Once a farmer lost his buffalo-cow. He wailed for a long while, called her, searched for her… all in vain. He took a walk around the neighborhood and suddenly, he found her – she was grazing quietly, waving her tail. He decided to settle down where he had found her. He built a cabin and gradually moved his kin and household belongings there…

Others from the area of Selishteto followed in his footsteps. They called the new settlement Novoseltsi. Regardless of the fact that it was situated on marshland, the high rush kept it away from the sight of the Ottoman conquerors, plying up and down the old Trajan road. Here they found safety and peace, fertile soil and water.

This legend tells how a village was relocated from the end of 18 c. until the middle of 19 c. It was entered in the Turkish tax records (in its original place) in 1423–1440. After the Liberation it became a regional center, which encompassed another 58 villages. It kept its name Novoseltsi until 1950, when it was renamed Elin Pelin. Ten years later it became a town.

The archaeological excavations, conducted to the southwest of the town in the 1960s, revealed that there was a watchtower by the road. Probably connected with the Roman road nearby, Trajan Drum, as the locals call it. The findings come from a small settlement, which existed in 4 c. “The legend, as well as other data like sagas and documentary information, suggest that the ancient village, where our ancestors come from, was located to the southwest of the modern village of Novi Han, in the area of Kapaklia. Its residents were Thracians, whereas the sentry post belonged to the Roman conquerors.”

Pavel Kanev, who told me the story of his native region in a serious and convincing manner, has been involved in these activities for 16 years now. He has also been curator of the museum collection in Elin Pelin Cultural Center for the same period.

There was hustle and bustle around this fork of the ancient road. Remnants of Thracian villages, as well as tomb mounds, can be found at many places in the district. Most of them have been only partially studied. They date back to 1-4 c. AD. No doubt Rome and Byzantium have left a trace in them, too – ruins from some of their settlements have survived up to date (in the vicinity of the villages of Lesnovo, Novi Han and others). Slavs, and later Bulgarians, sought a place to live here. Their bleak period, however, was the five-century Turkish Yoke, when the local population ran postal errands along the Trajan Drum. The Turkish State Post used also local horses for transportation and ran an inn.

The chapel was destroyed and rebuilt several times. Yet it has survived up to the present day. Every year on Holy Ghost Day, on Monday, in the area where the ancient village used to be, chants can be heard along with holy water sprinkling and consecration to revive the traditions of Novoseltsi. Or is it not the traditional stubbornness characteristic of the local population?! Ivan Vazov himself asserts that the Shops are “pigheaded and obstinate”.

The church in downtown Elin Pelin has a history of 158 years. It is called “St. Nikolay Mirlikiiski Wonder Worker”. The locals managed to obtain from the Turkish commander in the village of Barievo, nowadays Ravno Pole, a permission to build their own temple. The bey, who ruled part of the lands in the region, agreed on condition that it should not rise over the tallest Shop house in the village. The temple was dug into the ground. Legend has it that it was erected with donations and voluntary labour, while the inside painting was the work of craftsmen from the Samokov and Debar schools. The names of the painting donors are written on the icons.

“Since it was built during the period of Turkish dominance, it was a basilica, with the belfry outside,” father Ivan Pleshtov says, showing it to me. He is chairperson of the church board and hopes that the virtue of making donations is not irretrievably gone. “The old belfry, which is an iron construction, was built by local residents, who took part in World War I. While on the front, they pledged to God and themselves to erect a belfry in Novoseltsi if they came back home safe and sound. They fulfilled the promise given to God in 1929.”

I am listening to father Ivan attentively and at the same time watching the corroded construction, supporting fours bells, a worn-out facade, a rotten roof… It is good, however, that the murals have been restored and the people mindful of the architectural monument have retained their hope that local companies, the people and the municipal administration will reconstruct the temple of God. May it please God, we say and then part.

Just a few meters away from the church is the Town Hall, where the secretary Mr. Plamen Dimov is waiting for me. The topics of conversation with him are of different nature, and so are the hopes. The Town Hall has developed a new transport scheme, approved by the Ministry of Transport, which is intended to improve the links with the capital. Most of the population earns their livelihood in Sofia, some 20 kilometers away. Many children go to school in the capital city. And the internal links of the municipality are bad; there are villages like Krushovitsa and Churek, where only one or two buses pass daily!

“We submitted a project for the gasification of Railway Station Elin Pelin to the Ministry of Environment and Water. It is about three schools and a cultural center. In perspective we intend to include private consumers as well as extend the gas supply pipeline to Novi Han, one of the biggest villages in the municipality with 2,186 residents,” Plamen Dimov explains. When I ask him about his greatest worries, he spares a thought, looks me in the eye and snaps, “Sluggishness!” The sluggishness of certain state organs on resolving topical issues. The sluggishness of the officials, engulfed in the red tape. And the procedures under the Law on Public Commissions are slow and cumbersome. Some texts in the laws contradict each other and are mutually exclusive, so instead of facilitating our work they hinder it!

I smile and pass a casual remark that thanks to the characteristic obstinacy of the Shops they will surely succeed in building up a bright future. My interlocutor draws out a long list of projects, with which they will apply for financing to the EU Pre-accession Funds. Several of them have already been approved, among them the ones on the reconstruction of four kindergartens, worth of 60,000 levs. It is interesting to note that there is an ongoing pre-project survey on the construction of wind power stations in the area of Mourgash Peak. Most of the year there are stiff continuous winds blowing there. Could there be anything more natural than the municipality being a leader in the construction of environment-friendly power stations? Do you remember Elin Pelin’s short story “The Windmill”?

Another project on the construction of a power station is already in an advanced stage. It is intended to generate electricity and steam from natural gas, which the currently existing enterprises will operate on. The waste product will be hot water, which will serve to heat public and private buildings. In this energy effectiveness lies the hope for attracting investors, for creating new jobs.

The motto is “Elin Pelin will become an European municipality”.

It does not sound like a joke, but rather like a quite serious intention, although the Shops are common characters in anecdotes. A joke opens up the conversation with Mrs. Ruska Georgieva, secretary of the cultural center. “I may work, or I may stay idle,” she laughs at the notorious motto of the Shops and explains that she would rather go for the first part associated with her passionate desire for work.

The cultural center activities go back to 1896 under the name “Self-Development”, which was subsequently renamed Elin Pelin, the patron of the town. The respect for tradition is evident in the heritage preserved to date. The library with over 2,000 readers contains more than 70,000 titles. Well known is the Shop folk song and dance ensemble “Elin Pelin” with its over 50 dancers, a professional band and numerous performances, which earned worldwide renown for the Bulgarian folk dances and songs. The Female Folklore Choir, Romantica Group for Old Town Songs, Vocal Group Kambanki (Bells) and the Cinema Photo Club have also been very successful.

“These Bulgarian phenomena, the cultural centers, must continue their existence on a new market principle,” Rouska Georgieva says convinced. The problem with the funding of concert and festival activities is absolutely overwhelming. The cultural center itself badly needs repairing, not only the deplorable facade.

The traditional Shop holidays, humour, dances, songs and rites constitute a rich cultural legacy. The custom of Dipping Rings is fascinating, as it is practiced on New Year’s Eve in the area of Tugaidarets.

On the territory of the municipality is also situated the area of Spasova Mound. It lies on the land of the village of Golyama Rakovitsa, in the vicinity of the village of Bailovo, the birthplace of the writer Elin Pelin. There is no Bulgarian who has not read Elin Pelin’s short story “Spasova Mogila” and hasn’t been touched by the moving story – the little orphan Monka, led by his grandfather Zahari, searches for a remedy in the sharp-pointed mound rumoured to possess curative powers. May it please God that this region nurture another person with the preeminence of this superb writer, whose name was previously given to the village of Novoseltsi – today Elin Pelin.

Rumen Stoichkov