On May 22 and 23, in Strandja was held the second Periwinkle Festival. It is named after the flower that is a symbol of this magnificent low mountain, whose highest peak in the Bulgarian part rises to 709 meters above sea level. The organisers of the festival are the municipalities of Tsarevo and Malko Turnovo, as well as the Directorate of Strandja Nature Park. Last year the event took place in the village of Kosti, this year – it is in the town of Malko Turnovo. The aim is that the local inhabitants should present the possibilities for development of local, rural and eco tourism to the journalists and tour operators attending the event.

When the Thracians decided to found a new settlement, the honour for this fell upon two twin brothers. They harnessed two oxen, also twins, and set them going at sunset. They plowed and outlined a huge sacred circle. The new settlement was to be established inside it. All night they traversed meadows, dells and hills. Yet by the time it dawned the circle was still not closed. Too big was the beautiful place, which they tried to encircle. Anyway. The tribe settled down here, but many years later, in another epoch, and other dwellers built a chapel at this unclosed place. It has stayed there since times immemorial and is called Tsurkvichkata (the Small Church)…

The village is called Brashlyan

Our first stop in the tour of Strandja. In the times of Turkish dominance it was called Sarmashik. In Thracian, Roman, Celtic and Byzantine times – nobody knows. What is important today is that it is one of the few villages, whose inhabitants have overpowered the inertia and indifference to one’s own memory and have mastered up all their strength for the sake of the future.

Some 50 residents live in Brashlyan. Most of them are retired. Ten years ago one of them set up the Association for Reviving the Historic and Cultural Heritage of Brashlyan. He also drew up a project, which won a competition under PHARE Programme. Thus, the 90,000 Euro grant solved the problem with the refuse waters of the village. Now it also boasts an ethnographic collection, private hotels and an annual influx of several thousand foreigners, lured by the magic of the local attraction – the sedyanka (night open-air party). In one of the yards, seven women sitting on three-legged chairs demonstrate quaint skills. They card, spin, weave and sing songs from the region of Strandja.

At the central square of Malko Turnovo Songs were sung, too. Regional folklore groups marked the beginning of the second Periwinkle Festival. At specially designed stalls the participating villages demonstrated their skills, customs, rituality and everyday way of life.

Ventsislav Tomov and Svetla Kazalarska smile at me from one of the stalls. They are representatives of the Cultural-Historic Association “Oak Gate”, an organisation engaged in the study and reconstruction of Celtic cultures. A project of theirs envisages the building of an open-air musem somewhere around, on the territory of Stranja Mountain, most probably in the vicinity of Veleka River. A settlement presenting the life during the Late Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. It sounds intriguing and I am trying to imagine the would-be reconstructed living quarters, communal and other buildings, where specially hired workers, dressed in line with the epoch, will reproduce ancient scenes to illustrate the lifestyle of the previous inhabitants in these lands. “The Celtic Kingdom with the capital city of Tile is presumed to have existed here,” explains Ventsislav, who is chairperson of the association. “It was in 280 BC that the Celts invaded the lands and founded a country that survived for approximately 70 years...”

The Celts may have used the skills of the subdued local residents – their knowledge about ancient metallurgy: the extraction and processing of iron, copper, bronze… I am listening to Ventsislav, who has turned his back to the Golemia Vriz, a sacred spring for Malko Turnovo.

The Golemia Vriz
is a Karst spring, known since ancient times. It is trapped to flow through the three spouts of the stone fountain in the centre of town. It is a symbol of Malko Turnovo, in whose fringes were found numerous ancient metallurgical furnaces. They were used by the Thracians – Asts, Tinns, Melimophags. They existed as early as 1000 BC. The Thracians buried their loved ones in dolmens and tombs. My imagination is further kindled by the additional information about the Thracian leader Rolisten being buried here.

Rolisten could not help deifying the Sun in his rock sanctuary. It is located in another place called Kamenska Barchina. There, solar circles are engraved in the rocks. They are believed to be part of this open-air sanctuary. An expression of the worship for nature, the deified Sun, the Cosmos. I am standing on the rocks, stunned by the vista. And by the cognizance that I set foot on the ground which the Thracian leader used to roam. Mrs. Katya Ivanova, a Public Relations expert at the Nature Park, drew my attention to the sea of greenness around, saying, “When God decided to create Strandja, he did not utter a single word, he just smiled and his godly smile gave birth to the mountain…” I am speechless, marvelling at the kind words about the creation, and I peer into the round holes carved in the rocks. They have furrows leading down to the lower rocks. I observe the hand of Katya, who elaborates on the account that these are overflows which conducted some liquids away. It could have been wine, yet it would not be surprising if it was blood, either. Offerings and soothsaying were typical of the Thracians’ pagan period.

“Dancing on Fire” dates back to pagan times, too Fire dancing, whose off-the-record capital is the village of Bulgari. The bus pulls up right at the central square, where the mayor shows me the recently formed circle in the middle. There, inside it, the glowing embers will be kept alive on June 3. The day, when the fire dancers will step in the fire to once again pay their tribute to the saints and protectors Konstantin and Elena.

Equestrians emerge at the square. Strangely, they turn out to be Englishmen, who have taken advantage of this kind of tourist service.

In Turkish times a great commander passed by on horseback. He stopped for a while and happened to meet Nouna, the beauty of the village. He wanted to have her in his harem. However, the smart lady offered him a deal. If he stepped where she could, she would go along with him. If he did not make it, however, he was to leave her and the whole village alone. No sooner said than done. Nouna summoned the men from the village, they made a fire, waited for a while and then spread the live coals to form a circle. The young woman went through it barefoot. The Turk was riding a horse so he failed to do the same. Instead, he was thrown off onto the ground. But he kept his word…

The village opens its doors not only to the legend about Nouna, but also to the recently set up ethnographic museum. It is housed in the 100-year-old house of Mara Kostadinova. “I set the old stuff on display, why should it stay hidden inside?” the hostess says smiling. And she shows peasant dresses, sourvaknitsas (decorated twigs used to wish others Happy New Year), a fur cap, a distaff, puttees, woolen bowls, a loom… It is the object she prides herself on, created with her own hands. I ask her if she can sing, even though I know the answer in advance. She nods and starts singing amid the archaic setting “Vassilka has fallen in love with Ivan from Varna…”

Her song resounds in my head until the end of my journey to Gramatikovo, the village that set the beginning of the folklore singing competition-fairs in Bulgaria in 1960.

Accompanied by a host of men of letters and grammarians at the end of 14 c., Patriarch Evtimiy went through the region on his way to exile in Diarbekir. Some of his retinue, however, stayed here for good. They settled down in this area and the grammarians mixed up with the local population. Thus the village earned its esteem-commanding name. Today some 550 people live here, who, in the opinion of the mayor Mrs. Kalina Yangyozova, see their future in the development of rural tourism. The allurements – several restored holy springs, “Forest Collection” – in the building of the State Forestry Board, good infrastructure, a working community centre, a famous amateur folklore group, welcoming guests with cheese pasties, leek pasties, buttermilk…

“Nearby was the Ancient Thracian State of Astika,”

says Petko Nachev, interrupting my gastronomic thoughts. He is director of the State Game-Breeding Farm “Gramatikovo”. His is the merit for the reconstruction of and the attraction of visitors to a most original monastery – St. Trinity, erected upon a Thracian sanctuary. The area is called Malkata Kotvina, yet this was hardly familiar to the followers of Grigoriy Sinait, a Byzantine philosopher and theologian, who traversed the region in 13-14 c. They practiced Hesychastism and established a multitude of monasteries across Strandja Mountain… They devoted their lives to the service of God and communicated spiritually with him in this temple made of carved marble. Unusual as it is, it is the only one built upon a cave.

The guide takes us down along the steep stairs into one of the three passages. Not the one, where a gold-digger has found human bones, but the one to the right, at whose end there is a holy spring. The hermits, the followers of Ivan Rilski’s doctrine, may have taken consecrated water here, which was used as a remedy.

The monastery survived until 1870, when it was destroyed by the Kurdjali raid. Then its existence became even tougher. Rebuilt, abandoned, broken into, robbed, restored today… In this “unfathomable desert of woods”, which is the interpretation of the legendary Paroria. A protected area, in which Grigoriy Siniat’s monasteries are known to have been constructed.

Brodlovo is tucked away in the vast woods Situated along Veleka River, 20 km from the seacoast, with the hope to shorten the distance by seven km. if the road to Ahtopol is completed. That would make it even more attractive for tourists. The mayor Mr. Dimitar Dimitrov honours our request to open the church, which has been closed for 15 years now. Eventually he unearths the keys and I enter St. Pantaleymon (1991). He is the patron of the village and his day is celebrated in August with a folklore night and fire dancing. The temple possesses a unique iconostasis, but the 200 to 300-year old icons have been removed. The projected costs for the restoration have long been calculated and amount to some 50,000 levs. This sum of money is long waited and important for the inflow of tourists. Here they will involuntarily become part of the legends, folklore, fire dancing and our history.

Veleka used to be an exceptionally deep river. It frequently swelled, thus encumbering the access to the village. There were only three brods (fords), which enabled the crossing of the river. Hence was derived the name of the village – Brodlivo. There is an ethnographic collection in the community centre. An old house has opened its doors to the romanticism of the past. However, the attraction of the present day is in the area of Harmanyata. There, some 20 women expect us in the previously open shelter. They are members of the group for authentic songs. They look wonderful in their national costumes, and even more enthralling is their singing. There is a special emotional charge underlying the fortune telling and soothsaying, which are recreated in a ritual associated with Enyov Day. A veiled young unmarried woman slips her hand into a copper of consecrated water, where many bunches of flowers have been dipped, and hands it over to the fortune-teller. On her part, she fingers the petals slowly, peers into them and utters some words – in most cases about a forthcoming love, travelling, a passion, a friend lending a hand, etc. Hardly any guest leaves without an Enyov Day bunch of flowers. I can recognise Vesselina Ilieva in the face of the fortune-teller. She is the chief fire dancer in Strandja. The first woman to step in the fire on June 3 and join the fire dancing in the village of Bulgari…

I can feel I am in a peculiar state of mind. I do not even realise that the return journey in a cart is just another attraction, because I am thrilled again without having expected any new experiences over my stay here – by Rostilen, Tile, the Celts, the Thracians, the Byzantines, the sanctuaries, the solar circles, the monasteries, the caves, the legends. Folklore, lifestyle, history, nature… all of them forming a single whole. Strandja.

Roumen Stoichkov