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An angry manner

They barked at us in an angry manner, and then ran off into the adjoining fields. I observed nothing peculiar as we mounted, until my horse stumbled. When looking down I perceived he had stepped on a human skull partly hid among the grass. It was quite dry and hard, and might, to all appearances, have been there for two or three years, so well had the dogs done their work. A few steps further there was another, and beside it part of a skeleton, likewise white and dry.

As we ascended, bones, skeletons, and skulls became more frequent, but here they had not been picked so clean, for there were fragments of half-dry, half-putrid flesh still clinging to them. At last we came to a kind of little plateau or shelf on the hillside, where the ground was nearly level, with the exception of a little indentation where the head of a hollow broke through. We rode towards this, with the intention of crossing it, but all suddenly drew rein with an exclamation of horror, for right before us, almost beneath our horses’ feet, was a sight that made us shudder Guided Istanbul Tours.

Human body

It was a heap of skulls, intermingled with bones from all parts of the human body, skeletons, nearly entire, rotting, clothing, human hair, and putrid flesh lying there in one foul heap, around which the grass was growing luxuriantly. It emitted a sickening odour, like that of a dead horse, and it was here the dogs had been seeking a hasty repast when our untimely approach interrupted them.

In the midst of this heap I could distinguish one slight skeleton form still enclosed in a chemise, the skull wrapped about with a coloured handkerchief, and the bony ankles encased in the embroidered footless stockings worn by the Bulgarian girls. We looked about us.

The ground was strewed with bones in every direction, where the dogs had carried them off to gnaw them at their leisure. At the distance of a hundred yards beneath us lay the town. As seen from our stand-point, it reminded one somewhat of the ruins of Herculaneum or Pompeii.

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Hafiz Pacha unlike Achmet Aga

During the night and the next morning the troops and the Bashi-Bazouks entered the place, and then began a scene of pillage, violence, and massacre, only equalled by that of Batak. Neither age nor sex was spared. The town was pillaged, then fired ; about one-fourth of the houses were burnt, people were cut down in the streets, on their own doorsteps, on their own hearthstones. Old men and women begging for mercy, and children and infants screaming in terror, perished alike beneath the swift and certain sabre.

It is thought that 3,000 people were killed in this place alone, of whom about 400 were inhabitants of the town, and the rest from the neighbouring villages who had taken refuge here. But we were not greeted here with the scenes of horror that awaited us at Batak. Hafiz Pacha, unlike Achmet Aga, had sense enough to have the bodies buried within the following three days, and thus to cover up his tracks.

It has been repeated again and again that these acts were perpetrated by the Bashi-Bazouks ouly, and not by the regular troops ; and a great deal is made of the statement as showing the massacres were committed without the consent of the authorities. If the statement were worth anything, the converse ought to be true—that if the massacres were committed by the regular troops then the authorities are responsible. Now, as it happens, wherever there were any regular troops to commit massacres, they rivalled the Bashi-Bazouks in atrocity Turkey Sightseeing.

Here, as Mr. Schuyler will show in his report, regular and irregular troops were equally cruel, pitiless, and ferocious, and Hafiz Pacha is no less guilty than Achmet Aga. The reason is simple. They are all Turks alike, and there is nothing to choose between them. These massacres were committed by the order of the authorities, and that is why the men who committed them have been rewarded with decorations and promotions.

When we were in Panagurishti we were shown in the ruins of the church, before the place where the altar had stood, a black spot specked with calcined bones, on which lay a bouquet of flowers. This wras the remains of a priest, Theodor Peoff, 85 years of age, who had been seized and tortured in the hopes of obtaining money, mutilated and maltreated in ways which only the foul imagination of a Turk could invent, then killed, and burnt here before the altar.

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Hafiz Pacha unlike Achmet Aga

During the night and the next morning the troops and the Bashi-Bazouks entered the place, and then began a scene of pillage, violence, and massacre, only equalled by that of Batak. Neither age nor sex was spared. The town was pillaged, then fired ; about one-fourth of the houses were burnt, people were cut down in the streets, on their own doorsteps, on their own hearthstones. Old men and women begging for mercy, and children and infants screaming in terror, perished alike beneath the swift and certain sabre.

It is thought that 3,000 people were killed in this place alone, of whom about 400 were inhabitants of the town, and the rest from the neighbouring villages who had taken refuge here. But we were not greeted here with the scenes of horror that awaited us at Batak. Hafiz Pacha, unlike Achmet Aga, had sense enough to have the bodies buried within the following three days, and thus to cover up his tracks.

It has been repeated again and again that these acts were perpetrated by the Bashi-Bazouks ouly, and not by the regular troops ; and a great deal is made of the statement as showing the massacres were committed without the consent of the authorities. If the statement were worth anything, the converse ought to be true—that if the massacres were committed by the regular troops then the authorities are responsible. Now, as it happens, wherever there were any regular troops to commit massacres, they rivalled the Bashi-Bazouks in atrocity Turkey Sightseeing.

Here, as Mr. Schuyler will show in his report, regular and irregular troops were equally cruel, pitiless, and ferocious, and Hafiz Pacha is no less guilty than Achmet Aga. The reason is simple. They are all Turks alike, and there is nothing to choose between them. These massacres were committed by the order of the authorities, and that is why the men who committed them have been rewarded with decorations and promotions.

When we were in Panagurishti we were shown in the ruins of the church, before the place where the altar had stood, a black spot specked with calcined bones, on which lay a bouquet of flowers. This wras the remains of a priest, Theodor Peoff, 85 years of age, who had been seized and tortured in the hopes of obtaining money, mutilated and maltreated in ways which only the foul imagination of a Turk could invent, then killed, and burnt here before the altar.

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The peasant King

Along with the religious movements the second half of the 13,h century saw the progressive weakening of the Bulgarian Kingdom, tom by the continual conflicts between the boyars. Ground down by taxation, the peasants also rebelled. An additional aggravating circumstance was the incursions of the Tatars from the “Golden Horde”…

In this situation broke out the uprising, led by the swineherd Ivailo. He gathered a small peasant detachment somewhere in Dobrudja, and, addressing his soldiers, Ivailo maintained that by the divine providence he had to save the state… In 1277 the rural commander routed the troops of the last Assenid, King Constantine Assen Tich, then slayed him and headed for the capital. In Turnovo waited the boyars and Queen Maria – who was willing to retain the throne for her son. Of course, the Byzantine Emperor had to intervene in the internal politieal life of Bulgaria, since he did not want any peasant indignation to penetrate the Empire as well. For which he concentrated a big army in Eastern Thrace.

When the peasant leader was forced to fight at two fronts – that of the Tumovo boyars and that of the Byzantines Tours Bulgaria – he had to compromise: in 1278 he married the Queen. Now the gates of the capital city were opened before him and Ivailo (1277-1280) was crowned as “the good King”…

Balkan Range passes

As part of Ivailo’s army had to defend the Balkan Range passes from the Byzantine troops and the “peasant king” himself had to head north to drive back the Tatar hordes, which had again penetrated into Bulgaria, the Queen and the boyars let in Tumovo the Byzantines. Unable to seize the capital city again the peasant leader was compelled to watch how his army slowly thinned down and sought help from the Tatars but their chief ordered his assassination. However, Ivailo’s uprising might be compared to that of Wat Tyler (1381) in England, who was cheated by Richard II, or to the Jacquerie (1385) in France, crashed by Charles II of Navarre.

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Marmora to Tekfur Sarai

Of the walls those on the land side only call for special mention. They are the work of three successive Byzantine emperors — Theodosius II., Heraclius, and Leo the Armenian.

The Walls of Theodosius, extending from the Sea of Marmora to Tekfur Sarai, a distance of about 6120 yards, were built in 413 A.D. under the superintendence of Anthemius, prefect of the city ; but were destroyed by an earthquake thirty-four years later, when they were rebuilt by the prefect Cyrus Constantine in sixty days, as set forth in an inscription on the Melandrian Gate. They consist of a double line of wall, the inner line being considerably higher than the outer one, with a moat 20 yards wide, and a breastwork 19 yards thick, running between. Bemains of these latter may still be seen in the vicinity of the Seven Towers and Silivri Gate. The moat, which is now filled up in places, and is let out in sections to market- gardeners, varies in depth from 4 to 33 feet, and is some 64 feet wide. The tapering wall running along the moat is of Byzantine origin, and was in all probability an aqueduct for the double purpose of conveying water to the cityand of flooding the moat in case of emergency : remains of these aqueducts still in use are to be met here and there.

The stone used in the erection of the walls was procured from the quarries in the vicinity. The inner and loftier wall—some 36 feet high—was flanked by 116 towers, of which some ninety are still standing in a dilapidated condition. These are for the most part square, the rest being either round or octagonal, and were entered by postern gates on the city side; few, if any, having doors leading into the space be-tween the walls. The outer wall—31 feet high and 13 feet thick—was also flanked with towers, numbering 78, of which about seventy remain. The Theodosian wall was pierced by fourteen gates, seven of which were reserved for military purposes.

Seven Towers

The land walls commence at the elegant marble water-gate on the Marmora, near the Seven Towers. The first inner tower was built by the Emperors Basil and Constantine, 975-1025 A.D. ; over the postern may still be seen a carved cross surmounted by a wreath. Of the first outer tower scarcely anything remains. The fourth inner tower, somewhat damaged during the earthquake of 1894, bears an inscription setting forth that it was built by Eomanus, the great Emperor of the Romans.

The seventh inner tower, near the railway, assigned to the Emperors Leo and Constantine, has almost entirely crumbled away. The Golden Gate, so-called from the gilding formerly upon it, which comes next, with its two wooden columns and their exquisite Corinthian capitals, was the triumphal arch through which victorious emperors and generals passed on their return from war. The last of these to pass through was Michael Palteologus, after recovering the city from the Latins. It was built up some centuries ago, and is commonly called the ‘ Closed Gate The carvings and bas-reliefs which formerly adorned it have long since disappeared, the only ornamentation to be seen on it now being the Sultan’s monogram over the Turkish coat of arms.

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Bishops and the Patriarch’s throne

Gold alone was not thought good enough for the altar; this was therefore made of a combination of gems set in silver and gold. The doors were of ivory, amber, and cedar, the outer one being silver- plated. The seven seats for the bishops and the Patriarch’s throne, forming a semicircle at the back of the altar, were all silver-plated. The building contains nearly every kind of known marble, comprising the green from Laconia, the white, black- veined Bosporus marble, the white Phrygian with its pink streaks, with others from Asia Minor and Egypt. The columns number 107 in all, of which 67 are in the galleries.

More or less extensive repairs have been effected by various emperors and sultans ; the last were in 1848, in the reign of Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid, and were entrusted to the Italian architects, Possati Brothers.

The Mosque of St. Sophia is 235 feet N. and S. by 250 feet E. and W. At its western end is an open court, the ancient Atrium (A), containing a round fountain, used for the Muhammadan ablutions. In the very centre of this court, very probably on the site of the Turkish fountain, stood the Phiale, a large marble basin with two jets of water constantly running, where worshippers performed their ablutions before entering the church, and which bore the inscription, NDBON ANOMH- MATA MH MONAN O’T’IN, signifying ‘ Cleanse thine iniquities, not thy face only curious from the fact of its reading the same whether perused the right way or backwards. The Outer Narthex (B) with its five doors was on the eastern side of the Atrium; and the belfry (C) was over the main entrance private istanbul tour. The Outer Narthex is devoid of any ornamentation; its five doors were called ‘ the Doors of the Armenians from the latter having taken part in the fifth General Council while the doors were being built. These gave access to the Inner Narthex.

MIXAHA NIKHTHN

Both the nartheces were reserved for catechumens and penitents. This latter hall is 205 feet long by 26 feet wide, and its walls and ceiling are covered with mosaic work. At its northern and at its southern sides are low doorways, giving access to the women’s galleries. The South porch, which is a double one, was reserved for the Emperor and his suite; it was erected by the Emperor Theo- philus, and is sheathed with bronze plating bearing several crosses and Byzantine monograms. At the top of the right-hand door is a fragment of an inscription, MIXAHA NIKHTHN (‘Michael of the Conquerors ’). All the doors bear crosses which the Turks have altered to resemble trident prongs.

The nave is entered through nine gates, the central one of which was formerly styled “ Pyle Vasilike ” or Royal Gate, and is that through which the Emperor entered, and where he was met by the Patriarch. On the bronze cornice over the gate is carved a lectern and a copy of the Gospels. The book is represented as open at the passage from St. John : ‘ I am the door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture ”. The four mosaic figures above this cornice are now but dimly visible through the wash the Turks have put over them. The figure between the medallions of the Virgin and St. John the Baptist is Christ seated on a throne. His right hand holds a volume open at the words ‘ Peace be unto you; I am the light of the world ’; and with his left he is blessing a kneeling emperor.

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WHY BULGARIA WITHIN THE BYZANTINE WORLD

PREFACE

WHY BULGARIA WITHIN THE BYZANTINE WORLD? For this area of the European space in which the Bulgarians found their homeland, belonged for good and all to a cultural circle setting its profound mark on the fate and culture of all the nations that created states during the Middle Ages.

Bulgaria, established in the seventh century, was all an enemy, an ally, a rival, and a partner of the Eastern Empire we name Byzantium. The seats in the Balkans became the ground of its culture where the Antiquity proceeded to the Middle Ages. There the deep-rooted traditions preserved their triumphs to transform them into an integral part and wealth of the new sovereigns of the territories of the Bulgarians.

Byzantium was the mightiest source of ideas, patterns, model examples and rivalry for the Bulgarians. Captivating its territory from the Empire, the newborn state became related with it, waged wars against it, clashed with it, adopted models in all the spheres of life or freed itself, fell under its impact still searching its friendship, or fought for supremacy. In the course of nearly two centuries (10th – 12th), it fell again within the state and political system of Byzantium as this circumstance enriched it still further on.

This quite complicated picture of the relations between Bulgaria and thousand of years old Empire, enriched by the spirits of its predecessors and the variegated ethno – cultural amalgamation of its heterogeneous population reflected on and can be illustrated by the material and artistic reaching.

Bulgaria belonged actively to the Medieval Christian world and shared its cultural values thanks again to its affiliation to the Byzantine circle. Thus, the territories of the future state of the Bulgarians have preserved till our day the trace of a large-scale development connected with the spread and recognition of the world religion. Temples and monasteries were set up even in the most secret recesses of the Byzantine Balkan provinces between 4th and 7th centuries. Today their ruins spring up from the soil, like St. Sophia in Serdica, the Old Metropolitan Church in Mesambria bulgaria private tours, the Red Church in Perushtitsa, or the basilica in Belovo, to let us appraise this soil as an artistic seat and integral part of the cultural commonwealth of Byzantium.

The sculptural workshops on the Island of Prokonnesos in the Sea of Marmara worked for the decora-tion and furnishing of these elite edifices. The most exquisite pieces of work designed for the imperial constructions of the Capital city of Constantinople were employed as model examples. The light coming from the temple windows swept up the multi-colour mosaics on the floors and inspired life in scenes and images on the walls. The painted tombs in the necropolis of Serdica, the floor mosaic of St. Sophia Church, and the angels on the arches of the Red Church almost two hundred years later outline the course and the achievements of the artistic creation.

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Greek colonizers

Balchik is one of the oldest and most beautiful coastal towns with a population of 11,861. It was founded in the 6th century B.C. by Greek colonizers. Its first name was Cruni, meaning spring, owing to the numerous springs around. Balchik existed in Roman times as a seaport and had its own mint. Later it became the possession of the Boyar Balik and bears his name, After the Balkan War of 1912-1913 it came within the boundaries of Romania and was returned to Bulgaria by the Craiova Treaty of September 21, 1940.

The most interesting sight in Balchik is the park belonging to the Palace of Queen Maria of Romania, It is now a botanical garden with 3,000 species of plants, among them a unique collection of cactuses. The Palace rises above the shore and the small church was transferred from the island of Crete, stone by stone. Ancient amphorae, Turkish tombstones and fountains can be seen scattered about in the park,

Hotels: Balchik, three stars, with 68 beds sightseeing turkey; Raketa, two stars, with 36 beds. There is also the Bisser camp site, two stars, with a restaurant, the Tihiya Kut.

Eight kilometres from Balchik towards Varna is Albena, the newest and most picturesque seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The sea here is clean and shallow and the beach is six kilometres long. There are 40 hotels with a total of 12,750 beds, as well as the camp sites Albena, Ekzotika and International many restaurants and entertainment spots with 10,000 seats, most of these being situated at some distance from the hotels.

There are good sports facilities: volleyball, basketball and tennis courts, golf links, croquet greens, bowling alleys, horse riding, cycling, a yachting club and go-carts. Next to Kardam Hotel is a men’s and women’s tailor, shoemaker’s, watchmaker’s and a dry-cleaning and pressing shop. At the entrance to the resort is the post office, open from 6 a.m. to 10 pm.

Varna, Zlatni Pyassatsi, Drouzhba, Tolbukhin and Balchik

A regular bus service connects it with Varna, Zlatni Pyassatsi, Drouzhba, Tolbukhin and Balchik and a six-seater cutter makes regular trips to Balchik, Kavarna and Kaliakra.

Exhibitions of the works of leading Bulgarian painters, cartoonists and graphic artists are organized in the hotel lobbies. The Miss Albena and the Miss Cherno More beauty contests are held in July and August.

There are several places of entertainment offering interesting programmes and excellent cuisine.

The Zlaten Klass Taverna, next to the Orlov Hotel is open from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The Dobroudja Taverna in the shopping centre, is open from 11.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

The Old House Restaurant in national style, with folk orchestra (near the Dobrich restaurant) is open from 6.00 p.m. to 12.00 pm.

Alberta

Hotels; 1. Gergana 2. Slavourta 3. Moura 4. Elitsa 5. Nona 6. Boryana 11. Ralitsa 13, Kiev 14. Vihren 16. Kom 17. Leipzig 18. Dnepr 19. Neptun 20. Bratislava 21. Karvouna 22. Balik 23. Tervel 24. Kaliopa 25. Orlov 27, Slavyanka 29. Drouzhba 30. Praga 31. Kompas 32 Shabla 33. Orhidea 34. Warshava 35. Kamelia 36, 36. Dorostol 37. Kardam 40. Zvezda 41. Avrora 42. Dobroudja 43, Ka)iakra44. Lovech 45. Zdravets 46. Zomitsa

Gorski Tsar Night Club has a nightly concert programme. Open from 9.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m.

Arabella Night Club, close to the beach, is open from 9,00 p.m. to 4.00 a m.

Batova Picnic — 18 kilometres from the resort with delicious food and a floor show. Open from 11,00 am fo 12.00 p.m,

Robinson — a picnic ground near Baichik. Interesting programme every day from 10.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

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Yablamtsa

The road leads on to Yablamtsa (3,500), an important transport centre. A detour to the right leads to Glozhene monastery, perched on the inaccessible rocks of peak Lisets. Not far from it is the Gradeshnitsa cave with underground lakes and chambers. Further on are the resorts Teteven (pop.

14,0) , in one of the most beautiful spots of the Balkan Range, and Ribaritsa which is 12 km southeast of Teteven between the Rivers Ribaritsa and Beli Vit.

In Teteven is a Balkantourist hotel, Teteven, accommodating 115, with restaurant, night club, cafe, information office (tel.: 2246). Some 7 km away, south of the village of Malka Brestnitsa, is one of the most picturesque caves in Bulgaria — the Sueva Doupka cave. It is 205-metre-long and has 5 halls of different sizes. Further east along E-771 there is a deviation which leads to the picturesque town of Troyan t pop. 24,000) situated along the Beli Ossum river at Troyan Pass. Ruins from the Roman Trajan road are preserved here. The only building of the old town which existed prior to the liberation from the Turks is the police station, which survived the 1877 fire caused by the Turks. Now it bouses the history museum. The town has a museum of arts and crafts and applied arts, the only one of its kind in Bulgaria. The town is a climatic mountain resort. The Troyan hotel, 2 stars, 2 floors, has 4 suites and 122 beds, restaurant, day bar, cafe, an information office (tel.: 42-23 and 23-96).

The resort Oreshak

The resort Oreshak (pop. 2,600) is 5 km east of the town, in the valley of the River Chemi Ossum. It is a well known art centre for applied arts and has a national exhibition of arts and crafts.

10 km from Troyan, on the left bank of the Cherni Ossum is Troyan Monastery — Bulgaria’s third largest monastery, founded in 1600 with icons by Zahari Zograph. The encarved wood iconostasis was made by Tryavna carvers. During Ottoman domination the monastery was the cradle of Bulgarian nationalism and spirit. There are 200 beds for guests.

We retrace our steps, cross E-771 and continue northwards reaching the town of Lovech — (pop. 47,000), built on both banks of the River Ossum. Settlements existed here in pre-historic, Thracian and Roman times. The Romans built the strong Melta fortress which the Bulgarian rulers Assen and Peter used in 1187 sofia daily tours. The headquarters of the Internal Revolutionary Committee in the struggle against Ottoman domination was here. Now the town is an industrial and vine-growing centre. Tourist attractions are the old covered bridge on the Ossuin, built in 1871-1874, the Vassil Levski Museum of National-Liberation, Vassil Levski monument, Stratesh Hill park, the ruins of Lovech fortress. Hotels: Hissarya, 2 stars, tel.: 38-21, Balkan, Stratesh, Moskva. Car-repair shop — 4 Byalo More St., tel. 44-24.

35 km to the north is the big economic, administrative, transport and cultural-historical centre of the Danubian Plain — the city of Pleven (pop. 123,000), situated on the Toucheni- tsa river. The city was founded in the 4th-3rd century B.C. when primitive settlements appeared in the Kaiiuka locality. Later, in the 1st millennia the Thracians settled here, followed by the Romans in the 1st century, who built the Storgozia fortress. During the Middle Ages invaders repeatedly destroyed the town and the fortress, which were later restored.

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The village of Koprinka

Mention should also be made of the gold and silver jewelry, earrings, bracelets and rings, some of which are distinguished by their particularly fine workmanship. Of late years, a wealth of medieval jewelry has come to light during the excavations at several medieval necropolises, among which that at the village of Koprinka, in the region of Kazanluk, dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries, the Lovech necropolis, dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and that of Loukovit, dating back to the 11th to 13th centuries. Numerous graves were found in the last two, quite rich in different pieces of jewelry, such as rings, ear-rings, fragments of garments, segments of iron belts and so on.

Our knowledge of medieval pottery in the Bulgarian lands has also been considerably supplemented by the digging done in Turnovo, where large numbers of glazed vessels came to light, with linear ornaments, mostly plant and geometric patterns, among which, however, images of people and animals are not infrequently found. This pottery was very widespread. It is found in all the old settlements of the 13th and 14 centuries. Much new material has also been recently found in Nessebur. Though in different variants city tour istanbul, this pottery was known all over the Eastern medieval world.

The invasion of the Ottomans

The invasion of the Ottomans put an end to the rapid advance in the development of the Bulgarian medieval society. At a time when the Western European peoples were beginning to break the chains of feudalism and religious obscurantism, and when the road to the Renaissance was opening up before them, the dark night of five centuries of political, economic and spiritual bondage fell over the Bulgarian people.

The road to their renascence, along which they had already taken the first steps, was barred. But this triple bondage, political, economic and spiritual, was unable to destroy the Bulgarian nationality. The sound cultural traditions of centuries, their glorious past, the past of acreat- ive people, preserved the national consciousness despite the despot ism of the Ottomans, which weighed so heavily upon them. In spite of everything, Ottoman bondage was unable to crush the Bulgarian people’s creative genius. It only retarded their development by 500 years.

In 1393 Turnovo, the stubbornly defended capital, fell at last. This, was, actually, the end of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, the end of the Bulgarian people’s political and cultural independence. The conquest of the country was accompanied by the destruction of flourishing cities, of valuable monuments of the past, and by the slaughter of the most outstanding representatives of the Bulgarian people, who were thus crippled both politically and intellectually.

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Greeks and Thracians

The Iliad and the Odyssey reflect the first clashes of Greeks and Thracians along the Aegean coast, when the Greeks were trying to colonize the Thracian shores, perhaps as early as the 8th or 7th century B. C. We are acquainted with Thracian pottery of that period, which is distinguished by its comparatively beautiful forms and the black brilliance of its surfaces. But it is the wonderful gold treasure found at Vulchi Trun, Pleven district, and now in the Sofia Museum, consisting of 13 vessels weighing 12.425 kg. and made of pure massive gold, which is particularly eloquent of the great changes that took place in the social relations of the Thracians at that time. The technique used in making these vessels is amazing, and so are the perfect skill with which the incrustations are made, and the strange forms of certain of the vessels. This treasure was undoubtedly the property of an eminent Thracian chieftain of the 8th century B. C.

The well known four bronze axes, found at different places in North and South Bulgaria, ornamented with rather schematically presented heads or whole bodies of animals, horned cattle or sheep, are also considered as belonging to this same early period. In style, they are closely linked with the culture of the Caucasian peoples. A small bronze amulet, representing a stag, and found at the village of Mihailovo (Dolna Gnoynitsa), near Oryahovo, also strongly recalls the well known amulets of Koban. Finally, one more bronze figurine of a stag, found in the region or Sevlievo tours bulgaria, should also be mentioned, as it is distinguished by the strongly conventionalized and geometrically shaped forms of the body. All these finds, as well as certain bronze fibulae, bracelets and so on, show the close cultural links of these lands with the culture of the tribes of the Lower Danu- bian lands and the Caucasus in the early iron age.

From the 6th century on, both the written data on and the archaeological monuments of the Thracians grow more and more plentiful. The Greek historians Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and others, give us detailed information on the Thracian tribes. The most important of these, the Moesians and the Triballi, were settled north of the Balkan Range, the Getae in North-Eastern Bulgaria, the Odrysae to the South in the valley of the Hebrus (Maritsa), while the Bessi inhabited the Rhodope region, along the upper reaches of this river.

Edoni and Odomanti

The tribes of Edoni and Odomanti, and beyond them the Satrae are frequently mentioned in South-East Macedonia. The lands of the basins of the Central and the Upper Strouma were inhabited by the Sintae and Dentheletae. To the West of them was the big tribe of the Paeonians, of which it cannot yet be said with any degree of certainty whether they belonged to the Thracian ethnical circle or to that of the Illyrians. The south-eastern lands of the peninsula were inhabited by a whole series of tribes, among which the Astae occupied an important place.

To the west, the Thracians bordered on the Illyrian tribes. The question of the reciprocal cultural influences of Thracians and Illyrians, who are considered the bearers of the Hallstatt culture in the Balkans, has not been studied as yet at all thoroughly. No systematic research work has been done in the border regions of these tribes. To the south-west, the Macedonians appeared very early and in the second half of the millenium they gradually laid hands on extensive Thracian regions to the east of the valley of the Vardar River, the ancient Axius, as far as the valley of the Strouma. Their rulers Philip II (359-336 B. C.) and Alexander III (336-323 B. C.) tried to conquer the remaining Thracian lands as well.

Nor was the picture to the north-east any different. Here, since time immemorial, the Thracians had had the Scythians as their neighbours who, after Darius’s unsuccessful campaign against them (513 B. C.) systematically began to cross the Danube into Thracian lands, and in the 4th century B. C. all Dobroudja of today fell into their hands. The campaigns of Darius (492 B. C.) and of Xerxes (in 480 B. C.) against the European Greeks also passed through the lands of the southernmost Thracians. Classical authors have left us detailed descriptions ol the struggles of the Greek colonists against the Thracian tribes of the coast and the interior. The Thracians did not yield their land to the conquerors so easily; it was rich in gold and silver and other similar wealth.

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ROUSSE

The largest Bulgarian port on the Danube (160,000 inhabitants). Important railway station on the line connecting the northern countries of Europe with the Near East. An industrial, agricultural and cultural centre of an important region in the country. Although rising where the ancient Roman town of Sexaginta Prista (the city of the 60 ships) stood, it is a relatively new place. The Turks built a new town here, Cherven or Rousse. During the last centuries of their rule the Turks paid great attention to Rousse which was a strategic fortress.

On visiting Rousse, the major sights are the following:

Friendship Bridge – linking across the Danube Rousse with the Romanian town of Giurgiu (Gyurgevo).

The Lipnik National Park and the Prista Fishermen’s Hut.

The Ivanovo Rock Monastery (13th century) – 20 km from the town, and the Roman town of Abritus – 65 km from Rousse.

Hotels: Warsaw- tel. 2-40-61, Dounav – 2-67-19, Republica – 2-67-94, Riga.

PLEVEN

The largest town in the Danubian Plain and the regional centre, with 107,000 inhabitants, Pleven is closely connected with the history of Bulgaria and especially with the historic battles during the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation of 1877-1878, a testimony to which are more than 100 monuments. Today they are visited by all, but most of all by Soviet tourists ephesus sightseeing.

In the centre of the town stands the Mausoleum, in which the bones of the Russian and Romanian soldiers are kept, who gave their lives for the frxlom of the town. There is also a Museum of Pleven’s Liberation, the Skobelev Museum-Park; other museums are in the nearby villages of Grivitsa and Pordim.

Remarkable for its layout is the Kailuka National Park, with restaurahts, akes and sports facilities.

Hotels: Balkan – 31-10, Rostov-on-Don, 2 Alexiev St., tel. 70-95; Kailuka, tel. 35-15; Kailuka Camp Site – with 20 bungalows with 40 beds.

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Falsify a national record

It is preposterous that an incumbent and his churchwardens, a dean and chapter, a mayor and aldermen, a warden and benchers, a highway board, or a borough corporation, should be free to deface a national relic, and falsify a national record. At the very least, a parish church should be as well protected by law as a parish register is against wanton defacement and falsification of its contents. In principle the idea is admitted by the need for a ‘faculty.’ But a ‘faculty’ is become a melancholy form; and no ‘ faculty ’ is needed by the trustees who sell an ancient edifice to a builder’s speculation, by the highway board which carts away a tower or a gate, or ‘ restores ’ and ‘ improves ’ a bridge.

Our glorious Milton said, in a passage as immortal as his poems, ‘as good almost kill a Man as kill a good Book.’ We may add: ‘As good almost kill a good Book as kill an ancient Building.’ The one is as irrecoverable as the other; it may teach us as much; it should affect us even more. See how the words of that most Biblical of passages, which Isaiah himself might have uttered, apply to the building as much as to the book. Is not a great historic abbey ‘an immortality rather than a life’? Is not the cathedral, too, ‘the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life ’? Are not these ‘ restorers ’ and ‘ improvers ’ of our public monuments the men who ‘spill that seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in ’ the buildings which our forefathers raised, in which their lives were recorded, and their best work was bestowed?

Master spirit

Every work of art has in it ‘ the precious life-blood of a master-spirit; ’ but a work of great architecture and historic importance has in it the precious life-blood of many a master-spirit. And the humblest ancient monument, though it be a petty parish church or a market cross, has this ‘seasoned life of man preserved in it.’ Like the picture, the statue, the poem, in every work of art, the precious life-blood of the master-spirit which informs it should make it sacred from sacrilegious hands. But the building has also that which picture, statue, and poem have not — the religio loci private turkey tours. ‘ The place whereon thou standest is holy ground,’ may be said of every historic monument. Nay more.

The ancient building is marked by a filiation of master-spirits. Like the Saxon ‘Chronicle,’ or the ‘Annals of Waverley,’ it is not a fixed but a current record. It is a continuous and moving monument—at once contemporary like annals, and yet organic like a history. The great Charter, ‘ Domesday,’ the Bayeux tapestry, are records of given moments in the national life. But in the Abbey and its precincts may be seen the works of English hands, continuously for a thousand years, generation after generation, typical contemporary work. Now, the humblest old parish church partakes of this quality of continuous typical work for centuries.

It is monstrous that any man, any body of men, even any single generation, should claim the right in the name of property, or their office, or their present convenience, to destroy in a moment the continuous work of centuries, to desecrate the best work of their forefathers, and to rob their own descendants of their common birthright. Who gave this rare and inimitable value to the ancient building? Not they, nor even the first founders of it. Generation after generation stamped their mark on it, recorded their thoughts in it, poured into it their precious life-blood. It is an aggregate product of their race, a social possession of all. Whence came the religio loci which casts a halo over it? From no single author, from no set of builders: from a long succession of ancestral generations to whom it has grown a sacred and national symbol. That precious value which time, society, the nation, have given it, is now at the mercy of any man, or any board.

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The paint may be overdone

The paint may be overdone; the colours are not always harmonious; the new glass is not equal to the old. But its restoration by the most learned of modern antiquarians enables the unlearned to judge the effect of Gothic architecture in its glory, and to understand the pregnant remark of Mr. Fergusson that Gothic architecture might well be named the painted-glass style of building. To the historian, this Chapel, the domestic oratory of St. Louis, the purest hero of the Middle Ages, the church of the palace of the French kings in their noblest era, the entrancing masterpiece of pointed architecture, must remain as one of the typical buildings in the world.

The mass of buildings, of which the Sainte Chapelle is part, exactly answers to our palace of Westminster; and our palace alone can compare with it as a relic of the Feudal monarchy. The Conciergerie prison, the adjacent hall, and the towers which we see along the Quai de l’Horloge, cor-respond with the remains of the old palace of Westminster, which was finally destroyed when the Houses of Parliament were built. The Sainte Chapelle answers to St. Stephen’s, of which the exquisite crypt alone survived the fire of 1834. Westminster Hall answers to the Salle des Pas Perdus, which took the place of the great Hall of St. Louis private tours istanbul. The Palais de Justice answers to the Law Courts of Westminster which were in use till removed in 1882.

Clock Tower

The Tour de V Horloge exactly repeats our Clock Tower. Now the French palace is in foundation far more ancient than the English; more of its ancient parts remain; and its historical record is longer, and almost more crowded with incident, than our own. The French palace is the successor of the Municipal palace of Roman Lutetia; and traces of this building have been preserved. It was certainly the Parisian palace of Clovis and his dynasty, of Charlemagne and his dynasty, and it was the capital seat of the Counts of Paris, when they became kings of France. It only ceased to be a royal residence in the age of Francis 1. and Henri 11. It was thus for a thousand years the home of the monarchs of the Seine valley. It is significant of French history that, whereas in England Parliament has finally ousted both Monarchy and Justice from the Palace of Westminster and installed itself in the royal abode and even taken its name, in Paris it is Justice and Police which have appropriated the Palace in the island Citt and have long ago ousted both Parliament and Monarchy.

In England we have nothing of the old palace left but the crypt of St. Stephen’s, some cloisters, a few chambers, and the great Hall. In France they have rebuilt their old Hall; but they have their Chapel almost entire. And whereas in Westminster we have the old palace now rebuilt, and absorbed in Barry’s modern perpendicular, in Paris they have still the shell of the old towers and gateway, and some fine work of the age of St. Louis within the Conciergerie building.

There is some noble masonry in what is called the Kitchen of St. Louis, evidently the substructure of his palace, and many other parts of his work within the precincts of the prison. Few prisons have a record more stirring. Here, during the Revolution, all the chief prisoners passed their last hours. We may still see the cell where Marie Antoinette uttered her last prayers, where Robespierre lay in agony, and Danton and Vergniaud thundered out their latest perorations,—and they show you, too, the traditional scene of the mythical last supper of the Girondins, which figures so melodramatically in the famous romance of Lamartine.

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Capital from Rome to Byzantium

The removal of the imperial capital from Rome to Byzantium was one of the most decisive acts on record — a signal monument of foresight, genius, and will. Madrid, St. Petersburg, Berlin, are also capital cities created by the act of a powerful ruler. But none of these foundations can compare in scale and in importance with the tremendous task of moving the seat of empire a thousand miles to the East, from the centre of Italy to the coast of Asia, from a Latin to a Greek city, from a pagan to a Christian population.

The motives which impelled Constantine to this momentous step were doubtless complex. Since the time of Trajan, Rome had not been the constant residence of the Emperors, except of Antoninus Pius, nor the regular seat of government. Since the time of Diocletian, Rome had been abandoned as the official centre of the empire. Many places east of it had been tried; and Constantine, when resolved on the great change, seriously contemplated two, if not three local ephesus tour guides, other sites. It had long been agreed that the imperial seat must be transferred towards the East; and there was an instinctive sense that the valley of the Tiber was no longer safe from the incessant onward march of the Teutonic nations in arms.

Asia Minor and the Euphrates

The tendency was to get somewhere south of the Danube, and within reach of Asia Minor and the Euphrates. The greater chiefs had all felt that the empire must be recast, both politically and spiritually. By the fourth century it was clear that the empire must break with the rooted prejudices that surrounded the Senate of Rome and the gods of the Capitol. And Constantine, the halfconscious and half-convinced agent of the great change — the change from the ancient world to the modern world, from polytheism to Christianity—saw in the Church and Bishop of Rome a power which would never be his creature. Dante tells us that ‘ Caesar became a Greek in order to give place to the Roman pastor.’ There is much in this: but it is not the whole truth, for Caesar might have become a Spaniard, or a Gaul, or an Illyrian. Dante might have added that Caesar became an Oriental, in order to give place to the Goth. Constantinople from the first was a Christian city, with an orthodox Church; but it was a Church that was, from the first, a department of the State.

The topography, apart from the geography of Constantinople, may demand some words; for the history of the city from Constantine to Abdul Hamid is based on its physical characters. We cannot doubt that the many delights of this spot, the varied resources of the surrounding country, the combination of sea, bay, mountain, valley, terrace, and garden, as these rise one beyond the other, have made Constantinople for fifteen centuries the residence of Emperors and Caliphs, the dream and pride of nations, and the crown of imperial ambition.

Those who approach Constantinople from Greece, as all men should, have sailed through that long panorama of island, mountain, and headland which the Aegean Sea presents, past ‘Troy town’ and the unknown home of its minstrel; and every rock recalls some tale or poem for the three thousand years since European thought and arts rose into being across those waters. The Hellespont has been passed with its legends and histories, and the sea of Marmora with its islands of marble, its rich shores and distant ranges of mountain — and as the morning sun touches the crescents on her domes, the eternal city of New Rome bursts into view, looking on the East and the South across the blue waters of Propontis and Bosphorus, with her seven hills rising towards Europe one behind the other, each crowned with cupola and minaret, amidst arcaded terraces, and groves of acacia, myrtle, and cypress.

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In the Revival

In the Revival, the Pantheon became the type of all the domed buildings of Europe — first as the parent of the dome of Florence, thence of the dome of St. Peter’s, through St. Peter’s of our own St. Paul’s, and so the parent of all the spherical domes of the Old and the New World. As such a type, it was the especial study of the humanist artists of the Revival, and so perhaps it was chosen for the tomb of Raphael. There, amidst a company of painters, scholars, and artists, his sacred ashes lie in perfect preservation; and but lately he has been joined in death by the first king of United Italy, who lies in a noble monument, round which Catholic and Liberals are still glaring at each other in hate. Plundered by Christian emperors, plundered by popes and cardinals, the Pantheon still remains, to my eyes, the most impressive, original, and most perfect building extant.

Imagine the Pantheon in its glory, before it was stripped of its gold, its bronze, marbles, and statues by emperors and popes. Conceive that vast, solid dome, still the largest span in the world — nearly one half more than the diameter of St. Paul’s — the first great dome ever raised by man, the grand invention of Romans, of which the Greeks in all their art never dreamed. The dome, with the round arch out of which it sprang, is the most fertile conception in the whole history of building. The Pantheonbecame the parent of all subsequent domes, and so of that of The Holy Wisdom at Constantinople, which was the parent of the Byzantine oblate domes of Europe and of Asia mystical bulgaria tours.

Moulded and plated within

We can recall to the mind’s eye its roof of solid concrete, moulded and plated within, and covered with gilt bronze plates without; with its statues, the enormous columns of rare marbles and granite, its upper story of porphyry and serpentine, lit only by one great circle thirty feet in diameter, through which the open sky by day and the stars by night look down on the marble pavement. To this wonderful building, the one relic of the ancient world in its entirety, the builders of all after ages turned. For five centuries the Roman world turned to it; till out of it arose a new art in Constantinople.

Then in the fifteenth century at the Revival the humanist artists turned again to this same great work; it gave rise first to the dome of Florence, and then one hundred and fifty years later, to the dome of St. Peter’s; from St. Peter’s the dome spread over the world — the Pantheon and the Invalides at Paris, St. Paul’s in London, the Capitol at Washington, the Isaac Church at St. Petersburg are mere imitations of St. Peter’s. And thus from the Pantheon has sprung the architecture which from Chile to Chicago, from the British Islands to the Turkish Empire, from St. Petersburg to Sicily, is seen in a thousand varieties, and in ten thousand examples.

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In Brittany to be miserable heaps of dirt

The poor people’s habitations he finds in Brittany to be ‘miserable heaps of dirt.’ There, as so often elsewhere in France, no glass window, scarcely any light; the women furrowed without age by labour. ‘One-third of what I have seen of this province seems uncultivated, and nearly all of it in misery.’ ‘Nothing but privileges and poverty.’ And every one remembers what these privileges were — ‘ these tortures of the peasantry ’ he calls them — of which in one sentence he enumerates twenty-eight.

And now, in 1889, turn to these same provinces, to the third generation in descent from these very peasants. ‘The desert that saddened Arthur Young’s eyes,’ writes Miss Betham-Edwards to-day, ‘may now be described as a land of Goshen, overflowing with milk and honey.’ ‘The land was well stocked and cultivated, the people were neatly and appropriately dressed, and the signs of general contentment and well-being delightful to contemplate.’ In one province, a million acres of waste land have been brought into cultivation. In five or six years, wrote the historian Mignet, ‘ the Revolution quadrupled the resources of civilisation private tours istanbul.’

Where Arthur Young saw the miserable peasant woman, Miss Betham-Edwards tells us that today the farmers’ daughters have for portions ‘several thousand pounds.’ What Arthur Young calls an ‘unimproved, poor, and ugly country,’ Miss Betham-Edwards now finds to be ‘one vast garden.’ In the landes, where the traveller saw nearly a hundred miles of continuous waste, 700,000 acres have been fertilised by canals, and a very small portion remains in the state in which he found it. ‘Maine and Anjou have the appearance of deserts,’ writes the traveller of 1789. ‘ Sunny, light-hearted, danceloving Anjou ’ appears to the traveller of 1889 a model of prosperity and happiness. Where he found the peasants living in caves underground, she finds neat homesteads costing more than 6000 francs to build. In Dauphine, where he finds, in 1789, mountains waste or in a great measure useless, she finds, in 1889, choice vineyards that sell at 25,000 francs per acre.

A hundred years

And what has done all this? The prophetic soul of Arthur Young can tell us, though a hundred years were needed to make his hopes a reality. His words have passed into a household phrase where the English tongue reaches: ‘The magic of property turns sand to gold.’ ‘The inhabitants of this village deserve encouragement for their industry,’ he writes of Sauve, ‘and if I was a French minister they should have it. They would soon turn all the deserts around them into gardens.’

‘ Give a man,’ he adds, in a phrase which is now a proverb, ‘the secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a garden; give him a nine years’ lease of a garden, and he will convert it into a desert.’ What has made all this misery? he cries again and again; what has blighted this magnificent country, and crushed this noble people? Misgovernment, bad laws, cruel customs, wanton selfishness of the rich, the powerful, and the privileged. Nothing was ever said more true. Arthur Young’s good legislator came even sooner than he dared to hope, armed with a force more tremendous than he could conceive. It was a minister greater than any Turgot, or Necker, or Mirabeau; who served a sovereign more powerful than Louis or Napoleon. His sovereign was the Revolution; the minister was the new system. And the warm-hearted English gentleman lived to see his ‘great lords skip again’ somewhat too painfully. The storm has passed, the blood is washed out; but the ‘ red fool-fury, of the Seine ’ has made rural France the paradise of the peasant.

Let us take a typical bit of the country here and there and compare its state in 1789 and in 1889. From Paris and Orleans Arthur Young, in 1787, journeyed southward through Berri and the Limousin to Toulouse. His diary is one cry of pity. ‘ The fields are scenes of pitiable management, as the houses are of misery.’ ‘Heaven grant me patience while I see a country thus neglected, and forgive me the oaths I swear at the absence and ignorance of the possessors.’ ‘The husbandry poor and the people miserable.’ ‘The poor people who cultivate the soil here are mttayers, that is, men who hire the soil without ability to stock it—a miserable system that perpetuates poverty and excludes instruction.’