Smelling Like a RoseAnd Other Bulgarian MemoriesBy Joyce DaltonIf it’s spring, it must be time to pluck the petals in Bulgaria’s aptly named Valley of the Roses. And if it’s petal-plucking time, it means the annual Festival of Roses. Nestled between the Sredna Gora and Balkan mountain ranges near the towns of Karlovo and Kazanlak, the valley lies covered in pink, ultra-aromatic flowers. The region supplies 70 per cent of the world’s attar of roses, the stuff of perfume, and locals have turned the otherwise monotonous job of picking petals into perhaps, international tourism’s most colorful event. At dawn, while the dew is literally still on the roses, visitors follow musicians and locals of all ages into the fields. Clad in a mind-swirling variety of traditional dress, folk sing as they gently transfer delicate blossoms from bushes to bags. Children weave flowers into wreathes, toss petals high in the air to fall as a pink shower, and shyly hand bouquets to foreigners. Roses sit jauntily atop men’s peaked woolen hats and add yet more color to women’s embroidered aprons.
Soon, a mini procession approaches, led by young women who offer visitors bread and salt, the traditional gesture of welcome and hospitality. Masked dancers with towering mirrored headdresses follow, clanging oversized cowbells which hang from belts around their waists. Then, there’s the Rose Princess, garbed in pink, of course, carried aloft on a palanquin and accompanied by similarly gowned little girl attendants. Age-old folk instruments – the gaida, a small goatskin bagpipe; the kaval, originally a shepherd’s flute made of three wooden tubes fitted together vertically, and the tambura, a stringed, pear-shaped mandolin-type instrument – resound through the fields. Long before the sun has risen high in the sky, work ends for the day and everyone heads to town for more music, dancing and story-telling. Though the latter is in Bulgarian, the smiles and guffaws of the crowd guarantee that some sly tales are being related. Also sure to bring laughter are the tourists’ awkward efforts to protect sunglasses and cameras from fellows determined to douse one and all in rose water which they squirt from huge canisters carried across their shoulders.
Beauty of the Celestial Variety
The old section in the city of Plovdiv houses historical treasures beyond counting. The St. Constantine and Helena Church claims vivid frescoes outside, an ornate iconostasis within, and a museum of icons next door. Other Plovdiv sites include a 15th century mosque, built during Ottoman rule; a Roman amphitheater, restored and still hosting performances, and a number of mansions built by wealthy 19th century merchants. My friends and I passed an ice cream-eating little boy decked out in white cloak and turban with a sequined banner across his chest neck to waist. He was being feted by his adorning family like the little prince he resembled in honor of his upcoming circumcision.
Nesebar is a wonderful little place scenically situated on a peninsula where women work lace outside pretty stone and wood homes with upper level rooms jutting out over the sidewalks. “Young” by Bulgarian standards, the Aleksandar Nevski memorial church in Sophia commemorates the country’s independence from the Ottoman Turks as well as those who fell in the 1877-78 War of Liberation. Its domes and gold leaf dominate Aleksandar Nevski Square while within, twin thrones with columns of alabaster and onyx stand on either side of the iconostasis. Beauty of the Secular Sort
Once a garrisoned citadel town positioned to protect the northern frontier, Shumen still boasts an impressive medieval fortress. Multiple 19th century mansions line the streets of the old section; several are open to tourists. One of the finest, the Dyukmedzhian house, stands just outside the city. Built in the mid-1800s, its architecture is considered an excellent example of National Revival style. The Sherif Halil Pasha mosque, also known as Tombul Dzhamiya, dates to the mid-18th century and features multiple bulbous domes. Its construction was ordered by Halil Pasha, a Shumen native who rose to the position of deputy Grand Vizier in Constantinople (now Istanbul). A short detour off the most central east-west route brings visitors to Koprivshtitsa, a pretty village of colorful, richly decorated homes set in a valley surrounded by wooded hills. Several of the grander homes are open to the public, including the Oslekov house where pillars of cypress imported from Lebanon support the façade and murals of classical cities adorn the exterior. A major folkloric festival is held in Koprivshtitsa every four years. Multiple stages are erected around the mountainside and for three days, traditionally garbed groups perform music and dances unique to their particular villages. Melnik, hard by Bulgaria’s southern border with Greece, was a flourishing merchant town in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its cobbled streets wind past white half-timbered houses against a stark backdrop of towering sandstone and limestone cliffs. At the Kordopoulov house, built in 1754 by a wealthy wine dealer, seven staircases link the various levels. The main salon is lighted by 24 windows, the upper row made of Venetian glass. Situated on the Black Sea coast, Sozopol was an ancient Thracian settlement before becoming the Greek town of Apollonia in 610 B.C. Over the centuries, its name and character underwent alterations. Today’s visitors find a charming fishing village with an ample supply of picturesque homes and churches. The town hosts an annual Apollonia Festival of the Arts, usually in September. Beauty of the Ethnographic and Scenic VarietyWith mountains spread across much of the country – the Balkan, Sredna Gora, Rila, Pirin and Rhodope ranges spring to mind – , valleys and plains filled with poppies and other wildflowers, forested hillsides, and a Black Sea coast extending the length of the eastern border, Bulgaria lacks little in the way of natural beauty. Shepherds guarding their flocks and horses pulling wagons overloaded with hay are not unusual sights. Perhaps, it is not surprising that a people who celebrated their 1,300th anniversary 25 years ago should value the past. For visitors, that past comes alive in Bulgaria’s officially designated “museum villages” where traditional architecture is preserved and protected. Hardly a town or village of any size is without its own ethnographic museum where folk dress, farm implements and local customs are displayed or documented. Etura, an ethnographic museum park, lies on the outskirts of Gabrovo, a city that boasts one of the world’s few museums devoted to humor. A sort of Balkan Williamsburg, Etura comprises a grouping of traditional workshops where craftsmen demonstrate the latest in 18th and 19th century techniques. Throughout the country, folkloric restaurants abound where décor, food and dress of serving staff are true to the particular region. Dinner typically is followed by a program of folk music, songs and dances.
Contact information: Images by Joyce Dalton |
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Just as roses add color and beauty to the fields, frescoes and icons enhance Bulgaria’s many monasteries. Rila, located 75 miles south of Sophia, the country’s capital, is the most visited. Erected in mid-14th century against a backdrop of pine- and beech-covered mountains, the monastery’s red, white and black designs, exterior frescoes and double row of columned arched cloisters combine for an effect that is nothing short of dramatic. More frescoes are found within. Not surprisingly, Rila is a designated UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Monument.
Only 20 miles from Plovdiv, Bachkovo Monastery, another UNESCO world monument, was founded in the 11th century. The complex is adorned inside and out with frescoes, some recounting the monastery’s history, others graphically depicting the torments awaiting sinners. One shows a skeletal Death figure armed with his long black scythe.
At the small town of Arbanasi, some 80 fortress-style stone houses with curved tile roofs line narrow streets, while the Church of the Nativity’s simple exterior should fool no one. With glorious frescoes covering every inch of the interior, this is one of the most richly decorated churches in the Balkans.
Shops and cafes cater to a sizable tourist trade. The town’s main splendor, however, rests in its 11th to 14th century churches and the remains of a Byzantine basilica situated on the site of a Roman agora. Turquoise-colored designs set amid tan or rose stones sparkle in the sun.
Despite an unseen bag-slitter who almost got away with my wealth of cheap souvenirs in Veliko Tarnovo, the town remains near the top of my personal “best Bulgarian sites” list. Once the country’s capital, today’s Veliko Tarnovo is a university town best savored by meandering its historic quarter past handicraft shops featuring embroidery, wood carvings, icons and ceramics; medieval churches; cafes and pastry shops; grand old homes, and Baldwin’s Tower where a crusading emperor from Flanders was imprisoned by a long-ago king. As if to compensate for the would-be thief, one shopkeeper seemed reluctant to stop chatting long enough to accept payment for a ceramic candleholder. During warm weather, a sound and light show plays over the ancient walls and palace ruins atop Tzarevets Hill.
That Bulgarians treasure their cultural heritage was made clear to us in the lovely Rhodope Mountains village of Shiroka Luka. Pine forests, a rushing stream, a centuries’ old arched stone bridge and homes formed of a high stone base topped by two or three stories of wood or whitewash create a picture-perfect scene. Perfect, also, were the words of a caretaker who ushered us into a historic house. “Dear guests,” he greeted, “welcome to my village, the village of arched bridges, bagpipes and folk songs.” His pride was evident and we easily understood why.