Day 11: Around Bulgaria in 14 days

In the morning in Veliko Turnovo I was particularly excited because I was awakened by an SMS from Econt. The new drone was in their office and I just had to go get it. After a short walk around town I returned with the new DJI Mavic 2. I admit that after the Mavic Air hit, I was a little flush with flying drone, so we didn’t let it go while we were in Veliko Tarnovo.

Ruse

Instead, after a short breakfast, we headed to Ruse. There I wanted to shoot a Renaissance pantheon. We were able to park very close to the monument. The pantheon was under repair, but here is the first photo with the new drone

The Pantheon of the National Revival was erected in memory of the Bulgarians who gave their lives for the freedom of Bulgaria. It is located near the old cemetery of Rousse. The monument was unveiled on February 28, 1978 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Bulgaria’s liberation from Turkish slavery. In the pantheon are the bones of the first teachers of Ruse – Daskal Dragni, Daskal Toni, Nil Izvorov, Tsani Ginchev, Dragan Tsankov, who worked in the name of science and education in the 18th and 19th centuries. The names of the participants in the Red Army Company, who took part in the Serbo-Turkish War of 1876, remain forever in history. She also paid tribute to Grandma Tonka and the Obretenovi family – fighters for national liberation from Ottoman rule who lived in the town of Rousse in the 19th century.

We continued our walk on foot, looking for the sights of the city through the application of opoznai.bg and Google Maps. That is how we see the All Saints Church very close to us

We then headed to Youth Park to see the Vase. It was built in the mid-1950s. The vase is 3.40m high and at its widest part the circumference reaches 7m. It was made as a fitting variant of a similar decorative vase of Romanian park art in Bucharest.

Naturally, we also toured the Youth Park, which housed the vase. The park is really wonderful and a great choice for people who like to go for a walk. There were various bear statues around the park that we couldn’t help but snap.

After a short lunch, we headed to the city center. I was immediately impressed by the Court of Auditors. The building, although old, has beautiful architecture. I particularly liked the symmetry in the design.

Our next stop was the Freedom Monument. An interesting fact is that the monument was erected with the donations of the citizenship of Ruse on the initiative of the Prophet-Opalian Society in 1908. The statue and bas-reliefs were made by the Italian sculptor Arnoldo Tzoki

Naturally, as absolute tourists, we also took pictures with the inscription Ruse. Because we are not such muffins, we will not publish these pictures, instead we will show you the caption itself.

After a little more walk, we arrived at the Dormitory. It is a valuable architectural monument designed by the Viennese architect Peter Paul Branck. The building was built in the period 1898-1902 in the central part of Rousse. The name derives from the idea that the building would bear on the then school board an income from rents for the intended shops, a theater, a library and a casino.

Today, the Income Building is a cultural monument, and is one of the symbols of the city, next to the Freedom Monument. The façade of the building is neoclassical in style, decorated with plastic ornaments and architectural details that characterize the late 19th century. The seven figures of the Revenue Building, symbolizing art, science, agriculture, crafts, commerce, defense and the spirit of the spirit, continue to give the basic directions for the usefulness of the building, namely: a venue for cultural events, concerts and theatrical performances, a place for conferences and exhibitions, place for exhibitions and other artistic events.

As you can see from the photos, the weather was not on our side and it was raining on us. This made us get back in the car and head to our next destination.

Shumen

Shumen is a really beautiful city with a lot of history in it. It is the 10th largest in Bulgaria with a population of 75,500 inhabitants as of December 31, 2018 (Wikipedia source). I’m glad we were able to visit Shumen, unfortunately, we were able to visit only part of its sights, and they are by no means small. So we decided that we would return specifically to tour the city in greater detail.

And so we settled into the Life Guest Rooms. We were extremely fascinated by the owner who called us back as we traveled to make sure we were well and let us know he was waiting for us. Having met him live, I can say that he is a really great person. He gave us very detailed instructions on which places to visit, how to get there as well as a brief story about each of them.

After we bathed and changed our clothes, we turned to the monument “Creators of the Bulgarian State”. The monument is really huge and can be seen from anywhere in the city. The Ilchov Bair Hill is located on the territory of the Shumen Plateau Nature Park. It can be reached both on foot and by car. You can use this picture to get an idea of ​​how huge the monument is. At the bottom you can see Eileen.

The idea for the construction of the monument appeared in 1977 during the preparation for the celebrations of the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state (681). Construction began in August 1979 and the monument was inaugurated on November 28, 1981.

The monument consists of two groups of concrete forms, between which there are small spaces. Here is the largest open-air mosaic-triptych in Europe, which together with 21 sculptures symbolize the idea of ​​the creation, development and rise of the Bulgarian state in the period from VII to X century.

The first depicts Khan Asparuh (regarded as the founder of Bulgaria) – he is presented with a sword stuck in the ground and his hands raised in different directions, showing where the Bulgarian state will be. Then follow the sculptures of Tervel, Krum, Omurtag (Bulgarian khans, who ruled in the VIII and IX centuries), which rise to 18 m in height, and depict fragments of old Byzantine chronicles around them. Below them is the wisdom of Khan Omurtag: “A man, even if he lives well, dies, and another is born, and let the born man, after seeing these writings, remember the one who made them … his name was Yuvigi Khan Omurtag. ”

When viewed from the stairs, the monument looks like this:

At the top of the monument is formed a light cross – a symbol of Christianity adopted in the ninth century.
The golden age of Bulgaria under the reign of Simeon the Great (893 – 927) is represented by 11 figures. The figure of the ruler is surrounded by scribes, boyars and warriors. This composition depicts part of the fortress walls in Veliki Preslav (the old Bulgarian capital).

The concrete bodies on which the triptych mosaic is mounted are placed at different angles to show the gradual development of the state.

A granite lion weighing 1000 tonnes was placed on top of the memorial.

Near the monument is the Shumen Fortress (also known in Shumen as the Old Town). It is located in the Shumen plateau. Seen from above, the fort looks like this:

The Shoumen Fortress Historical and Archeological Reserve is one of the Hundred National Tourist Sites. Works all year round, has a seal. It also has a museum. The fortress is among the best researched archaeological sites in Bulgaria. The excavations were carried out in the period 1957 – 1987 (most active in 1974 – 1981) under the direction of Vera Antonova from the Regional Museum of the City of Shumen (today the Regional Museum of History). Three walls have been discovered – Roman, Early Byzantine (later used by Bulgarians and Ottomans) and by the Second Bulgarian State, with the towers characteristic for each period. Remains of an early Byzantine bath with a drainage canal, two reservoirs, 12 churches (including the so-called “Cult Center” where four churches have foundations in one place) and a citadel were also discovered. Among the finds worth mentioning are: The Shumen inscription of Tsar Ivan Shishman, where the visit of this ruler to Shumen is mentioned (the name of the city is spelled exactly like this); a tile depicting a dancing man (perhaps a pro-Bulgarian shaman – the question remains unclear); the inscription “Acute … goddess” (according to Vera Antonova, this is the first Cyrillic inscription in Bulgaria); graphite-ceramics; a Trojan-type booklet-pottery (evidence that there was a settlement here during the Hallstatt era); belt applications; golden liturgical vessels; a large number of coins from almost all periods.

In the evening, we saw the Freedom Monument in Shumen, better known by locals as the “Pimp” or “Perk”, as the hotel owner told us. At night, the view of it is especially interesting because the background is the monument “Creators of the Bulgarian State”, which is illuminated in white, green red

The walk continued through the city center, where we came across the building of the Vasil Drumev Drama and Puppet Theater. The building again impressed me with its symmetry, and the night light added a special charm:

According to information on opoznai.bg since 2000 the Drama Theater – Shumen and the Patilancho Puppet Theater have been merged into the Vasil Drumev Drama and Puppet Theater Shumen. The theater is a state repertoire. The rich and varied billboard of VCT “Vasil Drumev” includes titles from the world and Bulgarian dramaturgy, with a traditionally priority presence of titles from the Bulgarian classical and contemporary dramaturgy. The theater is co-organizer and host of the prestigious, annual annual International Festival of Drum Theatrical Holidays New Bulgarian Drama.

In the evening, we had dinner at a restaurant near the theater. Unfortunately I don’t remember his name, but I remember that we ate really tasty.