With a tang of antiquity and plum brandy

A cave bear skull, wild boar’s teeth, a flint, copper axe, copper pin, dated 15000 – 5000 BC. The late paleolith and the neolith. These objects were found in the territory of Teteven district – evidence of many centuries of life in these parts.

Ninety-two years ago a local archaeologist made the first excavations in the land of his ancestors. His name was Rafail Popov. He explored caves and grave mounds. A year before, in 1911 his fellow citizens decided to collect antiques from the past of the district. They were to be displayed in a museum. In 1932 the construction of the Home – Monument was completed. It was erected in honour of the fallen for the freedom of the country and those who perished in the three wars: the two Balkan wars and the First World War. It took four years to build it with the voluntary work and donations of the citizens of Teteven. Today it is known as the Town Museum of History and stands at the central Sava Mladenov square. Not far away, on the left side of the main street I can see All Saints church (1846).

I look at a cult axe with stylised figures: ram’s head, ox’s head and a goat’s head. The curator Petko Petkov explains to me that it is a very valuable exhibit alongside the treasure of 1300 Roman silver coins, minted in the 2nd-4th c., the time of 41 Roman emperors. The inscription, saying that Teteven district together with Vasilyovska Mountain fell in the administrative boundaries of an old Roman province called Diptensia, dates back to the same period. Of course, this was the scene of many battles with numerous enemies and the indigenous population, which is believed to be Thracian of the Serdi tribe. I am trying to imagine their rituals and traditions, related mostly to paying homage to the dead. Their grave mounds are numerous, most of them unexplored, located along the river valley of Vit. And I think, why since the time of Rafail Popov the state has not allocated a single lev for new excavations and new explorations? My conclusion is unpleasant, even though not said aloud. There are no new exhibits. The municipality budget is scarce. The National Institute for Monuments of Culture does not care. No aid from the Museum of Archaeology. The result is countless treasure-hunters’ raids, destroyed monuments of culture, unclear fate of those fallen in private hands, broken ancient ceramics, such as the vessels from Bayovska Cave – beautiful but unrecoverable pieces.

Undestroyed, thank God, is another monument rising above the valley of Vit. Brother Georgi tells me its legend. He is holding a wooden clapper in his hands, demonstrates its sound and slowly tells the story. In 1230 the Kiev Prince Georgyi Glozh fought on the side of Ivan Assen II in the battle of Klokotnitsa. His principality had been destroyed by the Tatars and he asked the Bulgarian Tsar for permission to settle in the Bulgarian land with his 6000-strong detachment. He got permission, set out along the valley of Vit and came to this beautiful place. He built a fortress, which he called Gradishte, and a temple and monastery in the vicinity. The Prince had brought a wonderworking icon of St. George the Victor from Kiev Russ. He placed it at the altar of the Transfiguration Church in the valley. But one day the icon vanished mysteriously. The brethren went in search of it and found it propped on a cornel-tree up in the steep rocks. The monks were happy, they brought it back and put it in place. But on the next day it disappeared again. And they found it in the same place as before. Then Georgyi Glozh decided this was God’s providence and that the saint’s desire was to build the monastery there. No sooner said than done. That is the story of St. George Glozhene Monastery. It was never raided or burnt down. Levsky, the Apostle of Freedom has also stayed there.

Even from far away St. George Monastery looks beautiful, inaccessible. Unique with its underground tunnel and entrance passage with their base stones which could at any time be dropped to block the access to the monastery. I am looking at St. George on the copy of the wonderworking icon above the church entrance. And I ask him why for so many years the road to the monastery has not been mended. And why the responsible officials do not allocate money for repair works to stop the progress of moisture and cracks.

The saint is silent. I leave with mixed feelings under the sound of the tolling bell. I take it as a prompt to take off to another sanctuary of Teteven district – St. Elijah Monastery. St. Elijah Monastery, Glozhene Monastery and Yorgov’s house are the only structures which withstood the trials of time, earthquake, kurdjali’s fire (1801). I await the unlocking of its rusted padlock and step in its premises. Only a small house and the church have survived. Inside, next to the entrance door hangs a yellowed handwritten about 100-year-old inscription, forbidding desecration of the church. It is known that its ossuary has suffered the humiliations of time, and Zahari Zograf painted some of the icons here. According to some studies, St. Elijah Monastery dates back to the time of Tsar Ivan Shishman, who granted it a diploma and a gold-plated cross strewed with precious stones. Old publications indicate that in 1923 the Bulgarian Church itself sold it to survive in the hard post-war years. Now, instead of decorating the Bulgarian temple, this cross is exhibited in the British Museum.

St. Elijah agreed to be patron of this sanctuary long ago. He successfully protected the monastery built there, in the pine wood above Teteven, below one of the many peaks of Valisyovska Mountain and Stara Planina surrounding the town. Once upon a time, a large dragon attacked Stara Planina. The brave young man Grozdyo faced the dragon. He threw a stone at it, then another, and the third time he hit it. Pieces of the stone scattered – today’s peaks Orlya, Zarnya, Kon, Haidushka Polyana, Ravni Kamak, Ostrich. The dragon cried in pain and its tears started the river. The shepherd Tetyo took his herd to graze there and populated Teteven. Ever since then Grozdyo with his flying horse guards the town and the mountain.

Mt. Ostrich has the fame of a volcano because of its shape and the pit in the middle. During the centuries the inhabitants of Teteven believed that anybody who had any sin could get rid of it by throwing a stone in this pit. The throwing of stones, I think, has obviously not propitiated the patron saints. Or perhaps some proud Tetevenite failed to do it because he was too busy fighting for freedom. Are the unforgiven sins the reason Teteven today looks somewhat forgotten and still?