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Bashi-Bazouks

They had offered no resistance at all to the Bashi-Bazouks, but simply ran away when they heard the Turks were coming. Having received timely notice, they had nearly all escaped, and only twenty-two men had been killed in all. The women and children had all been saved. Of the twenty- two killed, eight had been arrested after the inhabitants returned to the village, and were brutally slaughtered in cold blood while being taken to Philippopolis to prison.

We had heard that eight bodies were found one day on the road near Philippopolis long after the affair was over, and had been told by the Turks that these were bodies of people killed during the insurrection, which had been transported there by some unknown means. When the people returned to their smoking homes, they found themselves completely ruined Daily Tours Istanbul.

Turks refuse to restore

There was not a stick of furni-ture nor a cooking utensil left, and all their cattle, sheep, and horses had been driven off. Their harvests were still standing in the fields, and they are unable to gather and save them without their cattle, which the Turks refuse to restore. Each family had on an average two pairs of oxen, making about 320 pairs in the whole village. Of these only thirty-three pairs were returned, which are utterly inadequate for gathering and saving the harvest.

They besides will have to rebuild their houses, and for this purpose it will be necessary to draw wood a long distance from the mountains, and it will be impossible for them to do this before winter. Unless the poor people can get back their cattle, gather their harvests, and rebuild their houses, they will be in a state of destitution by next winter fearful to think of.

The Turkish authorities have informed Mr. Schuyler everywhere that the cattle were being restored to the burnt villages, and that help would be given the people to rebuild their houses, and everywhere the people tell him that the cattle are not restored, and that no help of any kind is given them.

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Bashi-Bazouks

They had offered no resistance at all to the Bashi-Bazouks, but simply ran away when they heard the Turks were coming. Having received timely notice, they had nearly all escaped, and only twenty-two men had been killed in all. The women and children had all been saved. Of the twenty- two killed, eight had been arrested after the inhabitants returned to the village, and were brutally slaughtered in cold blood while being taken to Philippopolis to prison.

We had heard that eight bodies were found one day on the road near Philippopolis long after the affair was over, and had been told by the Turks that these were bodies of people killed during the insurrection, which had been transported there by some unknown means. When the people returned to their smoking homes, they found themselves completely ruined Daily Tours Istanbul.

Turks refuse to restore

There was not a stick of furni-ture nor a cooking utensil left, and all their cattle, sheep, and horses had been driven off. Their harvests were still standing in the fields, and they are unable to gather and save them without their cattle, which the Turks refuse to restore. Each family had on an average two pairs of oxen, making about 320 pairs in the whole village. Of these only thirty-three pairs were returned, which are utterly inadequate for gathering and saving the harvest.

They besides will have to rebuild their houses, and for this purpose it will be necessary to draw wood a long distance from the mountains, and it will be impossible for them to do this before winter. Unless the poor people can get back their cattle, gather their harvests, and rebuild their houses, they will be in a state of destitution by next winter fearful to think of.

The Turkish authorities have informed Mr. Schuyler everywhere that the cattle were being restored to the burnt villages, and that help would be given the people to rebuild their houses, and everywhere the people tell him that the cattle are not restored, and that no help of any kind is given them.

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Hafiz Pacha

The rising occurred on the 2nd of May. On the 12th Hafiz Pacha arrived before the place with a regiment of regular troops, two or three pieces of artillery, and a great number of Bashi- Bazouks. It would seem that the insurgents only had about 250 men armed with muskets or rifles. The rest had only knives or pistols, such as before these troubles were worn by everybody. One hundred and fifty of the best armed men had gone out on one road towards Tatar-Bazardjik, to dispute the way, and 100 on the other road, for it seems they did not send spies out to see by which way the army wTould come.

When Hafiz Pacha arrived he found only 100 men to oppose him, and these, frightened at the great superiority of the force brought against them, ran away at the first fire. It does not even appear that they fired off their guns, for there was not a single Turk killed or wounded. The inhabitants, panic-stricken, had in the meantime attempted to fly, but the town had already been surrounded Sightseeing Turkey, and they were either driven back or cut down in the fields.

I had forgotten to state that at the approach of the Bashi-Bazouks the inhabitants of eight or nine neighbouring villages, fear-stricken, had abandoned their homes and taken refuge here, to the number of five or six thousand, and they now filled the streets, crying and screaming with fright. As all resistance had now ceased, or rather, as none had really been offered, Hafiz Pacha had nothing to do but march into the town, arrest the leaders of the insurrection, and restore order.

Instead of this, however, he brought up his artillery, and, without summoning the place to surrender, commenced a bombardment, ruthlessly throwing the bursting shells into these crowds of shrieking women and children. Until midnight the din of the bombardment resounded through the streets. Then the loudmouthed dogs of war ceased their clamour; they had done their work ; it was now the turn of the sabre.

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Glimpses of the History of Bulgaria

Then three schools were set up and soon hundreds of enlightened Bulgarians came out if them. Having the ruler Boris I behind his back Clement built a monastery in Ohrid, Macedonia, improved the Glagolitic alphabet and named it after his teacher Cyril – Cyrillic alphabet. For those merits Clement of Ohrid received high recognition and even today the University of Sofia bears his name. The other disciple of Cyril, Naum, led the second centre of enlightenment in the capital Pliska which was focused mainly on literary activities. There were laid the foundations of a literature which could be compared to the Byzantine and in that initiative took part the son of Boris I, Simeon, to whom Fate had allotted a great future…

Relics from Veliki (Great) r re Slav, the second capital city oj the Kingdom established by Boris l in 893.

After the death of Naum in 910 both disciples were canonized as Bulgarian saints . These men had a substantial contribution to the spiritual, cultural and intellectual development of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, to the raising of Bulgaria as a spiritual leader of the Slav community and to the cultural advance of Medieval Europe as a whole. Under the influence of Christianity and the Slavic script by the end of the 9th century the Bulgarian nation was ultimately formed and the Bulgarian state was consolidated.

The “Golden Age” of King Simeon the Great

After Prince Boris I retired on his own will to a monastery in 889 his first-born son Vladimir sat on the throne. Soon it came clear that the new ruler had a different vision for the religious and cultural future of the country: he wanted to restore paganism and did not hesitate to reaccept his pagan name Rassate. At hearing about this Boris left the monastery, dethroned his son and blinded him, then handed the crown to his second son, Simeon (893-917). Meanwhile, in 893 he shifted the capital city from Pliska some forty kilometres to the south-west and established Veliki (Great) Preslav which remained as a capital city until 972.

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Hackney Carriages

Hackney Carriages.—Thanks to the stringency of the regulations laid down by the Municipality, and the strictness with which they are enforced, all hackney carriages belonging to the 6 th or Pera division are now clean, well-appointed, and, as often as not, even smart, well-horsed, open vehicles of the victoria type, which in winter are replaced by closed cabs. All are drawn by two horses, on account of the steep gradients and the bad paving. Fares, which are the same whether for one or four persons, are as follows :—

Between sunrise and sunset, for a drive not lasting over 10 minutes, 5 piastres: between sunset and midnight, 7i piastres; between midnight and sunrise, 10 piastres. Between sunrise and sunset, for a drive not lasting over 20 minutes, without crossing the bridge, 10 piastres; between sunset and midnight, 15 piastres; between midnight and sunrise, 20 piastres. By the hour—Between sunrise and sunset, 15 piastres; between sunset and midnight, 20 piastres; between midnight and sunrise, 25 piastres. The two first hours are charged at 15 piastres, and all subsequent hours at 10 piastres. Bridge tolls are extra, and are always charged to the fare. People engaging cabs should always tell their cabman before starting whether they are engaging him by the course, hour, or day.

The afore-mentioned scale of fares applies only to carriages engaged for drives within the city boundary. If the drive extends into the suburbs the fare must be arranged before starting, otherwise the driver can charge what he pleases. Prom Pera to Galata, or vice versa, 10 piastres. Prom Pera to the Railway Station, or vice versa, 25 piastres, including bridge toll. The following fares are considered sufficiently liberal:—Railway Station to Pera, 25 piastres, including bridge toll. Pera to the Seven Towers, thence along the Walls, and back along the Golden Horn, 45 piastres; but if the return be made by way of the Sweet Waters of Europe, 50 to 60 piastres. Pera to Yildiz Palace for the Selamlik on Pridays, 40 piastres, there 9,11(1 back ; during the season (April and May) 50 to 60 piastres guided istanbul tour. Pera to the Sweet Waters of Europe on Fridays and Sundays, in spring and summer, 40 piastres; there and back, 50 to 60 piastres. Pera to Therapia or Buyukdereh and back, 70 to 80 piastres. An ordinary hackney carriage may be had all day for 80 piastres; a smart landau from the livery stables costs 95 to 108 piastres , and 10 piastres for the driver, if taken for all day; and 60 piastres, and 5 piastres for the driver, if for half the day only.

Hackney Horses

Hackney Horses.—These are not so numerous as they were before the introduction of European hackney carriages and cabs. They still stand for hire, however, in all the principal streets, and are mostly used as a mode of conveyance along streets which are either too narrow, too badly paved, or too steep for carriages. The most frequented stands in Pera are near the Grande Rue, in close proximity to the British Embassy, and at Taxim Square, where the best horses are to be got; in Stambul, in the square adjoining the Stambul end of Galata Bridge, and at Ak-Seray. These horses are all amblers; few, if any, have carried a lady. The saddles and bridles are European.

There are no regular fixed fares, and the price of hire has therefore to be settled before starting.

Boats and Caiques.—When landing from or going on board a steamer one of the large clumsy harbour boats should be engaged, which will convey passengers and their luggage in safety. According to the tariff of the hotels the fare is 2 francs per head; luggage is not charged for.

Caiques should not be used, except for an excursion along the Golden Horn or Bosporus in very smooth water, and then the four-oared ones, carrying a party of four or five at most, are the best. These craft are very crank, and the greatest care should be taken in getting in and out of them. They are not provided with thwarts for passengers, but the latter have to sit down on the cushions in the well, where if they only sit still they are safe enough. Never step on to the gunwale of a caique, but step lightly into the well, and sit down at once on the cushions in such a manner as to trim her while your friend is taking his seat. The same precautions should be taken when getting out of one of these craft. As there is no fixed tariff for caiques, a bargain should be made before starting. Caique fares ought not to exceed the following scale :—

A two-pair oar caique from Galata to Skutari, Haidar Pasha, or Kadikeui, 8 piastres. Galata to Ayub and back, 15 piastres. On Sundays and Fridays in spring, fares range up to 25 piastres. Galata to the Sweet Waters of Europe and back, 20 to 25 piastres. From Rumell Hissar to the Sweet Waters of Asia, 6 piastres. From Rumell Hissar to Sweet Waters and back to Galata Bridge, 40 piastres. Across the Golden Horn, piastre. Galata to the Seven Towers, 20 to 30 piastres, according to the state of the weather. If engaged by the hour, fares range from 5 piastres to 10 piastres an hour, according to the size of the caique, the weather, and season. The best caiques ply at Mehmed Ali Pasha Han, and under Galata Bridge near the Scutari steamers’ berth, where two-pair caiques can always be got.

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ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE COLLECTION

(Georgi Mavridi House) 19 Knyaz Tseretelev Street

This small but memorable exhibition of the life and work of the eminent French poet and politician is arranged in the house of Georgi Madridi. In the summer of 1833, during Lamartine’s travels in the Orient, he stayed here for three days and since then the house has been associated with his name. Mavridi’s House is one of the biggest and most beautiful in Old

Plovdiv. An unknown master-builder has managed to overcome the difficulties posed by the sloping terrain in a brilliant way. The foundations and the ground floor of the house have an irregular outline while the two upper floors have the typical symmetrical plan. Each of them juts out over the floor below which considerably increases the living area of the house by adding to its height. People compare it to a bird spreading wings before flying off, an effect achieved by its position on the corner of Zora and Knyaz Tseretelev streets and by its being in good sight from the foot of Jambaz Tepe bulgaria holidays.

THE ‘HIPPOCRATES’ PHARMACY COLLECTION

(Dr. Sotir Antoniadi House and Chemist’s, 16 Saborna Street)

The comparatively small two-storey Revival house is the site of a rich collection dedicated to the history of pharmacy in Plovdiv and the area. The house was built in 1872 for Dr. Sotir Antoniadi – a notable representative of the Greek ethnic community in Plovdiv, one of the first academically trained doctors before the Liberation. The Georgi Mavridi House, site of ‘Alphonse de Lamartene’ collection.

Dr. S. Antoniadi House – the old-world ‘Hippocrates’ Pharmacy.

building has an asymmetrical plan and is quite solid. The pharmacy was on the ground floor and the doctor’s family lived on the upper floor.The ceilings of the house are plastered and decorated with painted rosettes and plant ornaments. The museum pharmacy was opened in 1981 and is unique for the country. It is a truthful representation of the typical Plovdiv pharmacy of old times and has a functioning counter for the purchase of contemporary medicines.

CITY ART GALLERY

(The former Girls’ School)

14 Saborna Street

The distinguished-looking building of the former Girls’

Secondary School of Plovdiv now houses the permanent exhibition of the City Art Gallery. Over BOO paintings, graphics and sculptures show the development of art from the time of the National Revival to our days. One can see here the oldest portrait in Bulgarian art, executed by an unknown artist from Tryavna, of Sofronii Vrachanski as well as works by Stanislav Dospevski, Nikolai Pavlovich, Georgi Danchov, Anton Mitov, Hristo Stanchev and Ivan Mrkvicka.

The exhibition traces the development of the genres of still life, landscape and figured composition from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th c. to our time. The work of painters from Plovdiv is extensively displayed, starting from the establishment of the ‘Association of the Artists from Southeast Bulgaria’ in 1912 to the present day.

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Rhodope architecture

Tourist attractions: The District History Museum, the Art Gallery, monuments of Rhodope architecture from the National Revival period such as the Pangalov House, I860, which has an ethnographic collection, the AUbeev Police Station, the Shere- metev and Petko Takov Houses.

The only feudal building preserved in Bulgaria — Agoushev House in the village of Mogilitsa, 28 km southwest of Smolyan in the valley of the River Arda.

Hotels: Smolyan, 3 stars, 5 floors, 169 double rooms and 7 suites; restaurant, day bar, night club, national restaurant, hairdresser’s, coffee shop, free shop, parking lot, rent-a-car office, tel. 3-81-76, Sokolitsa, 2 stars 10 floors, accommodating 194, tel. 3-30-85; Orfei, 3 stars, tel 3-20-41, accommodating 170, restaurants and a national restaurant private turkey tours.

Smolyan lakes are north of the town amidst picturesque rocks and coniferous forests. There is a modern chalet accommodating 80.

The village of Shiroka Luka (pop. 2,000), is an architectural and ethnographic reserve. Particularly interesting here are the Sgourov House, Kalamdji House (with an ethnographic collection), the Kirov Houses, the old bridges, Church of the Assumption, 1834.

The village has a folk-music school, There is a restaurant, a national taverna and tourist chalet.

PLOVDIV – HASKOVO – HARMAN LI – SVILENGRAD- KAPITAN ANDREEVO

Among the valley of the Maritsa River, three km from Plovdiv stands the monument to Olga Nikolaevna Skobeleva, mother of the famous Russian General Skobelev who fought m the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War of Liberation, who came to Bulgaria to organize orphanages, hospitals and charity societies and who was murdered near Plovdiv by a band of Circassian brigands on 6 July 1880. The monument marks the spot.

Between Plovdiv and Sadovo is the Trakiya motel, 2 stars, and Chaiya camp site, 2 stars.

The village of Klokotnitsa lies ten km from the town of Haskovo and here in 1230 Bulgarian troops led by Tzar Ivan Assen II defeated the Epirate ruler Todor Komnin. The Bulgarian troops continued their advance and in a short time had captured Thrace of Adrianople, the Aegean region, the whole of Macedonia and Albania. In honour of this victory Tzar Ivan Assen II ordered a column to be erected in the Church of St Forty Martyrs in Turnovo. Shortly before Haskovo are the Iztok camp site and Klokotnitsa Inn.

Haskovo (pop. 84,117) existed in the 14th century as a trading settlement. A 9-12 century fortress has been discovered nearby. During Ottoman domination the town had only one Bulgarian quarter, near the Church of St Virgin Mary and the Church of St Archangel Michael After Bulgaria’s liberation from the Turks Haskovo developed as a major tobacco producing centre and today it is a large industrial centre.

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Kozhouh in the Kozhouh Mountains

The warm climate, the curative properties of the waters and the beautiful scenery have contributed to the development of Petrich as a resort. There are good sport facilities in winter, used by both Bulgarian and foreign athletes. The mineral waters gush forth from springs in the extinct volcano, Kozhouh in the Kozhouh Mountains. It lies 10 kilometres from Petrich. Part of the mountains have been declared a national park. The waters have high mineral content and hyper- theimal properties (77°C). They are used to treat arthritis and diseases of the peripheral nervous system.

The Bulgaria Hotel — (two star), run by Balkantourist, is in the centre of the town. It has 160 beds and a restaurant.

The ruins of the ancient town of Petra can be seen on the slopes of the Kozhouh. Foundations of public buildings and parts of a fortress wall have been preserved. Fifteen kilometres west of Petrich is the Samouil Fortress Park and Monument, between the mountains of Belassitsa and Ogtazhden. Remains of walls where battles were waged between Bulgarian troops and the Byzantine Emperor Basil II are still visible.

Thirteen kilometres from Petrich is the Koulata frontier check point. There is a restaurant, motel, camping site, food kiosk and Corecom shop.

SOFIA – NOVI ISKUR – SVOGE – LAKATNIK – MEZ- DRA – VRATSA – Mil IAILOVGRAD – BELOGRADCHIK – VIDIN – KOULA

The town of Vidin can be reached by three routes. The first is through the Vitinya Pass and north through Botevgrad and Vratsa, the second is through the Petrohan Pass, Berko- vitsa and Mihailovgrad, and the third passes through the picturesque Isker Gorge. We start from the north industrial region of Sofia. The first town we reach is Novi Isker (pop. 15,000) 17 km from Sofia, at the entrance to the Iskur Gorge. A few kilometres west are the Kutina pyramids, rock formations situated at the foot of the Sofiiska mountain. The Iskur Gorge begins from Novi Iskur and is most picturesque up to the village of Lyutibrod. It was formed by the erosion caused by the waters of the River Iskur.

Village of Bov

Between Novi Iskur and the village of Bov, the river passes among friable rocks, the gorge is wide with well-cut terraces. Sheer rocks loom large on both sides, some 250 m high, and the gorge resembles a canyon. The village of Vlada Trichkov is next with 1,600 inhabitants sofia city tour. It is named after a partisan leader. The village of Rebrovo(pop. 1,500) is situated at the source of the River Batulirska in the Iskur. Four kilometres away is Batuliya where on May 23rd 1944, partisan units battled with the gendarmerie. Many heroes of the National Liberation Army were captured and killed during the days that followed, including Major William Frank Thompson, member of the British mission to the Bulgarian partisans. The small railway station bears his name.

Svoge is the largest town in the gorge — (pop. 8,200). It is a centre for coal-mining and food industry. The nearby village of Iskrets (2,700) has sanatoria for TB and heart disorder sufferers. The sheer rocky slopes of the Lakatnik Karst area just opposite Lakatnik railway station provide excellent opportunities for mountaineering. Perched high on a rock like a squirrel’s nest is a small Alpine chalet. Not far away is a monument to the rebels shot down after the defeat of the September 1923 anti-fascist uprising, A veritable kingdom of caves begins here. The.well-known Temnata Doupka cave is some three kilometres long; an underwater river flows through it, forming several lakes, and finally surfacing. The Mechata Doupka cave is 480 km in length.

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Ornamented glazed pottery

Other palace buildings are found on the third terrace. Most valuable and interesting material was found in clearing away the high embankment formed by the ruins, which covered the remains of the palace. There is a particularly large number of sherds of richly ornamented glazed pottery. Numerous coins of the 12—14th century were found, and in the graves around the palace church valuable jewelry came to light, such as the gold sections of a belt, as well as well preserved pieces of richly ornamented cloth of gold garments. Part of the slab which covered a royal tomb shows in relief the lower part of the buried king’s body with the insignia of the royal family.

Thus the castle of the Assenids is gradually emerging from among the ruins; it lay on the highest point of the hill and from there protected the capital.

There was much building of fortresses in the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. To this day the ruins of old feudal castles stand on the higher approaches of mountain passes. With the exception of the fortified walls and the churches, all else appears to have been lightly built, and therefore easily perished under the action of time and when the country was ravaged by its enemies private tours istanbul.

The south of Assenovgrad

At one of the loveliest spots along the road to the Bachkovo Monastery, to the south of Assenovgrad, in the Assenova Krepost or Fortress, the Church of the Holy Virgin of Petrich, dating back to the 12th or early 13fh century, has thrust its foundations into the perpendicular rocks of a high peak. Of the fortress itself, which was only accessible from one spot, insignificant traces have remained. Only the church now stands on the very edge of the rock. It is of the type of the two-storey mausoleum churches, though it is not possible to assert that its lower floor was intended for use as a fortress.

A wooden staircase led to the upper story. To the east it ends in a five-walled apse, and to the west in a narthex. In the middle of the longitudinal cylindrical vault of the nave there is a cupola, which rests on four arches supported by quadrilateral pilasters. Above the narthex there is a square belfry. The southern wall of the second floor is decoratively divided by seven arched niches. Two of them are included in a big arch which, giving height to the roof with the tip of its pediment thus stresses the side cupola arches of the church. The church of Assenova Krepost is in every respect an extremely original architectural monument. Some of its elements maybe due to certain eastern influences, but as a whole it is a work of local creative construction.

The Church of Boyana is no less original a monument; it lies at a distance of 8 km.-to the south of Sofia, at the foot of Mount Vitosha. This is a bolyar’s church too, but it was built outside the fortress, which rose upon a high rock above the spot where the Boyana brook flows out of its gully. A small cruciform cupolaed church had been built on the estate of the feudal lord here as early as the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. It had no free supports and was covered with murals.

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Bulgaria is a land of ancient civilizations

Bulgaria is a land of ancient civilizations. The country takes up the larger part of the Balkan Peninsula’s eastern half, the easternmost of Europe’s southern peninsulas. There are high mountains in the peninsula here, the seemingly endless chain of the Balkan Range, the Rila-Rhodope massif, with its snow-capped peaks, and’rich mineral deposits; there are spacious shores here too, those of the Black Sea to the East, with their deep and hospitable bays, and not far from the country’s southern frontier the shores of the Aegean and the Sea of Marmora. Wide plains and mountain valleys stretch out far and wide, cut through by deep rivers, which have kept their ancient names, such as the Danube and the Isker, the Ossum and the Yantra, the Strouma and the Mesta. The peninusula’s southern shores are washed by the Aegean and the Sea of Marmora, in whose basins some of mankind’s most ancient civilizations developed.

The Rila-Rhodope massif, and further to the North the Stara Pla- nina, as the Balkan Range is locally known, though rising like walls parallel to the southern seas, have never been impassable barriers to the interior of the peninsula. Several of the big rivers in the peninsula, such as the Strouma, the Mesta and the Maritsa, take their source in these mountains, cutting across the mountain barriers and opening the way to the warm sea. Along these natural and eternal roads the peninsula kept in constant touch with the southern countries. To the East, the Black Sea coast faced the horizon of the South Russian steppes and the Caucasus.

The big European River Danube was no obstacle to relations with the North, on the countrary, it favoured them, being the oldest route linking the peninsula with the distant lands of Central Europe. The narrow straits, which divide Europe and Asia geographically balkan tours, were also actually a convenient bridge, along which tribes and peoples have passed from one continent to the other since time immemorial. The straits were never a hindrance to the exchange of the commodities created in distant centres of culture. In the past, the Bulgarian lands were the gateway of Europe to the Orient. They have always been the crossroads of the Mediterranean world along which, since the oldest times, many peoples passed from east to west and from west to east, from north to south and from south to north.

THE PALEOLITHIC, NEOLITHIC, ENEOLITHIC AND BRONZE AGES IN BULGARIA

The Bulgarian lands have been inhabited by man since the most ancient times. The oldest traces of human life are found in the caves of the country’s inner mountainous regions. Recently, such traces have, however, also been found in the coastal regions of the Black Sea. They all belong to the second half of the Paleolithic Age, the Mous- terian and Aurignacian periods, whichmeans that primitiveman inhabited these lands over 40,000 years ago. The most primitive manmade implements discovered so far in Bulgaria came to light at the Bacho Kiro cave near the Dryanovo Monastery, the so-called stone scrapers and points, quite roughly hewn, the typical weapons of Mousterian man.

Flint tools of the Aurignacian period, showing a more perfect technique and a certain further differentiation of implements of labour, have been found in a number of other caves, such as Temnata Doupka (the Dark Hole) near Karloukovo in the region of Lou- kovit. Implements made of bone were found for the first time among them. Considerable new material has been obtained from the study of caves and rock shelters along the valleys of the Isker and the Ossum Rivers, undertaken in the last few years; this is now being studied by specialists, and promises partly to supplement our knowledge of the life of primitive man in the last periods of the late Paleolithic, as well as of the Mesolithic periods (15,000 to 6000 B. C.), of which no archaeological finds had come to light in Bulgaria until recently.

Man’s primitive culture of the Neolithic and the Eneolithic period. and the early Bronze Age is far better known. There is still discussion as to the absolute chronology of these cultures.

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KYUSTENDIL

The town was the Roman settlement of Pautalia. From Sofia, Kyustendil can be reached by road or rail – the railway line Sofia-Gyueshevo. It is only 95 km from the capital. The well-known shrine of the deity Asclepius, the patron of medicine, stood in ancient Pautalia; there prayers were said and the pools were used to rid the sick and suffering of their disease. Today there are some 40 hot springs in the spa. Their water is sulphurous and has a temperature of 76°C. Besides gynaecological complaints, it also cures rheumatism, arthritis, arthrosis, diseases of the peripheral nervous system and cardiovascular diseases.

Pautalia Hotel (with restaurant), with 48 beds, Velbuzhd Square, tel. 20-48; Hissarluka Hotel (with restaurant), with 34 beds, tel. 20-10.

Interesting tourist sights: the Pirgova Tower, an architectural monument from the 15th century; St. George’s Church, in the south-eastern part of the town, dating from the 12th-13th century; the Vladimir Dimitrov-The Master Art Gallery.

Of particular interest is the Zemen Monastery, which is 25 km from Kyustendil on the railway line to Sofia.

BANKYA

Lying 17 km from Sofia, Bankya can be reached by car, bus or train in a matter of minutes. Its name comes from the Roman ‘balneum’ which means ‘baths’. The temperature of the

water of the main spring is 36.5°C and it flows at a rate ofl ,400 I/min. The water is hydro-carbonate-sulphate-sodium with low mineralization. It contains traces of magnesium and iodine. In addition to cardio vascular diseases, it is also used in the treatment of diabetes, neuralgia and thyrotoxicosis. The water produces a reflex action on the nerve endings of the skin and on the interior organs. The mineral elements contained in it, after penetrating the skin, reach the blood circulation local ephesus tour guides. When imbibed, the water influences the digestive system and stimulates the digestive organs, neutralizing increased acidity of the stomach and stimulating the activity of the cells, tissues and organs. The complex in Bankya has several pools, a special hospital and sanatorium tor children and adults suffering from rheumatism and from heart diseases.

Zarenitsa Hotel (with restaurant).

NARECHEN

The resort is situated amid wonderful mountain scenery, 45 km south of the city of Plovdiv. There are two mineral springs. The water of the one is led to the newly built pool and has a temperature of 30°C, and the water of the other, the so-called Salt Spring (23°C) is used only for drinking. For radioactivity, this second spring is the first in Bulgaria and tenth in the world (1,060 emanations per litre). The Narechen mineral baths are used for the treatment of neuroses, especially neurasthenia in all its forms, and of ulcers, gastritis, liver and bile disorders, diseases of the endocrine glands, etc. Several balneosanatoria have been built in Narechen, and the many private and public villas lend it the appearance of a first-class resort.

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Material improvement of London

Amongst the larger problems still awaiting solution for the material improvement of London are: —

1. The completion of the embankment of the river on both sides between Battersea and Blackfriars, with due provision for continual easy access to the embankment, and with docks at suitable stations within it.

2. Improved access to the existing bridges, north and south.

3. New carriage bridges, at least at Lambeth and at Charing Cross.

4. A direct avenue connecting the three great northern railway termini with the Waterloo terminus and with Charing Cross.

5. Connections of Holborn with the Strand, the British Museum with Somerset House, Victoria Terminus with South Kensington and Lambeth, Ludgate Hill with Cheapside.

6. The reconstruction of Covent Garden and its ap proaches and connection of it with the Courts of Justice and with the north.

7. The reconstruction of the Main Drainage system, including the discharge of sewage to the sea.

8. The re-housing of the people displaced from decayed insanitary areas.

The minor improvements in every outlying parish and suburb are far too many and complex to be treated here.

These undertakings, together with a suitable building for the government of London to work in, may occupy the energy and resources of a whole generation. It is impossible to calculate the enormous loss in money, in comfort, in health, in labour, wasted by millions of people struggling to reach each other through crowded, narrow, and circuitous streets. Nor can we easily estimate the evils of pinching the government of a great capital by niggardly supply of the material appliances of its task.

The first thing is to make our city a healthful home for the people. The next is to furnish it abundantly with all the resources of civic life — one of the primary of which is adequate means of transit. The third is to invest it with dignity, impressiveness, and beauty private tours istanbul. The people who now have the destinies of their own city in their own hands will not long remain satisfied with squalor, ugliness, and discomfort. The civic patriotism of London has lain dormant for centuries, but in our generation it is reviving. And we may hope that ere the twentieth century is far advanced, it may create a new London worthy of its past history and its vast opportunities.

THE SACREDNESS OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS

A torso from the hand of Pheidias, a portrait by Titian, a Mass by Palestrina or Bach, a lyrical poem of Milton, an abbey church of the thirteenth century — are all works of art; matchless, priceless, sacred: such as man on this earth will never replace, nor ever again see. They are, each and all, that which are a great life, or a memorable deed: once spent, they can never be repeated in the same way again, and yet, once lived, or once achieved, they make the world to be for ever after a better place. And these inimitable works are not only amongst the heirlooms of mankind; but they are records of the life of our fathers, which concentrate in a single page, canvas, block of stone, hymn, or it may be, portal, as much history as would fill a library of dull written annals. From the point of view of beauty, of knowledge, of reverence, these works of art are, as the historian of Athens said, ‘an everlasting possession.’

Yet how strangely different is the care with which we treat the statue, the picture, the music, the poem, from the treatment we give the church — the church, one would think the most sacred of all. It is not so with us. We preserve the torso, or the portrait — we restore the church. We give it a new inside and a fresh outside. We deck it out in a brand-new suit to cover its nakedness. A committee of subscribers choose the style, the century, into which it shall be transposed; they wrangle in meetings, in rasping letters, and corrosive pamphlets, as to carrying on an early-pointed arcade in the lady-chapel, or as to introducing a gridiron mass of perpendicular tracery in the west window. The chapter, the subscribers, the amateur archaeologists, each have their pet style, sub-style, and epoch, their fancy architect, or infallible authority in stone, antiquities, and taste. Between them the church is gutted, scraped, refaced, translated into one of those brand-new, intensely mediaeval, machine-made, and engine-turned fabrics, which the pupils of the great man of the day turn out by the score. This is how we treat the church.

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Historic way of seeing Paris

That is the historic way of seeing Paris. But how many thousands of our tourists believe they know Paris as well as London, and have exhausted all its sights, and hurry through Paris, and yet they could not tell where the Convention had its hall, or how it came there, or where the bones of king and queen and the other victims of the guillotine were laid, and why they were thrown in that spot, or where the guillotine stood: nor have they seen the cells where Marie Antoinette and Danton, Vergniaud and the Girondins passed their last hours — or could distinguish the parts of the Louvre, or tell for whom the many L’s and H’s and M’s are inscribed — or where our Henry v. Lived when he was ruler of France after Azincourt, and where was the Palace of St. Louis, or of Philip Augustus, or Clovis, or the original Lutetia of the Parisii.

Let us try to group the record of Paris in historic epochs and in their right chronological order.

It is easy to realise the Latetia of the Romans, the first Gaulish settlement. Loukhteith, its Celtic name, is said to mean ‘the stronghold in the morass,’—not ‘mud-city,’ as Carlyle calls it, — nearly the same as Llyn-dyn, or London, which means the Lake-town. The island (or eyot as we say in the Thames), in the Seine a little below the junction of the Marne, where the Bievre flows into the Seine, formed an excellent fastness. Caesar has given a vivid account of the siege of Paris in 52 B.C., and from the top of the Pantheon we can stand and trace the campaign of Labienus, as told by the mighty general of Rome. The historic record of Paris thus begins 1946 years ago. It was a city of some, but not of great importance in the Roman Empire private tour istanbul, its most famous incident being that it was the favourite residence of the Emperor Julian in the middle of the fourth century. In a well-known passage in his Misopogon, he speaks of his dear Lutetia, of its soft and delightful climate, and the richness of its vines.

There is something strangely suggestive in the association of Paris with the brilliant, philosophical, wrongheaded young Caesar, with his paradoxical ideals, romantic adventures, and tragic end.

Roman remains called Les Thermes

It is well known that the grand Roman remains called Les Thermes, adjoining the Cluny Museum, belonged to the palace of the Caesars, the great hall forming the frigidarinm of the Baths, and the rest of the foundations have been fairly made out. Other Roman remains are the altar found under Notre Dame, many altars and tombs, both Pagan and Christian, a large collection of objects in the Carnavalet Museum, some remains of city walls of the fourth century, the famous inscription of the naiitae or watermen’s gild of Paris, two aqueducts, that of Arcueil on the south near Bicetre, and that of Chaillot near the Palais Royal, an amphitheatre, east of the Pantheon near the R. Monge, a second palace beneath the Conciergerie, several cemeteries and tombs, in the R. Vivienne on the north, and also in the south, a Roman camp, a factory of pottery, a mass of antiquities at Montmartre, the Mons Martis, I think, not the Mons Marty mm.

This forms a mass of Roman antiquities which together raise Paris to the rank of importance amongst the scanty remnants of ancient civilisation in Northern Europe. In the Thermes we have the Roman Louvre, in the altar of Jupiter the antitype of Notre Dame, in the cemetery of the R. Vivienne the Roman Phe-la-Chaise, in the foundations below the Palais de Justice, the Roman Hotel de Villc, in the Parvis de Notre Dame perhaps the Roman Forum, the predecessor of the Place de Grlve.

There is seldom to be met so striking a bit of city topography as the long history of evolution in the Cite, or island, of Paris. First, it was a group of palisaded eyots in a broad river spreading out on both sides into swamps — the river stronghold of a tribe called by the Romans Parisii, a word possibly connected with Bar, which is thought to signify a frontier (Bar-sur-Aube, etc.). Then this river stronghold is joined to the mainland by two bridges not in a straight line but at opposite ends of the island and both doubtless defended; it is next a Roman city, ultimately walled, with its central temple, its municipality, its quays, and some outlying buildings, the Imperial Palace, the amphitheatre, cemeteries, camp, and the like, on the mainland, both north and south: one bridge, now the Pont au change, opening into the Place du Chdtelet; the smaller bridge, now Petit Pont, higher up the river over the narrow arm, at the end of the R. St. Jacques.

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Constantine created in 330

The marvellous city that Constantine created in 330 A.D. has been ever since that day the effective seat of such government as the Eastern regions around it could maintain, of such civilisation as they could evolve, and of such religious union as they were able to receive. That empire, that type of society, seem preparing to-day for an ultimate withdrawal into Asia. But with such a record of persistence and revival, such tenacity of hold on a sacred and imperial centre, few can forecast the issue with confidence. And that-future is assuredly amongst the most fascinating enigmas which can engage the meditations of thinking men.

It is an acute remark of the late Professor Freeman that the history of the empire is the history of the capital. The imperial, religious, legal, and commercial energy of the Eastern empire has always centred in Constantinople, by whomsoever held, in a way that can hardly be paralleled in European history. The Italian successors of Julius and Augustus for the most part spent their lives and carried on their government very largely, and at last almost wholly, away from Rome. Neither had the Western Emperors, nor the chiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, any permanent and continuous seat.

The history of England

The history of England and that of France are associated with many historic towns and many royal residences far from London and from Paris. Nor do the histories of Spain, Italy, or Germany, offer us any constant capital or any single centre of government, religion, law, commerce guided tour ephesus, and art. But of the nearly one hundred sovereigns of the Eastern empire, and of the twenty-eight Caliphs who have succeeded them in Byzantkim, during that long epoch of 1564 years, from the day of its foundation, Constantinople has been the uniform residence of the sovereign, except when on actual campaign in time of war or on some imperial progress; and in peace and in war under all dynasties, races, and creeds, it has never ceased to be the seat of official government, the supreme tribunal, and the metropolis of the religious system.

From the age of Theodosius down to the opening of the Crusades — a period of seven centuries — whilst Rome itself and every ancient city in Europe was stormed, sacked, burnt, more or less abandoned, and almost blotted out by a succession of invaders, Constantinople remained untouched, impregnable, never decayed, never abandoned — always the most populous, the most wealthy, the most cultivated, the most artistic city in Europe — always the seat of a great empire, the refuge of those who sought peace and protection for their culture or their wealth, a busy centre of a vast commerce, the one home of ancient art, the one school of ancient law and learning left undespoiled and undeserted. From the eighth century to the thirteenth a succession of travellers have described its size, wealth, and magnificence. In the middle of the twelfth century, the Jew Benjamin of Tudela, coming from Spain to Palestine, declares that ‘these riches and buildings are equalled nowhere in the world ’; ‘ that merchants resort thither from all parts of the world.’

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Rome of the Church

The various interests all group themselves under three heads: the Rome of antiquity, the Rome of the Church, the Rome of poetry, romance, architecture, painting, sculpture, music. Down to the middle of this century, these were blended unconsciously into a certain harmony; and it was the mysterious unison of these separate chords which has inspired so much poetry and art from the age of the Farnesina down to that of Transformation. Since the middle of the century and the tremendous events of 1849, it has been an effort of the imagination to catch the harmony rather than discord. And in the last twenty years, since the entrance of the king of Italy, the effort has become year by year more difficult. But with patience it may still be done. And we may yet venture to plead for Rome that, shorn as she is of her old unique magic and power, she remains still the greatest historical school in the world, and has not even yet descended to the level of Nice or Hombourg.

The visible record of antiquity is continuous for at least a thousand years — indeed between the Column of Phocas and the earliest tombs we may possibly count an interval far longer. For five centuries at least, down to the final completion of the Rome of the East, Rome of the West was the spot where the whole force of the ancient world was concentrated—its wealth, its art, its science, its material, intellectual, and moral power. This planet has never witnessed before or since such concentration on one spot of the earth as took place about the age of Trajan, and let us trust it will never witness it again. From the Clyde to the Euphrates, from the Caucasus to the Sahara, the earth was ransacked for all that was pleasant, beautiful, or useful, whether in the produce of nature or in the arts of man. And it was flung down together on the banks of the Tiber with a wild profusion and with a lavish magnificence which has never been equalled, though sometimes imitated customized tour bulgaria.

Christian Church

To that dazzling world of power, beauty, luxury, and vice, there succeeded the Christian Church with its fifteen centuries of unbroken organic life. This—far the longest and most important movement in the history of mankind — yet forms but one element in the history of the Eternal City, and the one element which to most Protestant tourists is the least conspicuous, if not almost forgotten. But the succession of spiritual empire to the inheritance of temporal empire in Rome is perhaps of all phenomena in history the most fascinating and the most profound, with its subtle analogies and infinite contrasts, with its sublime profession of disdain and its irresistible instinct for adaptation, its savage spirit of destruction combined with an unconscious genius of imitation. For the Church took the classical form for its model, and ended by setting it up as a revelation, even whilst engaged in cursing it in words and demolishing it in act.

That New Birth of free life which we call Humanism, or the Revival, or Renascence, was soon drawn towards Rome, and indeed for a time had its inspiration from the Papal world itself. Though Rome was not its birthplace nor in any sense its natural home, yet Rome drew to herself the Tuscan and Lombard genius as she had drawn the Attic and the Alexandrian genius to her before; and thus Rome became at last the great theatre for the Renascence, the stage whence its most potent influence over Europe was manifested and shed abroad.

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The intellectual attack undoubtedly partook

The indefatigable genius who was the acknowledged leader in the intellectual attack undoubtedly partook in a measure of all the four elements just mentioned, and his true glory is that, throughout the whole range of his varied work, this enthusiasm of humanity glows constantly aflame and warms his zeal. The almost unexampled versatility and fecundity of Voltaire’s mind gave his contemporaries the impression of a far larger genius than the test of time has been able to concede him.

His merit has been said to lie in a most extraordinary combination of secondary powers, no one of which was precisely of the highest class. He was neither one of the great poets, or observers, or philosophers, or teachers of men, though he wielded, and for a longer time, the most potent literary power of which history tells. Although of the four main schools into which the eighteenth century movement may be grouped, Voltaire was especially marked out as the leading spirit of the intellectual attack, he did not a little to stimulate the constructive task, both in its philosophical and in its social side. It is from Voltaire’s visit to England in 1726 that we must date the opening of the grand movement of ’89. The accumulating series of impulses which at last forced on the opening of the States-General at Versailles began with English ideas, English teachers, and English or American traditions private tour istanbul.

Place Venddme

At the same time (1724-1731) was formed in the Place Venddme with the aid of Lord Bolingbroke, the confraternity of reformers, to whom he gave the English name of club. This was the first appearance in France of an institution which has played so large a part in the history of Europe, which is destined yet to play an even larger part. The Abbd Alari, the Abbd Saint-Pierre, the Marquis d’Argenson, and their companions in the Club de 1’Entresol were already, sixty years before the opening of Revolution, covering the ground of the social ideas of ’89, in a vague, timid, and tentative manner, it may be, but withal in a spirit of enthusiastic zeal of the better time they were not destined to see.

Of this group of premature reformers, of these precursors and heralds of ’89, none is more illustrious than the Marquis d’Argenson, nor is any book more memorable than his Reflections on the Government of France (1739). Here we have the germ of the democratic absolutism which has again and again reasserted its strength in France: here are the germs of the local administration; here is the first proposal for the symmetrical system of eighty-six departments which since 1790 replaced the ancient provinces with all their anomalies. Here also is the repudiation by an illustrious noble of the privileges of nobility, the condemnation of local restrictions on trade, and the dream of a new France where personal equality should reign, and where the cultivator of the soil should be lord of the land he tilled.

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So fertile in new political ideas

The same age, too, which was so fertile in new political ideas and in grand spiritual effort, was no less rich in philosophy, in the germs of science, in reviving the in-heritance of ancient learning, in the scientific study of law, in the foundation of the great Northern universities, in the magnificent expansion of the architecture we call Gothic, in the beginnings of painting and of sculpture, in the foundation of modern literature, both in prose and verse, in the fullest development of the Troubadours, the Romance poets, the lays, sonnets, satires, and tales of Italy, Provence, and Flanders; and finally, in that stupendous poem, which we universally accept as the greatest of modern epical works, wherein the most splendid genius of the Middle Ages seemed to chant its last majestic requiem, which he himself, as I have said, emphatically dated in the year 1300. Truly, if we must use arbitrary numbers to help our memory, that year— 1300 — may be taken as the resplendent sunset of an epoch which had extended in one form back for nearly one thousand years to the fall of the Roman empire, and equally as the broken and stormy dawn of an epoch which has for six hundred years since been passing through an amazing phantasmagoria of change tours sofia.

Now this great century, the last of the true Middle Ages, which, as it drew to its own end, gave birth to Modern Society, has a special character of its own a character that gives to it an abiding and enchanting interest. We find in it a harmony of power, a universality of endowment, a glow, an aspiring ambition and confidence, such as we never again find in later centuries, at least so generally and so permanently diffused.

At the opening of the thirteenth century, Christendom, as a whole, rested united in profound belief in one religious faith. There had appeared in the age preceding teachers of new doctrines, like Abailard, Gilbert de la Poree, Arnold of Brescia, and others; but their new ideas had not at all penetrated to the body of the people. As a whole, Christendom had still, as the century began, an unquestioned and unquestionable creed, without schism, heresy, doubts, or sects. And this creed still sufficed to inspire the most profound thought, the most lofty poetry, the widest culture, the freest art of the age: it filled statesmen with awe, scholars with enthusiasm, and consolidated society around uniform objects of reverence and worship.

It bound men together, from the Hebrides to the Eastern Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Baltic, as European men have never since been bound. Great thinkers, like Albert of Cologne and Aquinas, found it to be the stimulus of their meditations. Mighty poets, like Dante, could not conceive poetry, unless based on it and saturated with it. Creative artists, like Giotto, found it an ever-living well-spring of pure beauty. The great cathedrals embodied it in a thousand forms of glory and power. To statesman, artist, poet, thinker, teacher, soldier, worker, chief, or follower, it supplied at once inspiration and instrument.

Large parts of Europe

This unity of creed had existed, it is true, for five or six centuries in large parts of Europe, and, indeed, in a shape even more uniform and intense. But not till the thirteenth century did it co-exist with such acute intellectual energy, with such philosophic power, with such a free and superb art, with such sublime poetry, with so much industry, culture, wealth, and so rich a development of civic organisation. This thirteenth century was the last in the history of mankind in Europe when a high and complex civilisation has been saturated with a uniform and unquestioned creed.

As we all know, since then, civilisation has had to advance with ever-increasing multiplicity of creeds. What impresses us as the keynote of that century is the harmony of power it displays. As in the Augustan age, or the Periclean age, or the Homeric age, indeed, far more than in any of them, men might fairly dream, in the age of Innocent and St. Louis, that they had reached a normal state, when human life might hope to see an ultimate symmetry of existence. There have been since epochs of singular intellectual expansion, of creative art, of material progress, of moral earnestness, of practical energy. Our nineteenth century has very much of all of these in varying proportions. But we have long ceased to expect that they will not clash with each other; we have aban- K doned hope of ever seeing them work in organic harmony together.