on the topography and monuments of Paris. And we have now a splendid series of treatises issued by the Municipal Council, the Histoire Gfnirale de Paris, begun in 1865. When I was on the London County Council, I endeavoured to induce the Council to undertake a similar work for London; but I found that, with an annual expenditure of some two millions, the Municipality of London had no power to expend a penny on such an object.

With all this prodigious wealth of historic record beneath our feet as we tread over old Paris, how little do we think of any part of it, as we stroll about new Paris of to-day. We lounge along the boulevards, the quays and ‘places,’ with thoughts intent on galleries and gardens, theatres and shops, thinking as little of the past history of the ground we tread as a fly crawling over a picture by Raphael thinks of high art. Haussmann, and the galleries, the Boulevards, and the opera smother up the story of Paris, much as a fair with its booth, scaffoldings, and advertisements masks the old buildings round some mediaeval market-place. Ceci tuera cela, said Victor Hugo of the book and the Cathedral.

No ! it is not the book which has killed old Paris. It is Haussmann and his imitators, the architectural destroyers, restorers, and aesthetic Huns and Vandals. Not that we deny to Haussmannised Paris some delightful visions, many brilliant, some even beautiful effects. But to most foreign visitors, and perhaps to most modern Parisians, Haussmann has buried old Paris both actually and morally — hiding it behind a screen private guide turkey, disguising it with new imitation work, or dazzling the eye till it loses all sense of beauty in the old work.

Paris certainly imposes a strain on the imagination

The effort to recall old Paris when we stand in new Paris certainly imposes a strain on the imagination. When we stand on some bright morning in early summer in the Place de la Concorde whilst all is gaiety and life, children playing in the gardens, the fountains sparkling in the sun, and long vistas of white stone glistening in the light, with towers, spires, terraces, and bridges in long perspective, and the golden cross high over the dome of the Invalides, it is not easy to recall the aspect of the spot we stand on when it was soaked with the blood of the victims of the guillotine from King and Queen to Madame Roland and Charlotte Corday; we forget that every tower and terrace we look on has resounded to the roar of cannon and the shouts of battle, with fire and smoke, with all the forces of destruction and all the passions of hell — not once or twice but repeatedly for a century; nay, how the same scenes of carnage and of battle have raged through Revolution and Fronde, League and St. Bartholomew, and English wars and feudal faction fights back to the days of Counts of Paris, and Franks, Huns, Gauls, and Romans. And after all these storms, the city still smiles on us as a miracle of gaiety, brightness, industry, and culture, keeping some scar, or remnant, or sign of every tempest it has witnessed.

It has happened to us at times to stand on some beautiful coast on one of those lovely days which succeed a storm, when ripples dance along the blue and waveless sea, whilst the glassy water gently laps the pebbled beach, and yet but a few hours before we have seen that same coast lashed into foam, whilst wild billows swept into the abyss precious things and priceless lives of men. So I often think Paris looks in its brightness and calm a few short years after one of her convulsions; fulfilling her ancient motto —Jluctuat nec mergitur. Her bark rides upon every billow and does not sink. Fresh triumphs of industry and art and knowledge follow upon her wildest storm.