ECCENTRIC BULGARIA

ECCENTRIC BULGARIA

Wed, 08/03/2016 - 11:38

Revival Period monasteries, traditional towns, mountain peaks, beaches: you may think you have seen it all in Bulgaria, but you would be mistaken. This country has a number of eccentric places to visit, a delight for the connoisseur of the strange and the odd.

glass eye.jpg
© Pier Petrov

Many of these are connected to Bulgaria's literary greats in a personal and somewhat morbid way: a body part lovingly preserved in formaldehyde here, a relic that witnessed a violent and untimely death there.

One of the best experiences is the museum in the Sofia home of Ivan Vazov, the national writer and poet who gave the nation its most cherished novel, Pod Igoto, or Under the Yoke. Located on central Rakovski Street, it exhibits stuffed Bubi, Vazov's beloved dog who could not cope with the death of his owner in 1921 and after some days of depression threw himself under a car. For few weeks in July 2016, the museum celebrated the 70 years since its creation with a temporary exhibition of Vazov's preserved heart.

Further along Rakovski Street is another famous poet's house, and the memory of another suicide. Actually, two suicides. The small house of Peyo Yavorov, with a sad statue of the poet in the yard, is where on 29 November 1913, after one of their regular quarrels, Yavorov's wife Lora Karavelova shot herself through the heart. The poet shot himself, too, but the bullet he fired into his temple did not kill him, and he only lost his sight. On 29 October 1914, Yavorov tried again. He took poison, wrote a farewell letter, lay on his bed and aimed another shot at his head. This time he succeeded. When the house became a museum, it included as exhibits both the dress Lora was wearing on the last day of her life and a pillow thick with Yavorov's dried blood. You cannot see them today, as the museum is closed as it is in such bad condition that entering is dangerous.

The final hours of another of Bulgaria's great authors are recalled in the museum in his native town, Svishtov, on the Danube, by the ghastly relics of his murder. Aleko Konstantinov, the man who gave Bulgarians their funny, boisterous, entrepreneurial anti-hero Bay Ganyo, was killed in 1897. His pierced heart, with the bullet hole clearly visible, and the suit he was wearing on that fatal day are now the central exhibits in the museum.

Two glass eyes are the morbid museum legacy of modernist poet Geo Milev. Milev lost an eye during the Great War, and was fitted with a glass replacement. When he disappeared in 1925, during the prosecution of leftists that followed the Communist-organised bomb attack on St Nedelya Church in Sofia, he was presumed dead. Confirmation came as late as 1955, when a skeleton with a glass eye was discovered in a mass grave on the outskirts of Sofia. This eye is now in the National History Museum in Sofia, while the spare one, which was kept by the family, is on display in the poet's home museum in Stara Zagora.

Ivan Vazov dog

The stuffed dog of poet Ivan Vazov, Ivan Vazov House Museum, Sofia ©Antoan Bozhinov

This trend of exhibiting body parts of important figures goes beyond literary circles. The hearts of several politicians have also been preserved, the most famous of which is that of King Boris III, which is now buried in Rila Monastery. The whereabouts of the grave of Vasil Levski, Bulgaria's great national hero who was hanged in 1873 in Sofia, are unknown, but locks of his blond hair are on display in the National Military Museum and in the chapel by the historical museum in his native Karlovo. The coat he wore as a monk before he abandoned the Church to become a fulltime professional revolutionary is on display in the St. Spas Monastery near Sopot although the exhibit is probably fake.

The two museums of Vanga, the blind clairvoyant, are a much more colourful experience. No locks of hair and embalmed hearts here, but a display of the mundane and eccentric possessions of the woman who conversed with either extraterrestrials or the Devil, depending on the inclinations of whoever does the explaining. In addition to the usual stuff such as personal belongings and furniture, Vanga's home on Vanga Street in Petrich displays an amazing collection of kitschy souvenirs given as gifts by grateful visitors. Vanga's second home, in Rupite, has a less extensive exhibition but makes up for that with much more atmospheric surroundings. The small house stands among the picturesque landscape of a former volcano and steaming mineral springs, while nearby is one of the most eccentric churches in Bulgaria. St Petka was built in 1994 with donations from Vanga, and has an unorthodox design and even more unorthodox murals that caused a scandal at the time, as they depicted the clairvoyant as a quasi-saint.

Eccentricity in Bulgaria is not only confined to the morbid and the supposedly supranatural. Take the artist Pavel Koychev. The creator of strange and charming projects, this sculptor loves playing with natural materials, turning them into thought-provoking manifestations concerning the place that modern man has in nature. The easiest way to see one of Koychev's creations is to head to Osikovitsa village, 70km along the Hemus motorway. There you will find Gradezhat, or The Building, an art installation that is also a perfectly habitable house. In the summer of 2016, the sculptor organised an art show nearby, incorporating the landscape as part of the exhibition.
The interplay of art and nature is the main theme of the Dupini Art Group. Created by artists from Veliko Tarnovo, it fills the abandoned Dupini village and its surroundings with sculptures and installations made only of natural materials.

The grandest project of eccentricity in Bulgaria appeared about 10 years ago when a businessman from Sozopol, Georgi Tumpalov, started building a... Gothic castle by the village of Ravadinovo. The construction has been ongoing, La Sagrada Familia style, but visitors paying the entrance fee are invited, often by Tumpalov himself, to marvel at the swan lake, the mediaeval splendour made of pebbles, and the idealised statue of the castle's creator.

Ravadinovo Castle

"Gothic" castle, Ravadinovo village

 

Recently, Tumpalov added to his creation the work of another eccentric: the wooden fairy palace that used to stand in the Borisova Garden by Nezabravka Street in Sofia. The obsession of the self-taught woodcarver Racho Angelov, the palace appeared in 1968, at the height of the Communist regime. The authorities were not particularly happy with it, but they let Angelov be and with time his ever-growing concoction of reused wood, bricks and suchlike became a favourite of generations of Sofianites. After Angelov died, in 1992, the municipality failed to preserve his life's creation and by the 2000s the palace was already a ruin rather than a fairytale. A few years ago, Georgi Tumpalov acquired what remained of it and brought it to Ravadinovo.

The latest manifestation of this love for the eccentric and the odd in Bulgaria is the so-called Open Air Museum of Creation at Novo Selo village, near Plovdiv. Let not the word "museum" fool you: here we are talking about sheer hilarity. There is a bilious-green concrete T-Rex. There is a sauropod of the same material and hue. There are some apes with an unexplained penchant for oranges and mushrooms, shop window mannequins dressed like primitive Homo Sapiens, and a Tree of Life, made of scrap metal. There is also a Thracian rider, a fortress (of course), and much more. This so-called museum is the brainchild of mayor Todor Atanasov, and was mostly made by the local welder. In spite of criticism that he is spending supposedly public money on kitsch, the mayor is determined to enlarge his project. As a result, with every year the Museum of Creation is getting bigger and (ahem) better.

Pavel Koychev

Gradezhat installation by sculptor Petar Koychev, Osikovitsa village

 

Vanga museum, Petrich

Jesus and frills: the bedroom of Vanga, Vanga House Museum, Petrich

 

Vanga church, Rupite

Saint-like portrait of blind clairvoyant Vanga, St Petka Church, Rupite

 

Aleko Konstantinov museum, Svishtov

The heart of killed writer Aleko Konstantinov, the wound hole clearly visible, Aleko Konstantinov House Museum, Svishtov

 

Museum of Creation, Bulgaria

T-Rex and a sauropod from the Open Air Museum of Creation, Novo Selo village

America for Bulgaria FoundationHigh Beam is a series of articles, initiated by Vagabond Magazine, with the generous support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation, that aims to provide details and background of places, cultural entities, events, personalities and facts of life that are sometimes difficult to understand for the outsider in the Balkans. The ultimate aim is the preservation of Bulgaria's cultural heritage – including but not limited to archaeological, cultural and ethnic diversity. The statements and opinionsexpressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the America for Bulgaria Foundation and its partners.

Issue 118 America for Bulgaria Foundation Eccentric Bulgaria

Commenting on www.vagabond.bg

Vagabond Media Ltd requires you to submit a valid email to comment on www.vagabond.bg to secure that you are not a bot or a spammer. Learn more on how the company manages your personal information on our Privacy Policy. By filling the comment form you declare that you will not use www.vagabond.bg for the purpose of violating the laws of the Republic of Bulgaria. When commenting on www.vagabond.bg please observe some simple rules. You must avoid sexually explicit language and racist, vulgar, religiously intolerant or obscene comments aiming to insult Vagabond Media Ltd, other companies, countries, nationalities, confessions or authors of postings and/or other comments. Do not post spam. Write in English. Unsolicited commercial messages, obscene postings and personal attacks will be removed without notice. The comments will be moderated and may take some time to appear on www.vagabond.bg.

0 comments

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.

Discover More

lyudmila-zhivkova-mural.jpg
WHO WAS LYUDMILA ZHIVKOVA?
Her father's daughter who imposed her own mediocrity on Bulgaria's culture? Or a forbearing politician who revived interest in Bulgaria's past and placed the country on the world map? Or a quirky mystic? Or a benefactor to the arts?

68dbb6f574e242b2efdd826937d384dd_XL.jpg
CATHOLIC BULGARIA
In 1199, Pope Innocent III wrote a letter to Bulgarian King Kaloyan to offer an union.

8f4f3ce603e0a9c7daf6b5c891a6b7b3_XL.jpg
RHODOPE IN FULL BLOSSOM
The Rhodope mountains have an aura of an enchanted place no matter whether you visit in summer, autumn or winter. But in springtime there is something in the Bulgarian south that makes you feel more relaxed, almost above the ground.

76a362b0e635f2bd7b84d5e7290d087b_XL.jpg
BIZARRE BULGARIA
There are many ways to categorise and promote Bulgaria's heritage: traditional towns and villages, Thracian rock sanctuaries, nature, sun and fun on the seaside, and so on and so forth.

8972e86d8b8aa9ca49225ef0904974cc_XL.jpg
KARLOVO
Karlovo is one of those places where size does not equal importance.

cba2911ca1c40028fa90545f6470ee1a_XL.jpg
SILENCE OF SHARDS
Pavlikeni, a town in north-central Bulgaria, is hardly famous for its attractions, and yet this small, quiet place is the home of one of the most interesting ancient Roman sites in Bulgaria: a villa rustica, or a rural villa, with an incredibly well-preserv

d888bb3ac0932627f0b18f6b52f06d68_XL.jpg
BULGARIAN EASTER
How to celebrate like locals without getting lost in complex traditions

tryavna.jpg
BULGARIA'S TOP 10 SMALL TOWNS
Small-town Bulgaria is a diverse place. Some of the towns are well known to tourists while others are largely neglected by outsiders.

matochina fotress.jpg
BORDER ZONE VILLAGE
Of the many villages in Bulgaria that can be labeled "a hidden treasure," few can compete with Matochina. Its old houses are scattered on the rolling hills of Bulgaria's southeast, overlooked by a mediaeval fortress.

342d45fc5f9732a0c3c741db143757a7_L_0.jpg
WHO WAS GEO MILEV?
Poet who lost an eye in the Great War, changed Bulgarian literature - and was assassinated for his beliefs

devils bridge.jpg
SEEING DEVIL IN DEVIL'S BRIDGE
In previous times, when information signs of who had built what were yet to appear on buildings of interest, people liberally filled the gaps with their imagination.

Kremikovtsi Metallurgy Plant.jpg
URBEX BG, PART 2
If anything defines the modern Bulgarian landscape, it is the abundance of recent ruins left from the time when Communism collapsed and the free market filled the void left by planned economy.