3422 BULGARIA - Old winemaking

Grape growing and wine production have a long history in Bulgaria, dating back to the times of the Thracians, who used wine not only as a drink on the table but channel between people and gods. It was a divine drink. Zagreus, somehow the Thracian analog of the Greek god Dionysus, was worshiped by the Thracians as the god of wine and merriment. Unfortunately, the tradition was interrupted for 500 years, how long this region was part of the Ottoman Empire, a state dedicated to expanding the world of Islam.

3336 BULGARIA (Burgas) - Sunny Beach

Sunny Beach is a major seaside resort on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, located approximately 35 km north of Burgas. The resort's construction began back in Communist times, in 1958. It has a very small permanent population, but during the summer the resort is home to many thousands of tourists. The main strip of high-rise hotels backing onto the beach is 5 km (3 mi) long and extends along a wide bay between Sveti Vlas and Nessebar, soon to connect with the village of Tunkovo. Attractions for tourists include the beach, water sports, and the nearby historic site of Nessebar.

0555-0557, 3319, 3327 BULGARIA (Burgas) - Ancient City of Nessebar (UNESCO WHS)

3319 The Ancient City of Nessebar

Posted on 15.03.2013, 31.12.2019, 03.01.2020

For miles, the road from Varna to Nessebar creeps like a snake along the coast, through the forests where coniferous and deciduous mix like the ethnic groups in the Balkans. But that's not what saw with three millennia ago the Thracians, who came from inland to built the settlement named Menebria, neither the Greeks, who came from the sea to lay the foundations of the prosperous colony named Mesembria. In 71 BC the town fell under Roman rule, yet continued to enjoy privileges, and from the 5th century AD onwards had become one of the most important strongholds of the Byzantine Empire.

0555 A bird's-eye view of the Ancient City of Nessebar

In the following centuries it passed several times from the hands of the Byzantines in those of the Bulgarians, and even of the Crusaders in 1366. The Bulgarian version of the name, Nesebar or Mesebar, has been attested since the 11th century. Conquered by the Ottomans in the same year as Constantinople (1453), it gradually declined until returned to Bulgaria in 1885, becoming since the beginning of the 20th century a key Bulgarian seaside resort.

3327 Vernacular wooden houses in Nessebar

 

As an "outstanding testimony of multilayered cultural and historical heritage", a place where many civilizations left their tangible traces, from the Dorians Black Sea colony's structures to the churches from the Middle Ages and the vernacular wooden houses built in the 19th century, Nessebar was included on the list of UNESCO WHS under the name Ancient City of Nessebar. It is sometimes said to be the town with the highest number of churches per capita, because a total of forty churches had survive, wholly or partly, in the vicinity of the town. Its ancient part is situated on a little peninsula, previously an island, linked with the mainland with only a relatively narrow passageway.

0556 The Church of Christ Pantocrator in Nessebar

One of them is the Church of Christ Pantocrator, constructed in the 13th-14th century and best known for its exterior decoration, rich and colourful. Designed in late Byzantine cross-in-square style, was builded from stones and brickwork, a construction technique known as opus mixtum. The best-known feature of the Church of Christ Pantocrator is the rich and colourful decoration of its exterior walls. Used today as art gallery, is among Bulgaria's best preserved churches of the Middle Ages.

0557 The windmill on the passageway from New Nessebar to Old Nessebar

The Old Windmill shown in the third postcard, located on the passageway from New Nessebar to Old Nessebar, is a lovely, very intact Black Sea style wildmill. Aren't known too much about it, but it's supposed that was built in the Bulgarian revival period from the 17th to the 19th century. The building have a rough style, the design being entirely functional. The windmill base reveals a wooden guiderail and direct wood-to-wood contact.

3282, 3308 BULGARIA (Plovdiv / Stara Zagora) - Picking-up of roses in Rose Valley

3282

Posted on 04.12.2019, 27.12.2019
Located just south of the Balkan Mountains, between them and the eastern part of the lower Sredna Gora chain to the south, the Rose Valley consists of two river valleys, those of the Stryama to the west and the Tundzha to the east. The valley is famous for its rose-growing industry which have been cultivated there for centuries, and which produces close to half (1.7 tonnes) of the world's rose oil. The centre of the rose oil industry is Kazanlak, while other towns of importance include Karlovo, Sopot, Kalofer and Pavel banya.

3308

Roses need moisture and warmth and this is why almost all fields of rose oil are located there, where the winters are short and mild and the springs long and hot. Each year, festivals are held celebrating roses and rose oil. The picking season lasts from May to June. The gathering process, traditionally a woman's task, requires great dexterity and patience. For the production of 1 kg rose-water is used 1 kg of rose blossom, for the production of 1 kg rose-oil is used approximately 3500 kg of rose-blossom. To form a rose bush and start picking are required three years after planting it.

0281, 3263 BULGARIA (Shumen) - Madara Rider (UNESCO WHS)

0281 - Madara Rider (1)

Posted on 18.07.2012, 23.11.2019
Because of the richness of archaeological monuments discovered in this zone,  Madara, a village in northeastern Bulgaria, which lies at the western foot of the Madara plateau, is called "the Bulgarian Troy". The Madara National Historical and Archaeological Reserve, located near to the village, includes Neolithic and Eneolithic findings, a Thracian settlement, Ancient Roman villa and fortress from the 2nd-5th century, medieval Bulgarian palace, pagan sanctuaries, Christian churches and monasteries, fortresses from the First Bulgarian Empire, and a cave monastery from the 12th–14th century. Most importantly, Madara is the location of the famous Madara Rider, an early medieval rock relief carved by the Bulgars, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979.

3263 - Madara Rider (2)

Madara Rider, the only monumental stone bas-relief in Europe, dated to about 710 AD, is hewn into sheer cliffs at a height of 23m, and presents a horseman who has speared a lion, with an eagle flying in front and a dog running after him, the carving being surrounded by three inscriptions in Greek, which are a short chronicle of the Bulgarian-Byzantine relations in those times. The image is obvious a scene of triumph, incarnating the grandeur of the Bulgars ruler and the power of the Bulgar state. If the bas-relief was carved during the rule of the Bulgar Khan Tervel (r. 700–721), and is probably a portrayal of the khan himself, a part of the inscriptions (of which content can be found here) were made later, describing events  that occurred during the reigns of Krum (803–814), Omurtag (r. 814–831), and Malamir (r. 831–836).

3177 BULGARIA (Ruse) - Basarbovo Monastery

Basarbovo Monastery (the Monastery of Saint Dimitar Basarbowski) - is a Bulgarian-orthodox cave monastery situated in the picturesque valley of the Roussenski Lom River, at 10km from Ruse, in north-eastern Bulgaria. It was established during the period of the Bulgarian-Wallachian Empire, but its name was mentioned for the first time in a Turkish tax register in 1431. Saint Dimitar Basarbovski was born in 1685 in the nearby village of Basarbovo, but he has spent whole his life in the monastery.

ALBANIA / AUSTRIA / BELGIUM / BULGARIA / CROATIA / GERMANY / ITALY / ROMANIA / SLOVAKIA / SLOVENIA / SPAIN / UKRAINE - Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe (UNESCO WHS)

This transboundary property stretches over 12 European countries. Since the end of the last Ice Age, European Beech spread from a few isolated refuge areas in the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides, Mediterranean and Pyrenees over a short period of a few thousand years in a process that is still ongoing. The successful expansion across a whole continent is related to the tree's adaptability and tolerance of different climatic, geographical and physical conditions.

0736, 2012 BULGARIA (Burgas) - Ancient city of Sozopol

0736 Sozopol - Aerial view (1)

Posted on 12.07.2013, 05.11.2015
In 2012 I spent my vacation in Nessebar, on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, and with this occasion I visited also Sozopol, situated 70 km further south (on the road, on the shores of the Gulf of Burgas; I believe that on the sea aren't more than 30 km, because just crosses the bay). Originally named Antheia, then Apollonia (Apollonia Pontica or Apollonia Magna), it's one of the oldest towns on Thrace's Black Sea coast, being founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists from Miletus.

2012 Sozopol - Aerial view (2)

 

The town established itself as a trade and naval centre in the following centuries, but also as an important cultural centre. Ruled successively by the Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman Empires, Sozopol was assigned to the newly autonomous Bulgaria in the 19th century. Almost all of its Greek population was exchanged with Bulgarians from Eastern Thrace in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars.

1167 BULGARIA (Blagoevgrad) - A woman from Gotse Delchev with traditional headdress

I wrote here a little about the bulgarian traditional clothes, and about the main bulgarian ethnographic regions, so I don't insist for now. The woman in the postcard is from Gotse Delchev, in the south-west of the country. Prior to the 20th century, for weddings the hair was arranged in complex styles formed with multiple plaits; in the north and southwest, brides wore a specific headband made of decorative metal chains forming a crown. Married women covered their heads with scarves of colored silk or cotton (which could be square, triangular or rectangular, small or large), sometimes worn over a small hat. Bridal headdresses usually had a large square headscarf or scarf (mesal) 2m to 3m long and decorated with embroidery and long fringes on both ends. The headscarf was worn over cylinder or cone shape low hats. It were folded in the middle and placed on head, or could be worn over a pad, with the ends hanging loose at back. The style of jewelry worn with Bulgarian ethnic dress was strongly influenced by Ottoman fashions but with certain ancient elements, such as the over-the-ear pendants. During the period of national revival, workshops in the prosperous towns made earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and rings of silver filigree or cast copper or silver, often decorated with enamel.

0708 BULGARIA - Kukeri

Some customs are so deeply rooted in the traditions of the peoples, that they survive them and transmit to their descendants, even if their beliefs and their way of life were changed radically. One of these is kukeri, a pagan ritual dating back to the ancient Thracians and worshiped to Dionysos (the Thracian and Greek god associated with wine, fertility, and rebirth), which aims to scaring evil spirits, as well as to provide a good harvest, health, and happiness to the village during the coming year. For this, around New Year and before Lent, costumed men visit the peoples' houses at night (so that "the sun would not catch them on the road"), and after that they gather at the village square to dance wildly and amuse the people. Closely related traditions are found throughout the Balkans and Greece (in Greek-speaking Thrace - kalogeros / cuci, in former Yugoslavia - didi / didici, in Pontic Anatolia - momogeros, in Romania - capra / turca / brezaia).

0677-0678 BULGARIA (Razgrad) - Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari (UNESCO WHS)

About Thracians I wrote when I presented the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, so I'll get straight to the point. One single remark I would like to make: the Danube was a barrier or a boundary only when the locals wanted that. I mean, for them, for the locals, this big river connecting central Europe to the Black Sea has been a source of food and a communication path ("Danube, Danube / Road without powder"), but in need they used it as line of defense or separation. Getae, for example, one of the most important Thracian tribes, stretched on one side and on the other of the river (in today's Romania and Bulgaria). Much later, the Cumans called a part of the territory once occupied by the Getae Deliorman (Crazy Forest), become Teleorman on the north of the Danube (in Romania) and Ludogorie on the south (in Bulgaria).

In 1982 in Ludogorie, at 2.5 km southwest of the village of Sveshtari, located 42 km northeast of Razgrad, was discovered in a mound a Getic tomb dating from the 3rd century BC. Built of limestone blocks, it consists of a dromos (corridor) and three premises (chambers), each covered by a separate vault. The decoration of the central chamber is exceptionally rich. Four different Doric and one Corinthian column support a frieze with triglyphs and metopes, between those there are ten caryatids with uplifted arms and above them is the picturesque scene of deification of the deceased ruler. A massive decorative stone door (naiskos) hid the burial bed from the eyes of the mortals. A second bed was designed for the wife.

0505 BULGARIA - The ethnographic map of the country

Located on the west coast of the Black Sea, Bulgaria occupies a portion of the eastern Balkans, with Romania to the north (the boundary being, in the most part, Danube River), Greece and Turkey to the south, and Serbia and Macedonia to the west. Its most notable topographical features are the Danubian Plain, the Balkan Mountains, the Thracian Plain, and the Rhodope Mountains. This territory was inhabited in antiquity by Thracian tribes, subjugated by Alexander the Great and later by the Roman Empire. From the 6th century, the Slavs gradually settled in the region, assimilating the Hellenised or Romanised Thracians. In the 7th century, Bulgar tribes (of central Asian Turkic origin) moved into the Balkans, and in the following centuries founded two empires (681-1018, 1185-1396), permanently squaring off the region with the Byzantine Empire. In the late 14th century, the Ottoman Turks conquered Bulgaria, possessing it until 1908.

0494 BULGARIA (Stara Zagora) - Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak (UNESCO WHS)

I don't think that I wrong if I say that people in wide world know much fewer things about Thracians than about Greeks, Romans, Celts or Germanic tribes, although Herodotus wrote about them in the Fifth Book of his Histories (called Terpsichore) that "the Thracian race is the most numerous, except the Indians, in all the world: and if it should come to be ruled over by one man, or to agree together in one, it would be irresistible in fight and the strongest by far of all nations, in my opinion."

0394 BULGARIA - Women in the Rhodopes in traditional clothes

The Rhodope Mountains, located in southern Bulgaria (the most part) and in Greece, is the oldest landmass on the Balkan peninsula and have abundant water reserves, with a dense network of mountain springs and rivers. They were inhabited from the Prehistoric age, but the first known people that lived there were the Thracians, the area being one of the cradles of European civilisation. During the Middle Ages, the Rhodopes were part of the Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires, often changing hands between the two countries, and at the end of the 14th century they were conquered by Ottoman Empire, which had possessed them for five centuries. As a result, the Rhodopes has been a place of ethnic and religious diversity for hundreds of years. Apart from the Eastern Orthodox Bulgarians and Greeks, the mountains are also home to a number of Muslim communities, including the Muslim Bulgarians (Pomaks) and a large concentration of Bulgarian Turks.

0380 BULGARIA (Blagoevgrad) - Pirin National Park (UNESCO WHS)

Named after the highest god of the Slavic pantheon, the god of thunder and lightning (Perun), the Pirin Mountains are a mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria, extended about 40 km northwest-southeast, and about 25 km wide, with an altitude between 1008 and 2914m (the peak Vihren). Most of the range is protected in the Pirin National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983, with an extension in 2010, the motives being three: its exceptional beauty, its science value, related to its glacial geomorphology, and the evolution of flora, evidenced by a number of endemic and relict species.

0296 BULGARIA (Kyustendil) - Rila Monastery (UNESCO WHS)

Founded during the reign of Tsar Peter I (927-968), therefore to less than a century after Christianity became the official religion of the First Bulgarian Empire, in the mountains to the east of the Struma river valley in western Bulgaria, by the disciples of the hermit Ivan of Rila (876-946), who lived in a cave nearby, Rila Monastery has been supported and respected by the Bulgarian rulers even since its creation. Benefiting from substantial donations from almost every tsar of the Second Bulgarian Empire (despite the fact that in his testament the hermit has advised his community not to seek favors from "earthly kings and princes"), the monastery became a cultural and spiritual center of Bulgarian national consciousness, reaching his peak between centuries XII and XIV.

0076 BULGARIA (Varna) - The Stone Forest

As neighbors we are, even if some Latins and others Slavs, Romanians and Bulgarians had much in common throughout history, whether it's about the closely related ancestors (Dacians and Thracians), about the migratory that often passed through both territories or have settled on them, about the influence or domination firstly Byzantine and then Ottoman and eventually Russian. In Romanian Dobrudja (and not only) live also Bulgarians, Vlachs still live south of the Danube...  The Romanians have mountains (Carpathians), shore to the Black Sea and access to the Danube, the Bulgarians have mountains (Balkan and Rhodope), shore to the Black Sea and access to the Danube. True, we clashed with each other, for example in the Balkan Wars or in WWI, but which neighbors don't argue from time to time?