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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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Turk or Christian
As I have already stated, there was no Mudir in this village at the time of the outbreak, and his wife could not therefore have been killed. Of the twelve cases of Turkish women killed, we have therefore investigated five, and found that three of them were without the slightest foundation. As we cannot learn the names of the villages where the seven other women were killed, we cannot investigate, and we therefore take the liberty of doubting.
The story told by Edib Effendi, of a Turkish girl who was killed and then mutilated in so disgusting a manner, is a pure fiction. We have not been able to discover the least trace of it. Nobody, Turk or Christian, in Tatar-Bazardjik, near where it is said to have occurred, ever heard of it; nor did the different Consuls in Philippopolis, who received daily reports of every thing that was going on throughout the whole district from the beginning of the troubles, ever hear of it until they saw the report of Edib Effendi.
The truth is that the story is an impudent falsehood, invented by Edib Effendi, which has not even the semblance of probability. This state of things continued in Pana- gurishti Sightseeing Turkey, or Otluk-kui, for nine or ten days, during which time nine Turks and two Turkish women were killed. All of these but the two women and the one zaptieh were killed with arms in their hands.
Altogether during this time some twenty prisoners were taken, and these were well treated and cared for until the Turkish army came on and released them. It should be remembered that I am not giving the story of one person alone in making these statements, for since my conversation with the schoolmistress we have been to Panagurishti, have compared her story with the accounts received from other people, and find it corroborated in every particular. To tell the truth, it scarcely needed corroboration, for the Turks themselves, neither here nor at Philippopolis, do not claim more killed than the number above stated.
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Capital at Prespa and later at Ohrid
A huge part of the state – the lands between the Danube, the Black Sea and the Balkan Range – fell in Byzantine hands. What remained of Bulgaria – the Western Kingdom, with its capital at Prespa and later at Ohrid – was ruled by King Samuel (991 — 1014) and his brothers – David, Moses and Aaron. They tried to restore the territory of the state by wedging a war against Byzantium but soon David and Moses were killed, and on suspicion of betrayal Aaron was executed by Samuel. The King succeeded to liberate the north-eastern parts of the state and led his army to the south aiming at Thrace, Macedonia and the city of Thessaloniki. Once again luck betrayed the Bulgarians and after loosing several battles the eastern part of the state was ripped off by Byzantium. In July 1014 an epic battle took place in Macedonia Visit Bulgaria. The Bulgarians were defeated; 15 000 soldiers were captured and the Emperor Basil II ordered all to be blinded leaving just a single Since break of day, O mother, dear mother, faintly glowing, Upon their way, O mother, dear mother, troops are going. Horse after horse, O mother, dear mother, soldier on soldier, Swords like the sun, O mother, dear mother, shining boldly.
Taken from a folk poetry dedicated to Tsar Ivan Shishman, translated by Peter Tempest
The Second Bulgarian Kingdom: 1185 – 1396
Bulgaria under the Dynasty of the Assenids
The period of Byzantine subjugation lasted for 168 years but the Bulgarians did not submit to the oppressors. The Bulgarian lands became the boundary between Europe and the Empire. The devastating marches of the First (1096-1097) and the Second (1147) crusades ran across the Bulgarian territory. The Byzantine Empire fell in a crisis in the summer of 1185 – being attacked simultaneously by the Seljuk Turks, the Magyars, the Pechenegs and the Normans – and increased the taxation burden on the Bulgarian population which provoked mass discontent among the oppressed. The struggle against Byzantium was headed by Petar and Assen, two boyars who held the fortress of Turnovo. In the autumn of the same year the rising was proclaimed to the assembled people in the Church of St Demetrius and Petar (1185-1197) was crowned for the first tsar of the second Bulgarian kingdom, with Turnovo as his capital…
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The Maiden’s Stone
Martian’s Column, called Kiz-tashi (‘ The Maiden’s Stone ’) by the Turks, stands n what is now a garden attached to a Turkish private house, at the back of the Saddlebag bazaar. It is 33 feet high, of granite, with a Corinthian marble capital, and a cippus with an eagle at each corner. On it once stood the statue of the Emperor Marcian. The pedestal standing on three steps is ornamented with a crown of victory and a cross. The inscription, which is somewhat illegible owing to the worn condition of the inlaid metal characters composing it, runs: Principis hanc statuam Mar- ciani cerne torumque Dccius ter vovit quod Tatianus opus. The Tatian referred to was probably the city prefect.
Column of Arcadius, now called Avrat Task by the Turks, stands on the top of the seventh hill, on the site of the Forum of Arcadius; it was begun by Arcadius and completed by his son, Theodosius II., in 421 A.D. Earthquakes and frequent fires rendered this monument so unsafe that, in 1695, the greater part of it had to be pulled down, which reduced its height of 158 feet to 20 feet. The column was hollow, and a spiral staircase of some 233 steps, lit by some 56 loopholes, led to the top, which commanded a splendid view of the city and suburbs. The silver statue of Arcadius that stood on it fell during the earthquake of 740 A.D., and was never replaced. Winding round what yet remains of the column are a series of bas-reliefs, representing the Emperor’s victories over the Scythians. The interior of the pedestal is now the only accessible part. On the ceiling of one of the chambers composing it are the letters
AQUEDUCTS, CISTERNS, FOUNTAINS
The difficulty of supplying Constantinople with water has engaged the attention of successive emperors from Hadrian and Yalens down to the reigning Sultan. A supply was obtained by constructing large reservoirs in the neighbouring mountains, where the rain-water was collected, and whence it was conveyed by aqueducts to subterranean cisterns within the city. This system has, however, in recent years been to a great extent superseded by the construction of Lake Derkos waterworks, by means of which a French company, founded under an imperial charter, supplies the city with an abundance of very fair water.
The Aqueduct of Valens, called Bosdoghan Kem&ri by the Turks, is 1884 feet long, and was built by Yalens in 366 A.D. of stone taken from the walls of Chalcedon, when they were pulled down to punish the inhabitants of the suburb for having sided with Procopius against Yalens. It has been repaired successively by Theodosius, Justin II., and Constantine Copronymus; while, after the Turkish dominion set in, Suleiman the Magnificent caused it to be rebuilt almost from its foundations : hence the two different slyles of construction which Count Andreossi notices in it This aqueduct was carried on double arches, the lower of which is 32 feet high, and the upper 27 feet, begins in the At Bazaar quarter, not far from Sultan Muhammad’s mosque, and terminates at Shah Zadeh mosque. A guide, or a driver who knows the place well, is indispensable, as both the caretaker and the entrance to the aqueduct are difficult to find. The entrance is by no means conspicuous, and is next door to a coffee-house in a street leading to Sultan Muhammad’s mosque. Travellers are recommended to send the carriage on to the other end of the aqueduct to meet them. The charge of 10 piastres (Is. 8d.) per head for admission made by the caretaker is exorbitant.
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Pera Palace Hotel
Travellers should be cautious about employing as guides individuals who accost them in the streets and offer them their services, as these are merely ‘ touts in league with the curiosity dealers, and will do all they can to help these to cheat strangers, Hotels.—The best have been built within the last few years and have a good view of the Golden Horn and the Bosporus:
Pera Palace Hotel, Ivabristan St. Board and residence: 18 to 25 francs per diem.— Hotel – Restaurant, M. Tokat- lian, in the Grande Rue de Pera. Board and residence : 15 to 2 5 francs per day.— Hotel de Londres, in the Petits Champs St. Board and residence: 12 to 20 francs per diem.— Hotel Bristol, in the Petits Champs St. Board and residence: 12 to 2 0 francs per diem.
Restaurants.—In Pera, Splendide Gaft and Brasserie Viennoise, Janni, Grande Rue de Pera. In Galata, the Caft del Genio, close to the Bridge. In Stambul, the Janni Restaurant, opposite the Railway Station, and the Restaurant Tokatlian, close to the Grand Bazaar.
Lager – Beer Saloon – Restaurants.’—Brasserie Viennoise, Janni, Grande Rue de Pera, recommended.
Caffis.—Splendide Gaft, Grande Rue de Pera. Gaft Luxembourg, Grande Rue de Pera, below the Grand Hotel. In Stambul the only good coffee-houses are those in the Divan Yolu Street and Direkler Aghasi Street The best Turkish coffee-houses are on Galata Bridge, close to the Bosporus steamers’ booking-offices. Coffee 30 paras; narghileh if toombeki be provided by smoker 20 paras, if not, 30 paras guided istanbul tour.
The Turkish baths at Constantinople
Baths.—The Turkish baths at Constantinople are far from what they ought to be in regard to cleanliness and accommodation. The best is a small bath near the Old Bridge, on the Pera side and on the tramway line, called ‘Yeshil Direk,’ kept by Hassan Effendi.
Theatres and Music Halls.—There are no theatres worthy of the name in Constantinople. From November to February there are occasional French, Italian, and Greek performances at the Pavilion in the Petits Champs Assembly Gardens, at the Concordia Theatre in the Grande Rue, and the OdAon Theatre, and Turkish plays at the Turkish Theatre at Shehzadeh Bachi, Stambul; the latter should not be visited by ladies.
From July to October there are open-air performances of Italian Opera or French Operetta at the Petits Champs Assembly Gardens, and the Concordia.
The Music Halls, of which there are sometimes two, are merely low cafes chantants, and are on no account to be recommended.
Chemists and Druggists.—Pharmacie Britan- niqice, Grande Rue de Pera.
Medical Men.—A Camburoglou (Surgeon), Dr. Patterson.
British Embassy.—Rue Tepe Bachi, Pera. Summer Residence, Therapia, Upper Bosporus.
British Consulate.—Rue Yoivoda.
U.S. Legation.—Rue Kabristan, Pera.
U.S. Consulate.—13 Rue des Petits Champs, near the Hotel Bristol.
Church of England Services.—British Embassy Chapel, Tepe Bachi, Pera; entrance close to the Royal Hotel. Sunday services—morning, 11 A.M.; evening service, 4 P.M. ; Holy Communion 8 A.M. first Sunday in the month. Closed in summer. Christ Church (Crimea Memorial), Rue Yazidji. Services—Sunday morning, 11 A.M.; evening, 4 P.M.; Holy Communion first Sunday in the month, 8 P.M. Evangelical Union Church ‘ of Pera. Divine service held in the Chapel of the Dutch Legation every Sunday at 11 A.M. Kadikeui Church.
Booksellers.— The Economic Co-operative Society, 5 Passage du Tunnel, Pera. Otto Keil, Grande Rue de Pera, close to the Hotel de Pesth. Weiss, Grande Rue de Pera, opposite the Russian Consulate.
Oriental Rugs.—The Oriental Carpet Manufacturers, Ltd. (British concern). Retail Branch: Pera, Grande Rue No. 327. Fixed prices. Direct from the looms. All intermediaries avoided.
Antiquities and Objects of Art.—Mr. E. Beghian’s Oriental Art Gallery, Stambul, near the Bazaars.
Photographic Requisites.—Photographie “Apollon,” 12 Rue Kabristan, just below Cook’s Ollice. Films for sale; films developed and returned in twenty-four hours. Postal cards.
Jewellers.—J. Adler, Passage du Tunnel; Mecca stones and souvenir spoons. Melkenstein Bros., 517 Grande Rue de Pera.
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ATCHITECTURAL ENSEMBLE
on Tsanko Lavrenov Street
Along the northern side of the steep cobbled street, which goes through the Hisar Gate there is a striking ensemble of some of the most interesting Revival houses in Plovdiv. Because of the terrain the houses stand in a terrace-like order on the northern side of the street. Up on the saddle above Hisar Gate there rises the stately body of the largest Revival house – the home of Argir Kuyumjioghlu. To the right of the Gate you can see the broken up facade of Dimiter Georgiadi’s house. Further down high stone walls hide the houses of Nikola Nedkovich and Ivan Chernozemski. At the very end of the street there rise the bell tower and the dome of the SS. Constantine and Helena Church. The street bears the name of the distinguished Bulgarian painter Tsanko Lavrenov, the author of many paintings of Old Plovdiv.
ARCHITECTURAL ENSEMBLE
on Dr Stoyan Chomakov Street
The Revival Period houses on this street are some of the oldest in Plovdiv, most of them built at the end of the 18th century. At the beginning of the street, behind a high stone wall and at the far end of a spacious courtyard is Kuyumjioghlu’s magnificent house, now the Ethnographic Muse freedom’ in the struggle against the foreign rule bulgaria holidays.
Another quite impressive house is Veren Stambolyan’s. Symmetrical in design, with a gracious bay window overhanging the street, it is situated in a deep gardened courtyard. Most original for its architecture and interior design is the so-called House with the alafrangas. Each room of this house, built at the turn of the 19th c. has an attractive ornamental niche – alafranga – with painted townscapes and decorative patterns. The street is named after a benefactor of education in Plovdiv and its area – father Kiril Nectariev, born in Sopot and for many years a coadjutor at the Plovdiv diocese in the 19th c.
REVIVAL PERIOD HOUSES
Plovdiv’s residential architecture of the Revival Period is a veritable peak in the development of Bulgarian architecture in general. Starting from the end of the 17th c. Plovdiv grew steadily as an important economic centre and in the middle of the 19thc.it was the biggest town in the heartland of the Bulgaria lands. The greater financial means of the population promoted the construction of a new type of urban houses – the so-called Plovdiv house. In the 18th and 19th c. it went through two phases – symmetrical and asymmetrical. The earliest specimens of asymmetrical houses preserved date back to the end of the 18th c.
They have expressive facades broken up by bay windows, balconies facing the courtyard and a veranda with wooden pillars on the ground floor. Some of the noteworthy houses of this type are Furnadjiev House at 53 Dr Stoilov St., the house of Haji Vlasaki Chohadjiyata (housing Old Plovdiv Association), Dr. Vlado’s House at 7 Puldin St., Danchov House and others. The symmetrical type of house appeared in the 30s of the 19th c. Its characteristic feature is a centrally positioned grand drawing-room – hayet, with rooms of equal size standing around it.
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Liberation Stara Zagora
During the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War of Liberation Stara Zagora was among the first to experience freedom and destruction. Confronted with attacks from 30,000-strong Turkish army, the small force of Russians and Bulgarian volunteers was compelled to retreat. The town was plundered and destroyed, and reduced to ashes.
During the war against fascism Stara Zagora was the centre of partisan activities in that area, Today Stara Zagora is a big industrial centre, .and there is a modern opera house, a symphony orchestra, an art gallery, a sports hall and a swimming pool.
Tourist attractions are The District History Museum with exhibits showing the development of Stara Zagora and its district from ancient times to the present day. There are also prehistoric dwellings; The Southern Gate of the fortress wall and an ancient building are 2nd century and there are mosaics from the 4th century private turkey tours.
The Geo Milev Museum House where the poet Geo Milev lived, has a new building in the courtyard devoted to the poets Kiril Ifristov, Nikolai Liliev, Ivan Hadjihristov and Vesselin Hanchev who were all born in Stara Zagora.
There are monuments to those who fell during the 1875 uprising in Stara Zagora, and to the Soviet Army and Lenin.
STARA ZAGORA
The V.I. Lenin Park (Ayazmo), has over 100 types of plants and trees from Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain-In the park there is an open-air theatre, chalet, restaurant and a stadium.
Hotels: Vereya, three stars, 15 single rooms, 209 double rooms and 5 suites, restaurant, bar, night club, coffee shop, information desk and rent-a-car service; Zhelezmk, two stars, with eight single rooms, 89 double rooms and 5 suites, restaurant and information desk.
Haskovo-Kurdjali (54 km)
About 54 km south of Haskovo is Kurdjali (pop. 58,000), on the left bank of the River Arda, founded in the early years of Ottoman rule. Under the Berlin Peace Treaty, Haskovo was incorporated into the boundaries of Eastern Roumelia. After the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria with Eastern Roumelia in 1885, Kurdjali remained within the boundaries of Turkey- It was not until after the Balkan wars that it was restored to Bulgaria.
The rapid development of Kurdjali today is largely due to the two huge dams Stouden Kladenets, east of the town,and Kurdjali to the west.
Hotel Arpezos, three stars, 27 single rooms, 98 double rooms and 13 suites, restaurant, bar, night club, taverna, coffee shop, swimming pools (indoor and outdoor) and rent-a-car service.
Sights: The famous Kurdjali pyramids in the nearby villages of Dobrovolets,Pove£ and Zimzelen are natural formations with colours varying from pale green to pink and yellow according to the various minerals in the rocks.
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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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Aladara
Aladara is one of the most picturesque places in North-East Bulgaria, a combination of the beauties of nature. The high plateau ends in a straight cliff to the north, forming an abyss over 100 metres deep. There are huge caves at the loot of the cliff, and numerous springs. Conditions were favourable here for man to settle even in pre-historic times. From that day to this the site has been inhabited without interruption. Numerous remains of different cultures of all historical periods have accumulated. We find remains of the Eneolithic Age, and of the Iron Age too.
The remains of a big Roman villa were found, quite low, at the approaches to the cliff. There was an old Thracian shrine under the big cave around the springs, in which votive tablets of the Thracian Horseman were found, and of other dei-ties also. The ruins of buildings of the Bulgarian Middle Ages are ol particular interest, however. Some of them date back to the period before the conversion of the Bulgarians to Christianity. An extensive conglomeration of buildings is visible not far from the foot of the cliff, on which the relief has been cut.
Some think that this was Omourtag’s palace; another group of buildings is considered by some to have been a pagan triple, and by others -—a second palace private tours istanbul. In general, much is not yet clear about the use to which the buildings excavated at Madara and belonging to the period of the First Bulgarian Kingdom were put. Madara is also known for its fortress, which rose on the crest of the perpendicular cliffs. The fortress walls trace the slanting sides of a triangle, the third side of which was formed by the edgeol the cliff.
This side was not fortified with a wall, because the fortress was entirely inaccessible on that side. The walls were built of rectangular stone blocks of different sizes. The fortress gate was defended by two pentagonal towers and there was a big square tower at one corner. The Madara Fortress probably existed before the proto-Bulgarians settled in this region. But because of its strategic situation it played an important part during the entire medieval history of the Bulgarian people, until they fell under Ottoman domination.
Diggings in the two necropolises around Madara also yielded interesting finds. A particularly large amount of jewelry was found here, among which there were two belt ornaments, which are attributed to the toreutic art of the Slav-Bulgarians. No less interesting are the finds, chiefly pottery, at the necropolis near Novi Pazar, which also belongs to the period of the First Bulgarian Kingdom.
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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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Utterly dilapidated
Statue, picture, book, music, are preserved intact with reverential awe. Not but what some of them have suffered too by time, get utterly dilapidated, are in risk of perishing, have become mere fragments, or offer tempting ground for ambitious genius. The ‘ Aphrodite ’ of Melos is still a riddle: the torso of the Vatican is a very sphinx in stone, a mass of marble ever propounding enigmas, ever rejecting solutions. It is a block as it stands: head, arms, legs, and action would make it a statue. The ‘Cenacolo’ of Milan has long been a mere ghost of a fresco, faint as the last gleam of a rainbow. There are still whole choruses of Aischylus to restore; and Shakespeare is certainly not responsible for every scene in his so-called works. Literature and Art are full of works, either injured by time, or left incomplete by their authors, or such as modern research could easily purge of their anachronisms, inconsistencies, and general defects.
It is in one art only that modern research dares this outrage. Great works of architecture are not exactly on the same footing with great works of sculpture, of painting, of music, of poetry. They differ from all; and I will presently consider these differences. But great works of architecture are, like all great works of art, matchless, priceless, and sacred.
Divine Comedy
They are absolutely beyond renewal. It is easier to copy Titian’s ‘ Entombment ’ than the portal of Chartres or Notre Dame — as they once stood, and stand no more. Each great work of architecture is also unique: completely distinct from every work that ever was or ever will be. Giotto’s Campanile, the Duke’s Palace at Venice, stand alone—must we say stood alone? — like Hamlet or Lear, ‘remote, sublime, and inaccessible.’ A man who wanted to ‘ continue ’ Giotto’s Campanile, or add a new story, and enlarge the Palace at Venice, is the kind of man who would ‘continue’ the Iliad or dramatise the Divine Comedy for the Lyceum stage.
In all ways the great building is worthy of a deeper reverence, is consecrated with a profounder halo of social and historical mystery than any picture or any statue can be. Of the five great arts, that of building is the only one which adds to its charm of beauty the solemnity of the genius loci. It is the one art which is immovably fixed to place; the rest are migratory or independent of space. Poetry and music, not being arts of form, are not confined to any spot. Statues and paintings, though they can only be seen in some spot, may be carried round the world and set up in museums and galleries. But the building belongs for ever to the place where it is set up private tours istanbul. It is incorporated with the surroundings, the climate, the people, the site, where it first rose. No museum can ever hold it; it is not to be catalogued, mounted, framed, or classed like a coin or a mummy in a glass case. It stands for ever facing the same eternal hills, the same ever-flowing river, rising into the same azure or lowering sky into which it rose at first in joy or pride.
It may be as old as the Pyramids, or as recent as Queen Anne. But in any case it has watched generation after generation come and go; for thousands of years men have passed under that portal; for centuries the bell has tolled from that tower. The steps of this colonnade have been worn by the feet of Pericles, Sophocles, Plato, and Socrates; under this arch passed the Antonines, Trajan, and Charlemagne; Saint Louis used to pray standing on this very floor, six centuries and a half ago; this chapter-house was for two centuries the cradle of the Mother of Parliaments throughout the world.
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This Roman city
This Roman city, mainly on the island, but with annexes, north and south, on the mainland, according to the legend of St. Genevieve, repels the assault of Attila, is captured by Clovis at the end of the fifth century, and is made his capital. During the early monarchy, the island was the city, the home of the kings, the seat of the church, of government, and of justice, crowded with narrow streets and churches, and densely populated.
Gradually as the walls of Paris were extended in a series of circuits from the twelfth to the eighteenth century, the island city was eased of its close population, and at last in our own day was cleared altogether by gigantic sweeps of destruction and reconstruction. It once contained some 50,000 inhabitants, at least fifty or sixty streets, and more than twenty churches. To-day it has few private houses left, except at each end. As we said, the Citi consists of Cathedral, Palais de Justice, and Sainte Chapelle, Conciergerie and Prisons, Prefecture of Police, Chamber of Commerce, a huge hospital, a huge barrack, a flower market — vast places,’ gardens, quays, and Morgue. This is almost all that stands on the Paris of Julian, Clovis, and Hugh Capet.
Roman and Gallo-Roman circuit
It is a task full of historical teaching to trace the successive circuits and the walls of the city as it gradually grew. Each circuit represents an epoch in the history of France. First comes the old Roman and Gallo-Roman circuit — the Citi or island with some fortified post at the head of the North Bridge (PI. du Chatelet) and at the South Bridge (R. St. Jacques) extending on the South mainland as far as the Thermes with villas, theatres, cemeteries, and establishments outside the city circuit. The second circuit is that of Louis the Stout, the great restorer of the monarchy (1130), who built the Grand Chdtelet on the site of the Place du Chatelet, and the Petit Chatelet on the Quai St. Michel (left bank).
The third circuit is that of the great king Philip Augustus (1200), who built the Louvre, completed Notre Dame, and carried the walls North as far as St. Eustache, South as far as the Pantheon private tour istanbul, and included the smaller island, so that the original Citi was now but a sixth of the city. Next comes the fourth circuit, raised by Etienne Marcel in the middle of the fourteenth century, just after Poitiers during the great English War, who is duly commemorated by the fine equestrian statue beside the Hotel du Ville. Marcel laid the foundations of the Bastille, and repaired and strengthened rather than extended the circuit of Philip Augustus; and then the whole work was completed by Charles v. in the second half of the fourteenth century.
The fifth great circuit is that of Richelieu under Louis XIII. who carried the city walls Northwards as far as the existing inner Boulevards, and the R. Richelieu and its quarter is one of its additions; and Southwards it inclosed the whole district of the Luxembourg and its gardens to the Jardin des Plantes. The sixth great change came in the reign of Louis xiv. who conceiving himself invincible in France, if not in Europe, found fortifications in Paris needless and barbarous. Accordingly in his reign the old walls of Henry iv. and Richelieu were razed, and the Boulevards that we know were constructed as spacious avenues. On the site of the ancient Tour de Nesle, the Institute and the College Mazarin were built; the Louvre was completed and transformed into an Italian palace; the Tuileries were continued until they joined the Louvre; the Invalides and other great works were continued, and finally Paris received its character of an open modern city of Palladian architecture.
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Religious hostility of the Roman Church
From about the eleventh century the downfall of the city began. It was ruined by the political jealousy of the Western empire, by the religious hostility of the Roman Church, and by the commercial rivalry of the Italian republics. Placed be-tween these irreconcilable enemies on the west, the inces-sant attacks of the Slavonic races on the north, and the aspiring fanaticism of Musulman races from the east and the south, the Byzantine empire slowly bled to death, and its capital became, for some three centuries, little more than a besieged fortress — filled with a helpless population and vast treasures and relics it could no longer protect.
But whether the empire was in glory or in decay, into whatever race it passed, and whatever was the official creed, Constantinople never failed to attract to itself whatever of genius and ambition the Eastern empire contained, nor did it ever cease, nor has it ceased, to be a great mart of commerce, and clearing-house of all that the East and the West desired to exchange. It is still to the Greek priest, as it is to the Musulman imam, what Rome is to the Catholic. And to the Greek from Alexandria to New York it is still what Rome is to the Italian, and what Paris is to the Frenchman guided tour ephesus. In a sense, it is almost still the traditional metropolis of the Orthodox Greek, of the Armenian, and almost of the Levantine Jew, as well as of the Moslem. Its history is the history of the Balkan peninsula, for its twenty famous sieges have been the turning-points in the rise and fall of the empire. The inner history of the thrones of the East has been uniformly transacted within those walls and upon the buried stones and fragments whereon we may still stand to-day and ponder on the vicissitudes of fifteen centuries and a half.
II. Topographical Conditions.
A large part of this strange radiation of Eastern history from the new Eternal City is unquestionably due to its unique local conditions. From Herodotus and Polybius down to Gibbon and Freeman, historians, ancient and modern, have expatiated on the unrivalled situation of Byzantium on the Bosphorus. There is no other so apt to become the seat of a great city on the habitable globe. Standing on the extreme easternmost point of the Balkan peninsula, it is within easy voyage of the entire coast-line of Asia Minor on its northern, western, and southern faces. As an early traveller pointed out, Constantinople is a city which Nature herself has designed to be the mistress of the world. It stands in Etirope, looks upon Asia, and is within reach by sea of Egypt and the Levant on the south — and of the Black Sea and its European and Asiatic shores on the north.’
Something of the kind might be said for such cities as Corinth, or Thessalonica, Smyrna, or Athens; but the extraordinary feature of Byzantium, which confers on it so peculiar a power of defence and attack is this — that whilst having ample and secure roadsteads and ports all round it, it has both on the north and the south, a long, narrow, but navigable sea channel, of such a kind that, in ancient or in modern warfare, it can be made impregnable against any invading fleet.
Constantinople was thus protected by two marine gates which could be absolutely closed to any hostile ship, whether coming from the Black Sea or from the Egean, but which can be instantly opened to its own or any friendly ship coming or going over the whole area of the Euxine or the Mediterranean. Whilst thus impregnably defended by sea, she could bar invasion by land by her vast rampart running from sea to sea, and not more than four miles in length. And at a distance of some thirty miles further west, a second wall, twenty feet wide and about forty miles long, shut off from north and west the main peninsula and ran from the Propontis to the Euxine. Constantinople in ancient times thus held what, with an adequate sea and land force, was the strongest defensive position in Europe, if not in the world. For by sea she could bar all approach from east, north, or south; whilst on the west, the only landward approach, she was protected by a double rampart, placed upon a double peninsula, to say nothing of the natural bulwark of the Balkan mountains.
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Historical value of Rome
There are three elements wherein the historical value of Rome surpasses that of any extant city: first, the enormous continuity of its history; next, the diversity of that interest; and lastly, the cosmopolitan range of its associations. These hill-crests beside the Tiber have been the home of a disciplined people (we must now believe) for some three thousand years, and it may well be much more; and during the whole of that vast period there has been no absolute or prolonged break.
Athens, Jerusalem, Antioch, Damascus, Alexandria, Syracuse, Marseilles, and York, whatever they may once have been, whatever they may have recently become, fell out of the vision of history for long centuries together, like some variable star out of heaven, and sank into insignificance and oblivion. To very many the city of David and of the Passion has absorbing interests, such as no other spot on earth can approach; just as to the scholar the scene from the Pnyx at Athens calls up a sum of memories of unique intensity and delight. But the four transcendent centuries, when Athens was the eye of Greece, the eye of the thinking world, were followed by a thousand years when Athens was an obscure village; and if the ancient history of Jerusalem was longer than that of Athens, it has been followed by a still more overwhelming fall customized tour bulgaria.
Alexandria and Marseilles
All other famous cities of the ancient world have waned and fallen, in some cases, as with Athens, Alexandria, and Marseilles, to rise again out of a sleep of ages. Or if, like Paris and London, they are growing still, it is during some four or five centuries only that they have been the foremost cities of the world. But for two thousand years Rome has enjoyed an unbroken pre-eminence, for five centuries as the temporal mistress of the civilised world, and for some fifteen centuries as the spiritual head of the Catholic world. This dominant place in human evolution, prolonged over such immense periods of time in unbroken continuity, makes Rome the spot on earth where the story of civilisation can be locally centred and visibly recorded.
This is the real power and the true lesson of Rome; and in a dim way, it was felt by our ancestors who in the olden days made the ‘grand tour’ to enrich their galleries and to confer with virtuosi, or who in a later age followed the footsteps of Corinne, Goethe, and Byron. Something of the kind remained down to the time of Pio Nono. There was still a certain unity of effect in Rome; and even the more frivolous tourists had some sense of that over-mastering human destiny which caused Byron to break forth — ‘ O Rome, my country, city of the soul! ’
But all that has happened in the last twenty years has destroyed that visual impression. The sudden swelling forth of the city into a modern busy town three or four times larger than the old sleepy city of the popes, the suppression of the convents and the external ceremonial, and the sullen withdrawal of the Papacy, the deadly war between modern democracy and ultramontane ecclesiasticism, the flooding of the old city with the triumphs of the modern builder, and the Haussmannisation of the most romantic of European cities — all this has made it an effort of the abstract mind to look on Rome as the historic capital; and as to the ‘ city of the soui,’ one might as easily imagine it at Lyons, Milan, or indeed Chicago.
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The teaching of Nature’s law
‘The only party they acknowledged was the rule of good sense, and to keep firm to their purpose, to submit to the teaching of Nature’s law, and to offer up their lives for their country—holding that man is born not for himself, but for humanity in the sum.’ He who would understand what men mean by ‘the ideas of ’89’ should mark, learn, and inwardly digest those two small books of Condorcet, the Life of Turgot, 1787, and the Historical Sketch of the Progress of the Human Mind, 1795.
The annals of literature have no more pathetic incident than the history of this little book — this still unfinished vision of a brain prematurely cut off. In the midst of the struggle between Mountain and Gironde, Condorcet, who stood between both and who belonged to neither, he who had the enthusiasm of the Mountain without its ferocity, the virtues and culture of the Girondists without their pedantic formalism, was denounced and condemned to death, and dragged out a few weeks of life in a miserable concealment. There, with death hanging round him, he calmly compiled the first true sketch of human evolution. Amidst the chaos and bloodshed he reviews the history of mankind. Not a word of pain, doubt, bitterness, or reproach is wrung from him.
He sees nothing but visions of a happy and glorious future for the race, when war shall cease, and the barriers shall fall down between man and man, class and class, race and race, when man shall pursue a regenerate life in human brotherhood and confidence in truth. Industry there shall be the common lot, and the noblest privilege. But it shall be brightened to all by a common education, free, rational, and comprehensive, with a lightening of the burdens of labour by scientific appliances of life and increased opportunity for culture private tour istanbul.
Lyric chapter of the little sketch
‘ Our hopes,’ he writes, in that last lyric chapter of the little sketch, ‘our hopes as to the future of the human race may be summed up in these three points: the raising of all nations to a common level; the progress towards equality in each separate people; and, lastly, the practical amelioration of the lot of man.’ £ It is in the contemplation of such a future,’ he concludes, ‘that the philosopher may find a safe asylum in all troubles, and may live in that true paradise, to which his reason may look forward with confidence, and which his sympathy with humanity may invest with a rapture of the purest kind.’
The ink of these pages was hardly dry when the writer by death escaped the guillotine to which republicans con-demned him in the name of liberty. How many of us can repeat a hundred anecdotes of the guillotine, of its victims, and its professors, yet how few of us have seriously taken to heart the Sketch of Human Progress! The blood is dried up, but the book lives, and human progress continues on the lines there so prophetically traced. ‘ I have studied history long,’ says de Tocqueville, ‘yet I have never read of any revolution wherein there may be found men of patriotism so sincere, of such true devotion of self, of more entire grandeur of spirit.’
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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.
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