ZINE

NGLISH MAGA
BULGARIAS E

5.95 leva
ISSUE 98/2014

MARCO

I SSU E 9 8 / 2 0 1 4

9 771312 859112

ISSN 1312-8590

09

Clar!s, image builder - Photo Nicolas Claris

CONTICELLI

>> LEGACIES OF COMMUNISM > GEORGI MARKOV GETS MONUMENT IN SOFIA > NIKULDEN IN SOZOPOL >
INTERVIEW: STANA ILIEV ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE FASCINATION OF BEING DIFFERENT >
ARMENIAN HERITAGE > RUSES TRAIN MUSEUM > ANCIENT STAR GAZERS IN STARO ZHELEZARE >
FICTION BY GEORGI TENEV > FUN, ENTERTAINMENT, QUIZZES & MORE >>

keynote

dear vagabond
After a month of sometimes acrimonious horse-trading, Boyko
Borisov's GERB managed to talk three much smaller political parties
into giving it support in parliament in exchange for influence and
ministerial seats. Hundreds of articles by more or less competent
reporters and analysts have been written on that. They range from
the elating to the venomous. Some Bulgarian media have chosen
to continue to get along by going along with the 5 October snap
election winner, GERB. Others have claimed that all four parties in
the current government have cheated their respective voters: GERB
in that it did compromise and let others stand in government, the
Reformist Bloc in that it entered a government spearheaded by
Boyko Borisov... The current setup is as imaginative and as shaky
as the Oresharski mandate. Consequently, most observers have
succumbed to speculation of how long it will remain in power.
I think there is a bigger question to be asked. It is nearly identical to
the question people asked when Boyko Borisov put forward Rosen
Plevneliev for president in 2011 and then said that no matter whom
he had proposed he would have been elected. The question then
was to what extent would Plevneliev be able to outgrow the shadow
of his mentor. The question now is to what extent all other parties
participating in or supporting Boyko Borisov's Government 2.0
will be able to keep in check the sort of excesses that he indulged in
during his first term in office. No immediate answer to this question
is available.
One of the major public events in Sofia in November was the
25 Years of Free Bulgaria campaign organised under the Office of
the President. It was supposed to fill in the gaps in Bulgaria's recent
history by discussing Communism and the nostalgia for it which,
according to opinion polls, by far outdoes the public satisfaction
with democracy. It emerged from all the talks, exhibitions, screenings
and inaugurations that Bulgaria has at least two serious problems.

keynote

First, it never de-Communised itself the way other former Soviet

bloc nations in Central and Eastern Europe did in the early 1990s.
Second, a quarter of a century after the actual events the debate
about Communism has become divisive rather than unifying, and is
sometimes played out to deflect the public attention away from the
crimes of post-Communism and into the more distant and therefore
safer past. Read more on p16.
One of the most positive achievements of the 25 Years of Free
Bulgaria campaign was the unveiling, in Central Sofia, of a statue of
Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian migr writer who was assassinated
in London in 1978 in what went down in history as the Umbrella
Murder. Bulgaria has done little to help solve the murder, but now
a group of intellectuals, friends and fellow migrs finally got a
permission to pay respects to Georgi Markov in symbolism if not in
real justice. Turn to p 20 for the details.
As usual, this issue of Vagabond is full of travel stories about
fascinating places to visit. We bring you a roundup of most of the
interesting sites associated with this country's Armenian minority
(p48). Then there is the mystical beauty of the ancient astronomical
observatory at Staro Zhelezare (p58). If you can, do take to Sozopol
in early December. The Bulgarian Black Sea looks very different from
what it does in the sumer, and you will be given the additional benefit
of being able to take part in the local celebration of Nikulden, or Day
of St Nicholas (p40).
We also bring you two interviews. On p22 you can take in Italian
Ambassador Marco Conticelli's views on what makes Bulgaria so
similar to Italy. And on p70 there is an interview with a GermanBulgarian activist, Stana Iliev, who offers her understanding of
human rights, emigration and tolerance. As we were going to press,
we learned that Stana had been nominated Person of the Year by the
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. We are holding our fingers crossed!
Last but not least, there is a fiction piece by renowned Bulgarian
writer Georgi Tenev (p88). It is an excerpt from Party Headquarters,
one of his novels that is particularly relevant against the background
of what's going on in Bulgaria these days.
Enjoy your Vagabond!

where to
find us
, Bulgaria's English Monthly, is distributed in
the airports in Soa, Varna, Burgas, Plovdiv.
has a large subscription base among expatriates
in Bulgaria as well as people interested in Bulgaria in the UK,
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You can buy single copies of
at good
newsstands throughout Bulgaria
and on board the planes of AIR LAZUR.
In Soa, you can also get
at the Red House
Culture and Debate Centre, at the Greenwich Book Center,
Soa, and at other good book and music stores,
or order it at www.store.bg
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Tourist Information Centre, Soa.
In addition,
is being distributed at the
following ne establishments
Arena di Serdica, Soa
Best Western Hotel EXPO, Soa
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Boutique Hotel Crystal Palace, Soa
British-Bulgarian Information and Language Centre, Soa
Business Park Soa, Soa
Checkpoint Charlie Restaurant, Soa
Costa Coee, Soa, Varna, Plovdiv and Burgas
Downtown Hotel, Soa
First Investment Bank, Soa
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Grand Hotel Soa, Soa
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Kempinski Hotel Zografski, Soa
Loran Gallery, Soa
Maxido Shop, hotel Hilton, Soa
Motto Bar & Club, Soa
Park Hotel Sankt Peterburg, Plovdiv
Platinum Health Club, Soa
Plaza Hotel, Varna
Princess Hotel, Soa
Radisson SAS Grand Hotel, Soa
Regus Business Center, Soa
Residence Exclusive Club, Soa
Sense Hotel, Soa
Sheraton Soa Hotel Balkan, Soa
Spaghetti Kitchen, Soa
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and many others throughout the country.
Can't find your
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Drop us a line at distribution@vagabond.bg,
stating where in Bulgaria you are, and we will make
sure your local newsstands are properly supplied.

imprint
PUBLISHER
Vagabond MEDIA
23 Budapest Street 1000 Soa
phone: (+359 2) 983 3308
fax: (+359 2) 983 3358
editorial@vagabond.bg
www.vagabond.bg

contents
issue 98 / 2014

Tsvetelina Kovacheva
tsvetelina@vagabond.bg
Vanya Zlateva
vanya@vagabond.bg

8. Quote-unquote

CONTRIBUTORS

10. We've got mail

Stana Iliev

Bozhidara Georgieva
Dimana Trankova

MANAGING EDITOR

Georgi Tenev

Anthony Georgie
anthony@vagabond.bg
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Professor Stanimir Stanev

Elena Filipova
elena@vagabond.bg

Stamen Manolov
Violeta Rozova

ASSISTANT EDITOR

PAPER

Jane Keating

Cover: 2 g/m2
Inner page: g/m2

GRAPHIC DESIGN
PRINTED IN BULGARIA
Janet-45 Print & Publishing,
Plovdiv

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS
GREECE
Jeni Georgieva
jeni@gogreece.bg
MEDIA SALES
Alexandra Spiridonova
a.spiridonova@vagabond.bg

12. Joke of the month

76. Feature
Who was Pirogov?

Mark LaScotte
Minka Vazkresenska

Gergana Shkodrova
shkodrova@vagabond.bg

70. Interview

14. Bulgaria's monthly quiz

16. Forums
Remember remember
the 10th of November
Georgi Markov comes back
to Bulgaria, symbolically

24. Interview
34. History

COPYRIGHT
Vagabond Media. No part
of this publication may be reproduced in any form without
the express written consent of
the publisher

Kristina Panayotova
kristina@vagabond.bg

Svetlana Doncheva
svetlana@vagabond.bg

Produced on Apple Macintosh

computer equipment only

ISSN 13128590
Unless explicitly stated, the views and opinions expressed or implied in
, Bulgaria's English
Monthly, are intended for entertainment only. The publisher assumes no responsibility, direct or implied,
for any advertising content. Products and services mentioned are subject to change without prior notice.
You are strongly advised to make proper research and seek professional advice before making any financial
commitment in response to advertising material

Vinnytsia

88. Fiction
Georgi Tenev

Forgotten POWs

38. Where in Bulgaria are

you?

94. Review
95. Highflights section
128. Inside track
---

39. High beam

Pursuant to Article 7a, Paragraph 3 of the Bulgarian Compulsory Deposition of Printed and Other Works act
it is herewith declared that Anthony Georgieff is the sole proprietor of Vagabond Media Ltd.

82. Vagabond world

Marco Conticelli

Sozopol's feast of St Nicholas

Armenian Bulgaria
The silence of the stones
Take the B Train

cover by Anthony Georgieff

quote-unquote

"If the state fails to put in

jail anyone over what happened with the
Corporate Commercial Bank, then it won't have
the right to imprison any pickpocket at all."
Deputy Prime Minister TOMISLAV DONCHEV

"If there was a

unifying idea for the future,
Bulgaria would not have had to
fight wars with the remnants of its
Communist past."
Political scientist ZHIVKO GEORGIEV

"Bulgaria is second in
Europe after the USSR."
BORISLAV GIDIKOV, Secretary General of the Weightlifting Federation,

speaking ahead of the world championship in Kazakhstan

"The Oresharski
Government has taken away the
icon of Jesus Christ from the Council of
Ministers. I will bring it back. We need God's
help to stop the free fall of Bulgaria."
Prime Minister BOYKO BORISOV

COMFORT AND STYLE

AT THE FEET OF THE VITOSHA MOUNTAIN!

11

MEDIA

er
tt he
le f t nth
o o
m

BULGARI

VAGABON

we've got mail

Christmas Offer!!!

10

SOFIA

Dear Vagabond,
I own a company called Bansko Adventure
Tours. During the past seven years I have
been taking tours into the Rila and Pirin
mountains using snowmobiles, Rangerovers
and off-road buggies. During the summer,
I spend time in the mountains learning the
routes, places to shelter and so on above the
village of Bachevo where I live.
It was during one of these "study days" that
I noticed some interesting rock formations
and standing stones. I uploaded the pictures
to my computer. On the big screen the rocks
looked worked or sculptured... not the usual
erosion.
So I walked back to the location of the
standing stone and I saw an eye, then a
nose... a huge rock, maybe 2 metres high,
had a face carved on one side... I took more
pictures, hands shaking.

I had been learning the mountains and the

legends from the villagers, but had never been
told about the stone head. Had I discovered
something?
Then, as I was putting my camera away, I saw
another big rock with a face a head outline.
On closer inspection the carving was on all
sides, not just one. Then I noticed another
head, then a lizard relief, then a horse head, a
monkey head... I was surrounded by massive
stone carvings!
Walking around the area I came to a stream,
searching for the easiest way across. On the
other side I could make out two distinct stone
walls forming a path. I crossed the stream and
followed the path, after 50 metres there were
buildings made from rocks. The roofs long
since collapsed and trees growing through the
ruins...
No one, including the mayor and the old
ladies in the village, had heard anything about
this, so I revisited with my French neighbour
and an expert from the museum. He assessed
that the ruined buildings are 400-plus years
old and the carvings even older.
I named the gorilla head picture that I
enclose "Boyko" an obvious likeness!

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13

L O R A N G A L L E R Y
P R E S E N T S:

Eliezer Alcheh
(1908 1983)
FROM VIDIN TO
BUENOS AIRES
16 November 6 December 2014

Rally?
Which rally?
by Stamen Manolov; photography by BTA
Vasil Stoilvo, Tarnovo landscape, tempera, paper, 84 x 59 cm

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev made

one of his inimitable statements that will
probably outshine even his 2013 New Year's
speech in which he extolled Bulgaria's natural
wonders while speaking in front of some stills
taken at the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
At the opening designed about the 25th
anniversary of the downfall of Communism,
the head of state had a sudden urge to
remember: "You ask me what I was doing on
10 November. Let me tell you a secret. I was in
the square and I took part in the rally. On this
day I was helping a friend, Ilian Popov, to fix
his student dorm room. We heard on the news
that there was going to be a meeting at the
National Assembly and that there was going
to be a change in the country. As students we
took up some pieces of wallpaper and drew
two slogans on them. One said 'The Culprits
Should Be Tried,' and the other said 'The BKP
Palaces Must Be Turned Into Hospitals and
Schools'. We carried these two slogans to the
notorious rally. What impressed me is that
when we got there we tried to give one of the

slogans to other people, but no one took it. No

one dared to. This was my 10 November."
Significantly, there was no meeting of the
National Assembly on 10 November. There
was no rally on 10 November 1989 at all. The
first pro-democracy rally in Sofia took place on
18 November. On the previous day there was
an official rally organised by the Communist
Party to defend the appointment of Petar
Mladenov who had replaced Todor Zhivkov.
Participants in the rally remember that many
citizens also came, some of them carrying antiCommunist slogans, but none was allowed
to speak on the platform. Photographs from
that day reveal that the two slogans Plevneliev
describes were clearly visible at that rally. They
were carried by four, not two people.
At that time young Rosen Plevneliev was
a member of the Communist Party and
also a functionary of its senior leadership in
the Lenin School of Engineering, where he
studied.
Now, which rally did President Plevneliev say
he took a part in?

The exhibition is devoted to Eliezer Alcheh, an

artist of world magnitude whose bright individuality
and sensuality have contributed immensely for the
development of modern Bulgarian art. Over 20
expressionist canvases, made in different periods of
creativity, tell the incredible story of a Bulgarian Jew,
the challenges in his life and the successes that have
marked his road from his native Vidin through the
Munich Academy of Arts and his years of peregrinations
along Europe to the most prestigious galleries in the
cosmopolitain and artistic Buenos Aires, the city which
became the artist's Promised Land.

SELECTED
ART WORKS
8 December 2014 8 January 2015

Bencho Obreshkov, Still life with fish, oil, canvas, 34 x 46.5 cm

Along with its traditional Christmas bazaar, Loran Art

Gallery presents an incredible exhibition of valuable art
by some of the best Bulgarian artists of the past century.
The visitors can enjoy and buy genuine oils by Bencho
Obreshkov,Vasil Stoilov,Yordan Kyuvliev, Aleksandar
Mutafov, Boris Denev, Danail Dechev and others.Visitors
have also at their disposal a depot featuring a variety
of authors, like Genko Genkov, Ivan Kirkov, Encho
Pironkov, Dimitar Kazakov Neron, Toma Trifonovski,
Georgi Baev and others.
Sofia, 16 Oborishte St
(entrance from Vasil Aprilov Street)
Monday-Saturday from 11 am to 7 pm
Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm
phone: 02 483 0877

Eliezer Alcheh, Buenos Aires, St Martin Square,

the 1960s, oil, canvas, 81 x 100 cm

galleryloran@yahoo.com
www.galleryloran.com

14

fiction15

bulgaria's monthly quiz

where
business

Take our test to doublecheck

Anthony Georgieff

think
you know
bulgaria
and the
bulgarians?
Largest Roman bath house in the Balkans

by Bozhidara Georgieva

1
2
3

The period after the fall

of Communism in 1989
in Bulgaria is known as...
A. The Golden Age
B. The Silver Age
C. The Transition

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS ON P32

When did the

Bulgarians switch
from the Julian to the
Gregorian calendar?
A. In 1916
B. In 1900
C. In 1878

What is pastarma?
A. A type of fish
B. A type of cured meat
C. A type of pastry

Which Greek god is

believed to originate in
the lands of present-day
Bulgaria?
A. Zeus
B. Apollo
C. Dionysus
Where in Bulgaria
are the largest ancient
termae in the Balkans?
A. In Burgas
B. In Sofia
C. In Varna
The Bulgarian word
gotin means....
A. Cool
B. Ugly
C. Bland

7
8
9

What do you need to

prepare greyana rakiya?
A. Olive oil
B. Honey
C. Cheese
In which mountain is
Koncheto, Bulgarias
most treacherous
mountain ridge?
A. In the Pirin
B. In the Rila
C. In the Stara Planina
Bulgarias only
completed motorway
is
A. The Trakiya
B. The Struma
C. The Hemus

The Elizabeth Kostova Foundation

and
Bulgaria's
English
Monthly,
cooperate
in order
to enrich
the English
language
with translations of
contemporary Bulgarian writers. Every
year we give you
the chance to read
the work of a dozen
young and sometimes
not-so-young Bulgarian writers that the
EKF considers original,
refreshing and valu-

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16

forum

17

Remember remember
the 10th of November
General dissatisfaction, little optimism mark
anniversary of fall of Bulgarian Communism
by Anthony Georgieff

In previous years the 10th of November, the

date when Bulgaria's Communist strongman,
Todor Zhivkov, was toppled from power in an
internal party coup, was a low key affair. Few
newspapers wrote about it, and Bulgarians,
usually glued to the morning shows and
evening soaps on TV, did not seem to care.
In 2014, the picture is different. The current
establishment, spearheaded by President
Rosen Plevneliev, organised a campaign
entitled 25 Years of Free Bulgaria to generate
the much needed and long overdue debate
about Communism's legacies in what remains
the EU's least developed country.
If opinion polls are to be trusted, 94
percent of Bulgaria's youth aged 16-30
know "next to nothing" about the period
between 1944, when Communism came to
Bulgaria, and 1989. 40 percent are unaware
whether Communism's collapse was marked
symbolically by the fall of the Berlin, Moscow,
Sofia or China wall. 92 percent do not know
which countries belonged to the former East
bloc. The majority of Bulgarians know little
or nothing about the events at the end of the
1980s and the main players that took part in
them. These include, but are not limited to,
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Helmut
Kohl, Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel.
These are the findings of an opinion poll
conducted by Alpha Research, a major polling
agency in Sofia.

Interestingly, public perceptions of Todor

Zhivkov have shifted significantly. While
two years after the dictator's downfall up to
76 percent of the Bulgarians had a negative
attitude to him, in 2014 about 55 percent are
in fact approving of his policies and of him as
a leader.
Half of those polled consider the "Transition
Period," the years immediately after the
abolition of Orthodox Communism, a
failure, with only 10 percent responding
it was a success. The five most important
areas where people expected change in the
aftermath of Communism were free travel (30
percent), higher incomes (27 percent), market
economy and new employment opportunities
(20 percent), human rights (19 percent),
restitution of private property (18 percent),
and free elections (15 percent).
All of these have been accomplished now
Bulgaria is both a member of NATO and
the EU. Yet, people are discontent as only 2
percent think that these achievements have
brought about supremacy of the rule of law.
Bulgarians are not alone in feeling
nostalgia for Communism. A few years
ago, the US-based Pew Research Center's
Global Attitudes Project conducted a
survey in post-Communist countries
inquiring whether ordinary people
fared better in democracy than they did
under Communism. The majority of

the respondents in all countries, with the

exception of the Czech Republic, answered
in the negative. Bulgaria was rock bottom,
faring behind even Russia.
The reasons for the current Bulgarian
attitude to Communism are many and varied,
but they are easily seized by politicians who see
people with strong longing for the past are an
easy prey for their current agendas.
Traditionally, the BSP, or Bulgarian Socialist
Party the renamed Communists, has
downplayed the political repressions of the
past, instead maintaining that Communism's
supposed "accomplishments" such as universal
health care, free education, job stability
and heavy industry plants should have been
preserved. But the BSP is far from being alone
in haloing Communism. Extremist groupings
and parties have repeatedly praised violent
policies of the Communist-era such as the
mid-1980s forcible renaming of Bulgaria's
ethnic Turks. Newcomers to the political
scene, such as former TV anchor Nikolay
Barekov, have called for the reintroduction
of the military draft and the reinstitution of
the word "People's" in the official name of the
Republic of Bulgaria.
Even political players who want to appear
pro-Western have on many occasions toyed
with the Communist trumpcard.
During his first term in office, Boyko
Borisov, Bulgaria's current prime minister,
praised Todor Zhivkov (to whom he was
a bodyguard in the 1990s). "It would be a
tremendous success for any government to
achieve one percent of what Zhivkov has
built for Bulgaria... and achieve the economic
growth of the state at that time," Borisov said in
a televised interview, in 2010. This was the first
time that a democratically elected Bulgarian
politician had such strong words of praise for
the times that Bulgarians had been so eager to
put behind themselves in 1989.

forum 19

18

it was a small, yet valuable step to make

Bulgarians know their recent past better. But
will they be able to come to terms with it?
Viewed critically, the campaign appeared
designed, at least to some extent, to deflect
the public attention from the unpleasant
issues of the day while focusing on events
and personalities that were over 25 years ago.
When Communism collapsed, Bulgaria
remained for years the only East European
country that failed to state clearly and
unequivocally that the totalitarian system
was bad. Bulgaria never implemented
lustration to ban former Communists from
taking up senior state jobs, and it never
properly dealt with the heirloom of its former
secret services. A quarter of a century later,
discussing whether sausages were better
under Communism or whether there were

In fact, it would not be farfetched to explain

Boyko Borisov's continuing popularity
with the legacy of his former employer. For
anyone with a direct experience of both
Zhivkov's and Borisov's rule it is easy to see
that the similarities in fact outnumber the
differences. Both played out as "simple people"
albeit belonging to different generations.
Zhivkov liked to pass round jokes in the
characteristically uncouth Bulgarian peasant
manner, thus ramming home the impression
that he was "one of the people." Years later,
Borisov would do the same: "You are simple
people and I am simple man. That's why we
understand each other," he told a group of
protesting workers in Kardzhali in the early
2010s. While Zhivkov's charisma lay in the
fact that he was a village man who made good,
Borisov's is that he was a disenfranchised
suburban youth who played football and
made easy money, left the police force when it

was "depoliticised" in the early 1990s because

he wanted to retain his membership of the
Bulgarian Communist Party, and became a
millionaire through activities that remain a
matter of speculation.
Not all similarities, however, are so
innocuous. For 35 years while he was in power
Zhivkov stood legally unchallenged. There was
no parliamentary opposition and whoever in
his retinue dared contradict him was given the
sack or worse. Yet Zhivkov never blatantly
broke any existing laws as he was concerned
with Communist decorum more than he
was with personal welfare. Anyone who has
experienced Borisov's rule in 2009-2013 will be
able to see that the similarities and differences
do not always compare favourably with him.
In 2014, the 25 Years of Free Bulgaria
campaign organised debates, discussions, film
screenings and art exhibitions to mark the
anniversary. Despite its obvious deficiencies,

shortages of toilet paper and suitcases, and

pitching real and imaginary Communistera apparatchiks against the newly-fledged
"democrats" may be interpreted as an attempt
to use the Communist-era crimes and
atrocities to conceal all the excesses of the
post-Communist era in which many members
of the current establishment were at least
accomplices in.
Then, of course, there is the issue of
authenticity. As if to illustrate how perilous the
quicksands of history and remembrance may
be, speaking at the opening of a conference
about the legacies of Communism President
Rosen Plevneliev produced a recollection of
what he was doing on 10 November 1989, the
day the announcement of Todor Zhivkov's
downfall was made. For more, please turn
to p12.
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20

forum

forum 21

Georgi Markov
comes back
to Bulgaria,
symbolically
Cold War victim gets honoured
by larger-than-life statue
text and photography by Anthony Georgieff

Bulgaria has notoriously failed to help solve

one of the most gruesome crimes of the Cold
War, the 1978 assassination in London of
dissident writer Georgi Markov. No one has
been brought to justice. Yet, in 2014 the writer
got honoured, at least symbolically, by the
erection of a statue of him, placed in one of
the squares in the Lozenets quarter in Sofia.

The statue was sculpted by Plovdiv sculptor

Danko Dankov and paid for by a Bulgarian
migr doctor in the United States, Georgi
Lazarov, acting through his St George
Foundation.
Markov's English widow, Annabel Dilke, and
his brother, Nikola, were present, as well as three
of Bulgaria's four presidents: Zhelyu Zlelev, Petar

Stoyanov and Rosen Plevneliev. Many citizens,

including former friends of Markov's and former
migrs, were also in attendance.
Georgi Markov, who would have been
85 this year, was a successful writer under
Communism. Gradually, however, he got
disenchanted with the Communist system
and defected to the West, in 1969. From
1972, he worked for the Bulgarian Section of
the BBC World Service in London. His In
Absentia Reports About Bulgaria, perhaps the
most insightful and often pugnacious analyses
of life in Communist Bulgaria, were broadcast
in the period 1975-1978 on Radio Free Europe,
the US radio station in Munich beaming news
and reports to the Communist nations of
Eastern Europe.
In September 1978 he was attacked and
assassinated while walking on Waterloo Bridge
in Central London. The incident, one of the
most ominous in the history of the Cold War,
went down as the Umbrella Murder.
There is little doubt that the Communist
secret services in Bulgaria acted with the
technical assistance of the KGB to "neutralise"
the man who had become Communism's most
outspoken critic.
Through the years, the Umbrella Murder
case became incredibly complicated. Through
the 1980s, when Bulgaria was still Communist,
Sofia denied any involvement. In the early
1990s, when the new Bulgarian leadership
was in office, promises for cooperation were
made. At the same time, most of Markov's files
were destroyed, thus eliminating most of the
evidence.
An investigation finally started in Bulgaria, but
it dawdled and never produced any conclusive
results. In the 2000s the case was terminated
for statutory limitations. The physical killer of
Georgi Markov remains at large.
In today's Bulgaria Georgi Markov is a
divisive figure. Owing to the massive

Communist propaganda that still reverberates

through society, many people think that
Markov was in fact a double agent, who was
killed by the Western services, in collaboration
with the CIA. Some more exotic theories
suggest that he died of a rare disease after
being scratched by his cat. But since when do
cats eject ricin-filled pellets into their owner's
thighs?
In fact, subscription to the Murder-byCommunist-Bulgaria or Murder-by-the-West
theory has become a rather sinister litmus
test for people's anti- or pro-Communist
inclinations in modern Bulgaria.
Markov's work and, hopefully, the
monument will live on. The statue is
accompanied by two poignant sentences,
possibly a unwitting paraphrase of Jean
Cocteau: "The living close the eyes of the
dead. The dead open the eyes of the living."

22

Marco
Conticelli
Italian ambassador: Bulgaria
could be next tiger of Europe
interview and photography by Anthony Georgieff

23

24

interview

Florence-born Marco Conticelli had a solid career in the Italian

diplomatic service before he arrived in Bulgaria two years ago. Having
spent time in various positions in the Italian Foreign Ministry, the most
recent of which was coordinator for immigration, Marco Conticelli also
had serious experience abroad, in places as varied as Spain, Sudan,
India and the United Nations in Switzerland. Now serving as Italy's
ambassador in Sofia, Marco Conticelli seems to have adjusted to the
Bulgarian way of things remarkably well. In fact, he seems to feel pretty
much at home as the similarities between Italians and Bulgarians, in
his opinion, outnumber the differences.
Yes we both "hate and love" our countries, we spend many hours
at the table enjoying food, we are relatively traditional and friendly
people, strongly attached to family and community values. Nature is
astonishing, homeland to a beautiful sea, gorgeous mountains and
plains, to great archaeological heritage as well as to adventure sports.
No surprise that more and more Italians decide to come to Bulgaria
to visit, and then stay. They just feel at home!
The major difference lies in the level of incomes, but Im convinced
that things will change. It's just a matter of time. The Bulgarian
economy can pick up rapidly again if it decides to "invest" in foreign
investments. Bulgaria could be the next tiger of Europe
What in Bulgaria continues to amaze you?
The people. They are open-minded, reliable and always ready to
greet you with a smile. I'm not being diplomatic and I don't think I'm
naive I really mean it. This is still an young democracy with loads
of human potential. Bulgarians believe in Europe and ask Europe to
believe in them.
Italians are definitely ready to support. We did it in the past,
backing the Bulgarian bid to join NATO and the EU. We continue
to do it now, pushing for the entry of Bulgaria into the Schengen
Area. Bilateral economic relations are going up. There are about
1,000 Italian companies operating in Bulgaria now, with an

25

26

interview

27

NATURALLY, WITH L'ERBOLARIO

Plant-based cosme cs which are eec ve and reliable

annual production worth approximately 2 billion euros and trade

approaching the record volume of 4 billion euros last year. Culture is
also high on the agenda. Many important events have been organised
recently by the Italian Embassy, such as Michelangelos and Raphaels
exhibitions, Morricone and the Solisti Veneti concerts, Italian
language courses (including business Italian), and so on.
Imagine you have a group of friends visiting from Italy. What places in
Bulgaria will you take them to?
It's a matter of personal choices as Bulgaria can accommodate all
tastes: seaside, mountains, heritage sites, religious architecture, hot
springs, winter sports... Tourism has a great potential in Bulgaria, it
offers a lot at relatively affordable prices. Indeed tourism from Italy has
been growing steadily and last year about 130,000 visitors came here.
I mean objective conditions for the further development of
tourism are definitely here, but the real challenge is marketing at
the international level. Bulgaria needs to be aggressively promoting
itself as an attractive tourist destination around the world. There
will be many occasions to step up activities in the near future: Burgas

L'Erbolario is one of Italy's best known

phytocosme cs companies, founded more
than 35 years ago by Franco Bergamaschi
and wife Daniela Villa in pursuit of an
overriding passion for plants shared by the
en re Bergamaschi family.
L'Erbolario is the producer of over 500
beauty care products for women, men and
children, and deligh ully fragrant products
for home. The company plant is just outside Lodi, and combines modern technologies and century-old tradi ons.
Ethical approach
Facial, body and hair care products
Suncare for everyone
Cosme cs and care for the whole family
You can make your own perfume,
or give L'Erbolario's products as gi s,
wrapped in special packaging

Verde Cosmecs, ocial distributor

for LErbolario for Bulgaria
LErbolario stores:
Sofia, Mall Bulgaria, ground floor
Varna, 5 Shipka St

www.erbolario.com

28

interview

European Capital of Sport in 2015, Sofia European Capital of Sport

in 2016, Plovdiv European Capital of Culture, alongside Matera in
Italy, in 2019
Your favourite activities in Bulgaria?
I have to admit Im quite a sports enthusiast. Skiing and tennis are
on the top of my list. In the past two years I coorganised "diplomatic"
competitions in both disciplines, together with the Bulgarian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Bulgarian ski and tennis federations,
and other interested colleagues. These competitions are open to
politicians, business people and friends.

29
29

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All this makes "Osteria da Rado" a place which you
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30

interview

Its a sort of "sports diplomacy": people fight fiercely on tennis

courts and ski runs and they are ruthless enemies, but when the game
is over they have something new in common, because they have
shared new emotions and experiences, well beyond protocol rules.
Generally its fun even when you lose and relationships become
stronger.
Let's turn to politics. Italy has notoriously had many some say too
many governments since the Second World War. Do you see any
similarities between the current situation in Bulgaria and Italian
politics?
The problem is exactly the same: good governance is needed to
ensure development, especially at times of economic crisis. Politically
difficult decisions need to be taken and followed through.
For example, the Italian Government has been in office now since
last February. Six months. Recently a comprehensive programme of
political, social and economic reforms was introduced into parliament,
but it was made clear that implementation of such a programme would
require "at least 1,000 days." Three years. This is the deadline fixed by
the government to "change" the country. The challenge is to match
social justice with market growth. It takes time and political will.
The Italian scenario now is relatively stable. I think Italy is set to
navigate smoothly through the rough waters of politics in the years
to come. The real trigger of this positive development is the Italian
people. They went to vote and expressed an overwhelming demand
for change.
Where do you see the greatest potential between Italy and Bulgaria?
Italy and Bulgaria share similar views on many aspects of the current
international agenda. In the EU, for example, both are asking for
effective European policies on a wide range of issues from migration
and asylum to energy, security and regional infrastructure. We support
growth and employment, striving for structural reforms in a context of
fiscal flexibility. We favour the integration of the Western Balkans into
the EU. We think that the enlargement of the Schengen area would
strengthen the European space of justice, freedom and security.
Italy is also looking at Bulgaria with great interest from a trade
and economic perspective. Mechanics, agriculture, manufacturing,

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32

interview

33

Dell'arte 1/2

Negotiating the ski slopes of Bulgaria

Soa, Iztok

infrastructure, energy, waste management: these are some of the areas

where Italy can provide state-of-the-art technology and expertise.
Not to mention tourism as well as Italian fashion, furniture and food,
the Made-in-Italy trademark. The Milan Universal Exhibition will
be held from 1 May to 31 October 2015. It will be an important tool to
promote Bulgaria abroad and to attract new foreign investments.
Im sure that the European Capital of Culture 2019 event will be a
real booster of the already well developed cultural relations. Plovdiv
and Matera will be in the spot for a whole year. The matter is not
only to organise cultural events, but also to open up new routes and
promote tourism in both countries from the whole Europe, to bring
out each other's experiences in the field of restoration of artistic and
urban heritage and to make a good use of EU funds on the basis of
specific cooperation projects.
the correct answers to the questions on p14:
1. a; 2. a; 3. b; 4. c; 5. b; 6. c; 7. b; 8. a; 9. a

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34

history

Forgotten POWs
Story of imprisoned American, British pilots
during WW2 reveals little-known episode
of Bulgarian history
by Professor Stanimir Stanev, University of Shumen; and Mark LaScotte,
Blaine, Minnesota; photography from 289 Days Near Shumen

Bulgaria fought against Britain and the United States during the
Second World War. What the pro-Nazi regime in Sofia called a
"symbolic war" started on 14 December 1941. As a result, Bulgaria was
bombed by the Allies, with the heaviest casualties resulting in Sofia
during the raids in the winter of 1943-1944.
It remains largely unknown in Bulgaria and elsewhere that during
the air battles of 1943-1944 over Bulgaria and Romania, both being
subservient to the Third Reich, American and British bombers and
fighters were shot down over Bulgaria and the territories occupied
by the Bulgarian army. More than 200 aircrew died, and 342 were
captured and became POWs. They spent the rest of the war in a
now forgotten POW camp near Shumen. This September marked
the 70th anniversary of the camp's closure, an event commemorated
by a visit of members of the US team competing in the 2014 World
Championships for Space Models.
The first 10 POWs in Bulgaria were the "result" of the first low-level
raid on the Romanian city of Ploeti and its oil refineries, on 1 August
1943. At first, they were kept in Sofia, but the heavy bombing of
Sofia on 14 November 1944 persuaded the Bulgarian government to
evacuate the American POWs, because of the articles of the Geneva
Convention regarding prisoners of war.
Shumen, a city in the north-east, was chosen as it was far from any
military targeted area. In this isolated part of Bulgaria there was
only one way to gain admittance to the POW camp by being shot
down.
The camp was active for 289 days from 25 November 1943 to 8
September 1944, when Bulgaria, with the Red Army on its doorstep,
declared war on Germany and found itself simultaneously at war with

A rare photograph of the rst

POW Camp, dated March-April
1944. Prisoners lie outside,
enjoying the sun

1
23

This photograph was taken by

Camp Commandant Dragomir
Evrov in March 1944, when 54
men were imprisoned in Camp
1. Identied are: Lt Ivan Korosa
(second row, 2nd from the
left); 1st Lt Julian Darlington,
representative of POWs (front
row, 3rd from the left); next
from left to right are 1st Lt John
McLendon, Lt Dragomir Evrov,
and 2nd Lt Edward Tinker. In
the rst row, far right, is 1st Lt
Thomas Judd, the initiator of the
3 June escape attempt

The Shumen Plateau with the

location of the former camp
buildings (1 and 2), and the
Founders of the Bulgarian State
monument (3)

Drawing of the second camp,

dated August 1944, by POW
Richard Roehll

Dated June 1981, this is the last

known photograph of Camp 2
before its demolition

45

36

history

both sides in the conflict. On 9 September,

backed by the Soviets, the Communists took
power.
While the Shumen camp was operational,
it was home to 329 prisoners from 11 nations.
The largest group was the 291 USAF airmen,
consisting of 126 officers and 165 noncommissioned servicemen. The British group
was the next largest, with 16 English and
Scottish RAF servicemen. One Canadian
officer, five officers from the South African RAF
and three Australian aviators represented the
Commonwealth. Nine Yugoslav airmen from
the USAF added to the diversity. Five British
agents were also imprisoned one English
major, one Greek and one Serb paratrooper, plus
two Dutchmen, who were also brothers.
The camp was under the supervision of
Switzerland, and from January 1944 the
prisoners had an elected representative whose
task was to communicate with the Bulgarian
military authorities and the Swiss Embassy in
Sofia.
The first POW camp was a former military
recreation house, about 8 kilometres from the
city, in the village of Lozevo. This building
could accommodate up to 110 prisoners, and
became so overcrowded that on 13 July 1944
the camp was moved to the former barracks
of the 3rd Ammunition Platoon, on the
Ilchov Bair plateau. Overlooking Shumen, the
plateau is now a nature park.
This building survived the war, and from
1946 to 1975 was used for military storage. In
1981 it was demolished, as the Founders of the
Bulgarian State monument was being built less
than 100 metres from it.
The living conditions of the POWs were
tough, and reflected the poor conditions in
Bulgaria in 1944. There was no electricity
or running water, and hygiene was basic.
The food was meagre and medical care was
inadequate. Nevertheless, none of the POWs

history 37

died from malnutrition or maltreatment.

The military commandants of the camp did
their best to follow the orders of the Shumen
Garrison Commandant, Colonel Yordan
Panayotov, who stated that the prisoners
should be "treated as representatives of great
countries." A telling example is that the food of
the Bulgarian guards was the same in amount
and quality as the food of the prisoners. There
is also no evidence of discrimination on behalf
of the Bulgarians against the POWs, whose
numbers included the Native American
Edward Tinker and the African American
pilot Henry Wise.
The Shumen Garrison Commandant visited
the POW camp once a week. While there,
he would take on board the POWs' main
concerns and would try to help. The POWs
requested more free space for walking and
sports, a kiosk for buying food and other
goods, and more fresh fruit and vegetables
on the menu. The camp's main problem, as in
Shumen itself, was the water shortage.
While in prison, the men tried to entertain
themselves. They organised performances and
had a "orchestra" of guitars accompanied by
self-made drums plus bottles, jugs and pans.
Life in the camp was marked by a number
incidents, but most of them ended peacefully.
Prisoners were constantly planning to escape,
but there was only one actual attempt. It
happened around 8 pm on 3 June 1944,
when Americans Thomas Judd, Joseph
Quigley, Patrick Meaghar and Robert Schultz
sneaked under the barbed wire fence. They
were spotted and soon recaptured. Their
punishment was incarceration in the cellar.
On 8 September 1944, the Bulgarian
government freed all POWs. In the late
evening of the same day, a dozen trucks from
the Shumen Garrison transferred the former
POWs to the city railway station. At the
same time, near the city park, Soviet military

vehicles began to arrive. Sitting in the train,

the Americans could clearly see the US trucks
with Soviet insignias, but the advancing
Russians never became aware that their allies
were only 100 metres away.
On 9 September, at 1.45 am, the prisoners
departed for Turkey.
The existence of the Shumen POW camp
remains unknown to most of Shumen's citizens,
and to Bulgarians in general. In 1998 a civil
initiative committee was established in Shumen
with the goal of researching the history of the
camp. In the following years, researchers from
Shumen University studied the camp archives
and established contacts with former POWs.
In 2004, the Committee commemorated the
60th anniversary of the release of the POWs
with a series of events, including a conference
and a visit to the sites of the former camps.
Among the guests were Robert Johnson from
Texas, a former POW in the camp, and 90-year-

old Dragomir Evrov, one of the commandants

of the camp known for his compassion towards
the prisoners, and Bulgarian Air Force veterans
who had fought in 1944.
The exhaustive work of rediscovering the
past of the Shumen POWs included research in
Bulgarian archives, expeditions to crash sites all
over Bulgaria and the neighbouring countries,
and interviews with those who were actually
involved on both sides. The result of the
research was the book 289 Days Near Shumen
published in 2012 by Konstantin Preslavsky
University Press. Both authors are personally
connected to the story. Mark LaScotte is the
son of a former American POW from the
Shumen camp. The book sheds light on a
previously unknown part of Bulgarian history
and includes the first comprehensive report
of all downed Allied planes in this part of the
Balkans, rare photos and a complete camp
roster of all the men held in Shumen.

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quiz

39

Anthony Georgieff

38

where
in bulgaria?
by Stamen Manolov

Usually, winter comes as a surprise to Bulgaria's biggest town.

This is the standard explanation that the City Council folk give
when there is over in inch of snow and the traffic, especially
away from the main roads, gets completely paralysed. When
this happens, don't drive! Take a walk in the snow-covered
streets and you will discover a completely new, and very
enchanting, city. Everything will be enveloped in white and you
can spend hours taking in buildings and people you've looked at
before but will now be seeing for the first time.
Where in Bulgaria are you?

Email your answers to

editorial@vagabond.bg
and you can win a copy of
Wall-to-Wall,
Poetry of Europe,
Vagabond's guide
to the poetry walls of Sofia.

High 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.

40

41

Sozopol's Feast
of St Nicholas
Huge party takes place as fishermen,
sailors celebrate their patron saint
in Black Sea coast town
by Minka Vazkresenska; photography by Anthony Georgieff

42

high beam

When the summer is over and the last visitors for the year have
gone, Sozopol quickly returns to its former life as a quiet fishing
town. The hotels are boarded up, the restaurants are closed and the
streets are empty. In itself, this is an incredible sight, especially if
you've seen what Sozopol looks like in August. In wintertime, salty
wind blows along the empty seaside promenades, and the voices
echoing between the traditional houses in the old quarter belong
not to the guests of the many B&Bs, but to their elderly inhabitants.
There is no queue in front of Ss Cyril and Methodius church, where
the supposed relics of St John the Baptist are kept.
In winter Sozopol belongs to its fishermen. Notoriously slightly
tipsy from early in the morning, eager to tell anecdotes and voice
their opinions on politics, the Sozopol fishermen are a breed of their
own. They are generous and boastful and, if they like you, will share
their meal, their rakiya and their life stories with you.
You rarely see them in summer, when they take to sea before dawn
and drink aniseed liquor under the awnings of clandestine taverns
known only to the locals. In winter, however, Sozopol is theirs, and
the day when they are most visible, friendly and, of course, tipsy is
6 December, the feast of St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors and
fishermen.
Bulgaria has never been a proper maritime country, yet the 6th of
December is a feast celebrated widely both along the sea coast and
inland. The explanation is that there is hardly a family in Bulgaria
without someone bearing the name of Nicholas, or one of its male
and female derivatives. It is also one of the first feasts of the winter,
starting a series of overdrinking, overeating and partygoing which
lasts for weeks and effectively ends around 18 January, the feast of
St Atanas.
Ironically, the traditional meal for the feast of sea-connected
St Nicholas is... carp, a freshwater fish. The so-called Nikuldenski
sharan, or St Nicholas Day carp, is a culinary monstrosity of carp
stuffed with walnuts, wrapped in dough and baked. Some Bulgarians
admit that they can't stand it, but many others swear they have been
waiting for a whole year to get it.

43

Top: A signal marks the time

wreaths commemorating dead
sailors should be tossed into sea
Bottom: A Sozopol sherman

44

45

high beam 47

46

Top: Blessed be these ships and

those sailing on them
Bottom: After the ceremony is
over, everyone is treated to a
bowl of fresh sh soup
Previous spread: A band of Gypsy
musicians adds to the festive
mood

In Sozopol, which has relied on fishing and seafaring since its

foundation by Greek colonists in the 7th Century BC, St Nicholas's
Day is serious affair. Here, the feast is not only for those still living
and riding the waves, but also for all sailors and fishermen who have
died in the cold embrace of seas and oceans.
On the morning of 6th December, Sozopol's townsfolk attend
Mass in St George's Church, in the heart of the old quarter. The
priest blesses wreaths and bunches of flowers dedicated to those who
were lost at sea. Then he leads a solemn procession, with the icon of
St Nicholas carried by respected citizens, all the way to the harbour.
There, the priest blesses the fishermen and the sailors, and all boats,
ships and yachts moored in the bay. The flowers are distributed
among the boat captains, who then sail out to sea and, at a signal, toss
the wreaths away on the waves.
This is their dedication to those who have lost their lives at sea.
Once this is done, the 6th of December turns on a more festive
mode. The seamen come back ashore, where there is drink, and
plenty of fish . They spend the hours until dark in feasting, telling
stories, remembering dead friends and complaining about the fate of
the fisherman, who is so dependent on the capricious sea.
Visiting Sozopol on the 6th of December will provide an
opportunity to partake of all of this as the party is open for everyone
and everyone is very welcome. Being able to walk the empty streets
of the Old Town and take in all that is extremely touristified in high
season is a huge bonus.

48

Armenian
Bulgaria
Churches, tales, cuisine define
Armenian legacy in this country
by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

49

50

high beam

In the colourful ethnic and cultural mosaic that is Bulgaria, the

Armenians occupy a special place. As inhabitants of the larger
cities, they have given to this country a number of prominent
entrepreneurs, intellectuals and people of arts and letters. Unlike
other minorities, Armenians are considered almost as brothers by
Bulgarians, because of common traits in their history, particularly
under the Ottomans. Armenian restaurants are never empty and
many Bulgarians envy the supposed proverbial entrepreneurship
of the Armenian. These sentiments, however, have not spared the
Armenians from being the butt of many jokes.
Armenians are also connected with one of Bulgaria's most
common sayings, "Go and complain to the Armenian priest." It
came into being in the 19th Century, when the Bulgarian exiles in
Diarbekir, deep in Ottoman Anatolia, used to ask for help from the
only Christian priest around, who happened to be the head of the
local Armenian community. The man in question was very helpful
and often spoke on behalf of a needy Bulgarian to the Ottoman
authorities. To go and complain to the Armenian priest was the
best advice one could get in far-off Diarbekir. On Bulgarian soil,
however, the saying changed its meaning over time to the opposite.
"To complain to the Armenian priest" now means that complaining
is pointless, your plight will fall on deaf ears.
The Armenians arrived in today's Bulgaria before the actual
Bulgarians did. In the 5-6th centuries Armenia, an ancient country
which once spread into Asia Minor, was already a part of the
Byzantine Empire and many Armenians left their birthplace and
settled in the Balkans as soldiers, merchants or administrators. In
the 8-10th centuries, their numbers increased by the thousands,
when Byzantine emperors resettled whole Armenian communities
in Macedonia and Thrace. The reason for this mass migration was
religious. These Armenians adhered to Paulicianism, which preached

51

Top: The keeper of the Armenian

church in Ruse. The Armenian
community in the city grew
dramatically with the inux of
refugees at the beginning of the
20th Century
Bottom: Detail from the decoration
of the Armenian Church in Ruse.
Armenians had their rst church
in the city in 1610, the oldest
Armenian church in Bulgaria. The
current building is from 1832
Previous spread: The entrance to
the Armenian church in Ruse.
It used to be in the middle of
the Armenian neighbourhood,
but now the area is inhabited
by people of all ethnicities and
religions

52

high beam

a dualistic universe where God and Satan were equals. For the East
Orthodox church, these teachings were pure heresy, so the "guilty"
were resettled.
What happened to the first Armenians on Balkan soil is not
documented, though their arrival probably influenced the Bogomils,
a Bulgarian dualistic sect in the 10th Century which also preached
that statehood and money were derived from the Devil. Over time
most of the Armenians were absorbed into the Bulgarian majority.
According to one hypothesis, the family of Samuil, the last major
king before Bulgaria fell under the Byzantines, had Armenian origins.
In the following centuries, the flow of Armenians to the Balkans
never ceased. One of the largest waves of migration, provoked by
the expanding Ottoman Empire, was in the 16th Century. At that
time, Bulgarians and Armenians were already sharing living space in a
number of cities, the most prominent of which was Plovdiv.
The home of an Armenian community since the 12th Century,
Plovdiv is the best place to look for the physical Armenian heritage
in Bulgaria. The mansions of rich Armenian merchants and
entrepreneurs adorn the highest parts of the three hills of Plovdiv's
Old Town. The most remarkable of these which is open to visitors
is the early-19th Century Hindliyan House, the former home of a
well-to-do merchant. The rich decoration of the mansion features
wall paintings of far-away cities, such as Constantinople, Venice
and Stockholm, with which Hindliyan traded. It is quite obvious
that the painter of these murals never visited the actual Venice and
Stockholm...
Farther up the hill is the Surp Kevork church, built in 1828 to
replace an old Greek church which had been given to the Armenians
in 1675. Surp Kevork is the heart of the Armenian community in
Plovdiv, and shares a yard with two chapels and the local Armenian
school.
Nearby, a monument to Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov dedicated
by the Armenian community commemorates a traumatic episode
in Armenian history. In 1894-1896, an Armenian rebellion in Asia

53

Top: Surp Kevork, the church

of the Armenian community in
Plovdiv, is the descendant of an
earlier temple. It was initially
the East Orthodox church of St
George and served the Greeks
until the Ottoman authorities gave
it to the Armenians in 1767
Bottom: Statue to poet Peyo
Yavorov in Plovdiv's Armenian
quarter

54

high beam

Minor was brutally suppressed by the Ottoman authorities, and

led to forced resettlement in the Balkans. About 20,000 refugees
were accepted by Bulgaria. Struck by the plight of the homeless
Armenians, Yavorov wrote Exiles, a moving and very popular poem.
The Armenian community is still grateful to him, hence the statue.
The next big wave of Armenians arrived in Bulgaria in 1922, after
the Ottoman atrocities of 1915-1922. The 22,000 new refugees
doubled the size of the Armenian community.
The terror of the forced migrations and the atrocities left a
permanent mark on the refugees and their descendants. In exile, a
robust Armenian folklore was born, a blend of the memories of those
who had survived the ordeal, and the imagination of later generations
of story-tellers.
Life for Armenians in interwar Bulgaria was hardly different from
the lives of the majority of citizens. Equal rights were guaranteed, and
many Armenians prospered as merchants, businessmen and bankers.
Community life flourished, with the establishment of schools and
choirs, charities and newspapers, cultural and sports societies.
Political changes in the wider world soon brought changes to
Bulgaria, and many of the Armenians in the country chose to
emigrate, leaving for Soviet Armenia in 1935. A new wave left for
Armenia in 1946, when Bulgaria fell deep into the Soviet sphere of
influence, and propaganda about the bright life in the USSR fell on
eager ears.
In Communist Bulgaria, the Armenians were one of the regime's
"model" minorities. Because the Armenians were Christian, mostly
well educated and, importantly, relatively few, the Communist
regime did not expect any trouble from them. This, however, did
not mean that everything ran smoothly. The Armenian schools were
put under state control and the language of instruction was changed
from the Western Armenian spoken by Bulgarian Armenians to the
Eastern Armenian spoken in Soviet Armenia. In 1961, these schools
were closed and replaced with Saturday Armenian schools. Religious
practice was not banned, but was actively discouraged. Cultural
activities were under the control of a state-run committee.

55

Top: The Armenian church in

Shumen
Bottom: An Armenian community
with a priest and a church existed
in Shumen as early as 1759. The
current church, dedicated to the
Virgin Mary, is from 1834

56

high beam

The 1989 democratic changes brought about yet another wave

of emigration, to the West. Those who decided to stay, however,
quickly and enthusiastically reestablished some of their pre-war
organisations. Community life was revived, and most of the churches
were repaired with donations from Bulgaria and abroad.
How many Armenians live in Bulgaria today is not clear. While
the Armenian organisations count between 18,000 and 22,000
compatriots in Bulgaria, the 2011 census listed only 6,360 Armenians.
The discrepancy could be due to mixed marriages.
Plovdiv may be the most obvious site for the Armenian legacy
in Bulgaria, but other big cities also have places of interest, mostly
churches. The Armenian church in Ruse is a very atmospheric
example. Situated in the heart of the one-time Armenian
neighbourhood, the St Virgin Mary church was initially a wooden
building. After it was destroyed by fire, the present church was built
in 1832.
St Sarkis is one of the most memorable buildings in the heart of
old Varna. Hidden in the so-called Greek Neighbourhood, the
church was built in 1843 on the site of an older church from the
17th Century. The belfry was added in 1910. Sadly, a recent overrenovation has robbed the church of some of its erstwhile charm, but
it is still the best place to meet Armenians in Varna, which has one of
the most prominent communities in Bulgaria.
The Armenian church in Shumen, built in 1834 and renovated in
the early 2000s, witnessed a curious event. Here, in 1849, Hungarian
revolutionary Lajos Kossuth attended Christmas Mass with his
followers. What a Hungarian revolutionary was doing in this
Ottoman backwater is a fascinating story. During the Hungarian
Revolution against the Austrians in 1848-1849 Kossuth was elected
Regent President, and after the suppression of the revolution fled to
the Ottoman Empire. He lived for a while in Vidin and Shumen, and
then in Asia Minor, before leaving for the United States in 1851.
The Armenian church in Burgas is probably the most curious
example of Armenian architecture in Bulgaria. Built in 1853, the
Surp Khrach was designed for the growing Armenian community
in Burgas, a city which was already one of the most prosperous and
multiethnic places in Bulgaria by the end of the 19th Century. The
Surp Khrach is very small, and is additionally dwarfed by the huge
Communist-era hotel hovering over it.

high beam 57

Top: Although Burgas became

a city at the end of the 19th
Century, Armenians have been in
the area since the 17th Century.
Their church, devoted to the Holy
Cross, is now in the centre of
Burgas and is thought to be the
oldest edice in the city
Bottom: Armenians have lived
in the busy commercial centre
of Varna since at least the 17th
century

58

59

In 2002, a team led by the late Dr Georgi Kitov, whose flamboyant

character and talent for discovering gold Thracian treasures made
him one of the most famous Bulgarian archaeologists, started digging
a relatively small and seemingly ordinary mound on the outskirts
of the village of Staro Zhelezare, in Central Bulgaria. The region
abounds with remains of the ancient Thracians, dating from the
6-4th centuries BC, and finds such as a supposed temple at nearby
Starosel and a bronze sculpture portrait of a Thracian king supported
Kitov's theory that the area is, for Thracian studies, what the Valley of
the Kings is for Egyptology.
The mound at Staro Zhelezare had not been robbed, as had so
many others all over Bulgaria. No one, however, was prepared for
what the tumulus was hiding. Beneath the earth, there was no grave
of some Thracian nobleman, nor an elaborate tomb, nor a chariot
with slaughtered horses still in harness. There was no gold.
Under the tumulus 24 stones stood erect, forming a circle with
a diameter of about 7 metres. The slabs in the north part of the
circle rose up to 1.8 metres, while the stones on the south, with one
exception, were less than a metre high.
Dr Kitov's team had discovered a cromlech, a type of megalithic
structure whose most famous representative is Stonehenge.

The Silence
of the Stones
Stone circle at Staro Zhelezare
has survived for millennia, but
is now slowly disappearing

by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

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high beam

Megalithic structures in Bulgaria are not uncommon. Constructed

in the 2-1st millennia BC by the ancient Thracians, they define the
landscape in the Eastern Rhodope and the Strandzha: spectacular rock
sanctuaries and rock-hewn tombs, mysterious rock niches, dolmens.
Cromlechs are rare, though, and there is only one other besides the
stone circle at Staro Zhelezare. It is bigger, and was found on a rocky
hill near the village of Dolni Glavanak, deep in the Eastern Rhodope.
When and why the Staro Zhelezare stone circle was created is still a
mystery.
According to its discoverer, Dr Kitov, the stone circle was erected
in the 6th Century BC and was used for astronomical observations.
Other researchers suggest that the cromlech was built around the
10th Century BC, the peak time for megalith construction in
Bulgaria. The tumulus was erected later to hide the stones, for some
unknown reason. We will probably never know why. The Thracians
were reluctant historians and left scant written evidence about
themselves.
Regardless of its scientific importance, the Staro Zhelezare stone
circle seems doomed to disappear.
In Bulgaria, archaeologists are too often keen to discover interesting
sites and, if possible, make the news with some spectacular find. Once
the work is done, however, there is rarely money for the preservation
of the excavated site and soon the elements start their destruction of
structures and buildings which had survived for centuries.
The Staro Zhelezare cromlech is a disturbing example for the attitude
of both professional historians and the state towards the remains of the
otherwise widely advertised rich past of the Bulgarian lands.
In Staro Zhelezare, Dr Kitov's team dug deep around the stones of
the circle, leaving them exposed to erosion. After they had finished
the job, the archaeologists constructed a flimsy cover over the
tumulus. Soon, the roof collapsed and wind and rainwater started
eating into what remained of the mound. Several years after the
discovery, all the slabs had fallen down, and the undergrowth had
taken over, hiding everything in tall grass and thorns. The fact that
the village's dumping ground was only metres away from the stone
circle made things worse.
The cromlech can still be saved. After an NGO devoted to the
protection of Bulgaria's cultural heritage made some noise, the state
sent a commission to Staro Zhelezare. The commission decided that
it would be best if the remains of the stone circle were again covered
with a mound. After all, the tumulus had protected the cromlech
for millennia, and quite successfully. Reburial of the site would also

high beam 61

protect it from another problem the archaeological heritage of Bulgaria

is often subjected to, namely overbuilding and overrestoration, which
have turned places like the Yaylata fortress into ghosts of their former
selves, and have made sites like Tsari Mali Grad fortress in Belchin
unsuccessful Bulgarian reincarnations of Disneyland.
For the enthusiasts of the Lets Save the Staro Zhelezare Cromlech
Foundation, however, the cromlech can be saved as it was, without
losing its spirit or scientific significance. Their campaign, which
started in 2013, aims to re-erect the slabs of the circle in their original
positions, and to build a state-of-the-art protective cover over it.
Local infrastructure will be fixed, and the cromlech will become
a major highlight of the Thracian heritage tour of Bulgaria. The
enthusiasts have already started to preserve the stone circle. The
local mayor has moved the dumping ground to another place, and
the undergrowth has been cleared. The foundation's next step is to
raise enough money for archaeological research in 2015, led by one of
Bulgaria's top archaeologists.
For more information, check www.facebook.com/
CholakovaMound?fref=ts.

62

Take
the B Train
Danube city of Ruse houses
charming display of railway history
by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

63

64

high beam

high beam 65

1
23

Engine 148, the rst ever to

throttle in Bulgaria

A Morse telegraph. The rst

telegraph line in the country was
nished in 1866 and run between
Ruse and Varna

Sink from a carriage used by

Bulgarian kings Ferdinand and
Boris III

The carriage used by Soviet

Marshall Fyodor Tolbukhin during
the Second World War
Previous spread: Toy model of a
train system

Wars are of course bad, but their side effects can sometimes be
positive. Take, for example, the Crimean War of 1853-1856. This
conflict, which engaged the Western powers in battle on the fringes
of the Ottoman Empire, brought many European innovations to the
backwater that was the Sultan's realms at that time. In the following
years, the Bulgarian towns along the Danube experienced an influx of
novelties, from the first theatre to the first newspaper.
The railway was one of the most radical innovations that came to
the Bulgarian lands after the Crimean War. The conflict had exposed
to everyone, including the Sultan, how backward his empire was
technologically. In the late 1850s, it was decided that the Balkans
should be criss-crossed with railways to facilitate trade and, if
necessary, the transportation of soldiers.
After some typically Ottoman scheming, procrastination and
obviously a few bribes, the first of the planned railways was built in
1866. It connected Ruse, a major city on the Danube, with Varna,
on the Black Sea, considerably shortening the route from Central
Europe to the Eastern Mediterranean. The investors were the English
brothers Trevor and Henry Barkley, who would have exclusive rights
for 99 years before ceding them to the Ottoman Empire.
Numerous troubles followed, including the first railway accident
in Bulgaria in 1867, and financial losses which forced the brothers to
sell the line to Baron Hirsch, who was building another railway, in
southern Bulgaria. After Bulgaria regained independence, in 1878,
the Ruse-Varna railway was sold to the Bulgarian state.
Ruse continues to be a major railway crossroads, connecting Eastern
Europe with the Balkans and the Mediterranean. The first railway
station, built by the Barkley brothers on the bank of the Danube,
however, is no longer in use. In 1954 Ruse's railway station was moved
inland to a larger building designed to cope with the increased traffic.
The old station was left empty until 1966 when it became the home
of the first and only National Transport Museum in Bulgaria.

66

high beam

The first impression on entering the brick-and-mortar Barkley

station can be a little disappointing. The museum has barely changed
since 1966. Its brightly-lit rooms are full of dusty and dutifully, if
unimaginatively, arranged paraphernalia, models and knick-knacks
from all the major stages of the development of communications and
land and river transport in Bulgaria. The most interesting exhibit is
probably the old fashioned but still working toy model of a railway
system.
What makes the museum a place to remember is in the backyard.
Lined up along the Danube shores are engines and carriages that
carried various important people and witnessed the major events that
the movers and shakers of the day participated in.
The first of them is the Number 148 locomotive. Built in
Manchester, it rattled for the first time between Ruse and Varna
in 1866 and was in use until 1901. In 1914, however, the Bulgarian
economy switched to war mode and all disused locomotives
were scrapped, as the country was hungry for metal. Number 148
locomotive was the only one to survive the iron-and-steel carnage.
The man who first travelled the Ruse-Varna line was Midhat Pasha,
the reformist governor of Ruse, who took a personal interest in the
construction of the railway. He must have been satisfied with the
result, as he invited Sultan Abdlaziz to try for himself this example
of new technology.
The sultan made the trip in 1867 in a special, made-in-Belgium
carriage with an inside toilet and comfortable seats for himself,
the heir to the throne and a few ladies from the harem. The trip,
however, ended in bitter disappointment for Midhat Pasha. The only
comment the Sultan made upon his arrival in Ruse was that he had
liked the carpet.
In the following years, this carriage made many trips, carrying
dignitaries who included the French Empress Eugenie on her way
back from the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal in 1869, and the
first Bulgarian independent ruler, Prince Alexander I Battemberg.

67

1
23

The carriage which took Sultan

Abdlaziz on a railroad travel
from Varna to Ruse, in 1867.
Appropriately, it was named
Sultanie. Later, it carried other
royalties like the French Empress
Eugenie

Royalties enjoyed comfort in

carriages made in Belgium and
Germany

These pink railway tickets

were in use in Bulgaria until the
late 1990s

high beam 69

68

Bulgarian kings hit the railroad

in plush comfort

Today, the carriage is parked in the yard of the Transport Museum

and visitors can peek inside. Its exterior is also remarkable for its vivid
blue colour, so different from the ordinary train greens of the other
carriages.
Next to it are the two carriages used by the Bulgarian kings
Ferdinand I and Boris III. King Ferdinand's carriage was made in
Breslau in 1894, and the one used by his son, Boris, was manufactured
in 1911 in Germany.
Both carriages are open to visitors, but don't expect touches of
luxury in the bedrooms, seating or dining areas. The king's family
enjoyed a pleasant interior with mother-of-pearl details, but
definitely preferred practicality over extravagance. King Boris himself
was a keen train driver and would often practise on the Bulgarian
railways.
The last railway carriage in the museum is more ominous in history
and spirit. Made in Germany in 1902, this sleeping car was used by
Soviet Marshal Fyodor Tolbuhin during the Second World War.
Tolbuhin was the man who led the Third Ukrainian Army, which
entered Bulgaria in September 1944, prompting the 9 September
Communist coup.
Metaphorically, this car brought to Bulgaria the changes that are
still felt today. Its interior is spartan, just as the times of Stalinism
which befell Bulgaria in the wake of the Second World War.

This series of articles is supported by the

America for Bulgaria Foundation. The
statements and opinions expressed herein
are those of the authors and do not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the America for Bulgaria
Foundation and its partners.

70

interview

interview 71

stana iliev
Celebrating diversity
in Bulgaria is not easy
interview and photography by Anthony Georgieff

With a German mother and a Bulgarian father, Stana Iliev, who was
born and raised in East Berlin, feels she never had any real connection to
Bulgaria except for the obligatory "This is very tasty" and "I can't eat any
more." Before she came here on a longer-term basis, Stana's impressions
were limited to rusty monkey bars in the Mladost One project in Sofia
and the Good Night Children TV show on Bulgarian television.
But that's past now. In 2008, she came to this country, initially for
three months to finish a diploma paper. She made friends quickly,
a major reason to be unable to leave. She learned the language and
developed a relationship with Bulgaria that made her "want to explore
more." She did. She started working for humanitarian organisations
such as the Bulgarian Red Cross, and soon she found out that in
Bulgaria everyone takes everything personally. The more Stana
identified herself with being half-Bulgarian, the oftener she would speak
up and not be content with what is going on in Bulgarian society. Today
she is involved in LGBTI and women's rights as well as general antixenophobic initiatives often involving migrants and refugees on both a
professional and a voluntary basis.
The attitude of the majority of Bulgarians towards foreigners and
minorities, like in any other country, is complex and varies. The
benchmarks foreigners are judged by are poverty and "otherness."
Bulgarians can be very welcoming towards Westerners such as myself.
On the other hand, prejudice against and rejection of people who are
different or poor is very disturbing. This doesnt only go for refugees
but also for national ethnic and religious minorities, and for people
with different sexual orientation or gender identities.
There is the old saying by John Acton: Liberty provokes diversity,
and diversity preserves liberty. We should be extremely concerned

FIRE SAFETY

72

73

about the extremist movements and

citizens should start speaking out about
that. The most dangerous thing is apathy.
At the end of the day, integration happens
on an individual level. As individuals we
have to start with ourselves and decide to
find the points of intersection with others
instead of concentrating on the differences.
Transformation starts from within and
then reaches the minds and hearts of
communities, cities and countries. I believe
there is a necessary connection between
inner transformation and finding effective
alternatives to discrimination and violence.
What are the most pressing issues regarding
immigrants, including refugees, in Bulgaria?
In the past year, like in all of Europe, there has
been a rise in racism and xenophobia. Against
the background of the ongoing economic
crisis and the shaky political situation, this is
not surprising. Prejudice and fear flourish in
an atmosphere of misinformation, poor media
ethics and bad integration politics.
The only way to tackle this is to understand
that integration is a twoway street. It is not
assimilation and not segregation like most
people seem to think. Real integration needs
advocacy, education, access and innovative
employment policies.
The new Bulgarian Integration Strategy
that is being reworked at the moment needs
to become much bolder and practical.
Measures should include support for grass
root initiatives and capacity-building for
community actions. It should not be another
pretty policy paper like so many, where in
the end the funds are being absorbed in
administration and huge machineries, and the
end product is not worth the effort.
What do you think of the new barbed-wire
fence on the border with Turkey?
The huge influx of predominantly Syrian
refugees in the past year has been a big

challenge to Bulgaria. The EU refugee policy,

in my opinion, needs some serious rethinking.
Establishing a Fortress Europe is by no means
the answer to the situation. The EC program
on solidarity and management of migration
flows has spent 1.8 million euros. Almost 50
percent of that has gone to enforcing protection
of Schengen's outer borders with the rest going
to aid, integration and repatriation.
In Bulgaria, the dichotomy is especially
striking. Just about 8 percent of the total
amount Bulgaria was allocated under the
SOLID Programme was for activities funded
by the Refugee Fund, whereas almost 74
percent was given to the External Borders Fund.
Furthermore, the policies of the EU include
tight cooperation with third countries to "keep
people out." Sadly, some of those are countries
with known poor human rights records. In my
opinion, many of the current refugee policies,
including the Dublin Agreement, are designed
to leave poor border countries like Bulgaria do
the EUs "dirty work."
This is unacceptable and has terrible
consequences. You cannot prevent people
from seek safety and peace. Refugees are
forced to take higher and higher risks and
embark on increasingly dangerous routes,
facing open sea and violence on the way.
Let's face it. Bulgaria is a transit country.
The hype and fearmongering of the Bulgarian
media, however, has been very dangerous.
At present, there are only around 4,000
registered refugees in the Bulgaria, either
with humanitarian or refugee status. I think
Bulgaria has the capacity to integrate a much
larger number, reaping the benefits from the
fresh human resources.
Is Bulgaria a cosmopolitan country?
Do Bulgarians want it to become more
cosmopolitan?
Yes, we are citizens of the world. In the
past year Sofia has seen a big increase in

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74

interview

international attention and visitors. Actually

I find it very obvious that large chunks of
the Bulgarian people are thirsty for change,
innovation and new cultural input.
In terms of being "cosmopolitan" I also think
that understanding that emigration is one
of the biggest tools for social critique is also
very important. Young, well-educated people
cannot find their place in their own country.
This is not only an economic problem but
also a social problem. That is why I welcome
the development of civil society. I welcome
activism, people waking up from apathy and
developing a sense of ownership of their social
and political situation. There is a change in the
air and an atmosphere of departure, especially
in Sofia. I would wish for the countryside
communities to also become more active and
to be the leaders of their own development.
What about Bulgarians' national identity?
How do Bulgarians see themselves in Europe
and the world?
I believe Bulgarias self-identification is an
ongoing process. There is national pride,
the struggle to reprocess history in an everchanging political framework, and of course
its new status in Europe.
Sometimes it seems as if Bulgaria has both
an inferiority and a superiority complex at the
same time.
We have the grand national pride. We
quickly produce explanations about how the
country is actually the cradle of civilisation,
a country of untouchable heroes and the
nicest people on earth. And then we put a
comma and a "but," and then we go on bashing
our countrymens mentality and Bulgaria's
position as the pariah of modern Europe.
Still, I have big hopes for Bulgaria. I
think if we were a little braver and stopped
waiting for the EU to come to rescue we
could be a fantastic example of Europe's new
cosmopolitism.

76

77

Who was
Pirogov?
Mummy of major Sofia
hospital's namesake
lies in glass coffin
in Ukraine
by Minka Vazkresenska;
photography by
Anthony Georgieff

"Pirogov hurry!" is a phrase that strikes fear into any Bulgarian

mind. Pirogov is the name of the country's largest emergency
hospital. The tall building on Sofia's Tsar Boris III Boulevard has
seen countless casualties arrive by ambulances or taxis after suffering
accidents or becoming victims of crime to be treated by some of
Bulgaria's finest medical specialists.
The Pirogov Hospital was founded in 1951 to replace the older
Red Cross Hospital as a centre for accident and emergency. It was
modelled after similar institutions in the USSR, as a result of the
larger trend in the first decade after the 1944 Communist coup, when
Bulgaria's economy, institutions and culture were being remodelled
along Soviet lines.

78

feature

Nikolay Pirogov (1810-1881), the surgeon chosen as the patron of

the new hospital had nothing to do with the USSR, however. He was
a pioneering physician who revolutionised war-time field surgery
and played a significant role in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878,
which brought about Bulgaria's independence.
A prodigy in medicine, Pirogov graduated at the age of 18
from Moscow University and at 26 was already a professor at the
University of Dorpat (today's Tartu in Estonia). In the following
years, he specialised in surgery, created the first anatomical institute
in Russia and wrote two studies on anatomy, which collectively
comprised 16 volumes. He made headlines, too. One of his most
famous operations was an aesthetic one, when he used skin from the
patient's chin in order to replace a missing part of the man's nose.
Pirogov was not interested in academia only, and he came up
with some of his most significant innovations while caring for the
wounded in Russia's wars. In 1847, during the seemingly endless
Caucasus conflict, Pirogov performed the first field surgery under
ether anaesthesia. This happened only a year after this groundbreaking method of anaesthesia was publicly demonstrated at the
Ether Dome in Boston, Massachusetts.
When the Crimean War broke out, in 1853, the Russians soon
found themselves overwhelmed with wounded soldiers suffering
and dying in monstrous conditions. In 1854, Pirogov arrived in
Sevastopol, on the Crimea, to help. He had to fight not only for the
lives of thousands of soldiers, but also against corruption that was rife
in the medical administration. He succeeded in providing a smooth
organisation, and introduced the triage system which divided the
wounded according to the severity of their injuries.
Another innovation of Pirogov during the Crimean War was the
plaster cast for injured extremities. It sounds like nothing major now,
but at the time it saved many legs and arms from being amputated.
Pirogov's achievements were widely praised after the end of the war
in 1856, but this did not make life easier for him. The surgeon became
the victim of political manoeuvring in the top medical circles and fell
out of favour with the tsar. Isolated and left without a pension, in 1866
Pirogov went to Vishnya, or Sour Cherry, his family mansion near
Vinnytsia, in today's Ukraine, and opened a free hospital for the poor.
This did not stop him from travelling and learning more about the
human anatomy and the ways a surgeon could help. Pirogov visited
Europe, become an honorary professor at a number of universities and
academies, and went to the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War of

high beam 79

1
23
1

The chapel built to preserve

Nikolay Pirogov's mummied
remains

Goat herder on the outskirts

of Vinnytsia. The area was called
Pirohove, after the surgeon who
lived, worked and died there

Monument to Pirogov and his

work near Svishtov, marking the
place of one of the hospitals he
organised during the RussoTurkish War of 1877-1878

Pirogov's hospital for the poor,

Vinnytsia. It is closed to visitors,
but in the nearby surgeon's
mansion there is an informative
museum dedicated to his work

5 Pirogov Hospital, Soa

Previous spread: Monument to
Pirogov at the eponymous hospital
in Soa
Following spread: Pirogov's mummy

45

80

feature

feature 81

1870. His fame grew, and his list of well-known

patients included Giuseppe Garibaldi, the
leader of the Italian unification movement.
In 1877, Russia began a new war against the
Ottoman Empire, and the skills and devotion
of Pirogov were again much needed.
The surgeon went to one of the most
difficult front lines, that at Pleven, and in only
two months made significant improvements
in the medical care of the wounded.
Pirogov spent the rest of his life in Vinnytsia.
In 1881, the 50th anniversary of his scientific
career was celebrated officially in Moscow and
St Petersburg, the cities where previously he
had had so much trouble in.
By this time, however, Pirogov was dying
from cancer of the upper jaw. As a surgeon, he
knew that this was incurable and he prepared
for death in a rather eccentric way.
He developed an embalming solution and
declared in his will that his body should be
preserved. This was duly done after his death
on 23 November 1881. His body was later laid
in the crypt of the family chapel his widow
built near the mansion at Vishnya.
The body of the surgeon is still there, in
the crypt. The room has no equipment for
preserving a specific temperature or humidity,
yet Pirogov's body is in perfect condition. It
seems as if the years since 1881 have not passed
at all.
This cannot be said for the only other
preserved corpse in the former Soviet Union,
that of Vladimir Lenin in Moscow. In spite of
controlled conditions and constant care in his
grandiose mausoleum on Red Square, Lenin's
mummy is deteriorating. Unfortunately, not
just symbolically.

82

83

Vinnytsia
Home of Pirogov's mummy
in Central Ukraine turns out
to be surprisingly pleasant
by Bozhidara Georgieva;
photography by Anthony Georgieff

84

vagabond world

Vinnytsia has a name whose pronunciation baffles foreign tourists,

if there are any. At the present time, there aren't not only because of
the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, but because usually
visitors bypass Vinnytsia for the more attractive sites of the Podolia
region, in western Ukraine. These include, but are not limited to, the
medieval city of Kamianets-Podilskyi and the castles in Radomysl
and Letychiv.
The home of about 370,000 people, Vinnytsia was founded in the
14th Century and quickly passed through the hands of Lithuania,
Poland, the Ottoman Empire, the Cossacks and Russia. Few traces
of this long history are now visible in the pleasant central streets of
the city. The sole exception is the fortification walls of a former Jesuit
monastery.
Vinnytsia's most remarkable sight appeared much later the 1910
red-brick water tower right in the central square. It is now the home
of the Afghan War Museum where photographs and other exhibits
tell the stories of local soldiers who fought in the 1979-1989 Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan. The trauma still lingers on in the former
Soviet republic and every major city of Ukraine has at least one
memorial to the Afghanistan campaign.
What you see around the tower, however, is what makes Vinnytsia
worthy of a visit. Its central area is a surprisingly pleasant mixture of
broad tree-lined streets, fine turn-of-the-century houses, naturally
interspersed with not-so-fine Soviet architecture. The monument of
the Red Army with its knight-like soldiers of stone and eternal flame
is kept in perfect condition, but the Soviet-propaganda mosaic on a
building nearby is falling apart. Faces of caryatids from the pre-Soviet
era look down on antiquated Ladas, and Vinnytsia also has some of
the quirkiest street sculptures in this part of Europe. One of funniest
is the statue of a dentist that looks as if it was made of dentistry
equipment.

balkans
balkan
kans
ns travel
trav
raavel 85

Vinnytsia's old water tower is

now a War Museum to the men
who fought in the Soviet War in
Afghanistan in 1979-1989
Previous spread: Central Vinnytsia
with the Glory Memorial and the
Eternal Flame

vagabond world

86

12
3

A monument to the Orange

Revolution, on Vinnytsia's
Independence Square. The unrest
broke out in 2004-2005 following
suspicions that the results of the
presidential election were cooked

Vinnytsia waiter. The city has

a bunch of good eating places,
but they are concentrated in
the centre and close early in the
evening

Soviet bus still in use by local

security forces

87

Vinnytsia's most famed attraction is not in the centre of the city.

About 7 km away is the village of Pirohove, where the crypt of the
Pirogov Chapel still preserves the embalmed body of the renowned
surgeon, Nikolay Pirogov (18101881). It is open to visitors, for a
small fee.
Close to the chapel, there are two more Pirogov-related places
of interest. One is the small hospital where Pirogov treated poor
people free of charge, and the second is the surgeon's home which is
now a museum. A visit will be illuminating about the extraordinary
achievements of Pirogov in anatomy and field surgery.
Perhaps Vinnytsia's low profile can be explained with its recent
history. According to CIA reports, during the Cold War the KGB
operated in Vinnytsia a training centre for spies who were being
groomed to go undercover in the West. It comprised of a fake, smallscale American town, where Soviet agents would get used to the
reality of the enemy's lifestyle.
Today Vinnytsia is uneasy with its Soviet past. The monument of
the Red Army is well-kept, but on one of the main streets there is a
memorial plaque to Stepan Bandera, the nationalist who sided with
the Nazis during the Second World War to proclaim Ukrainian
independence from the USSR.
On the other side of the street, Vinnytsia's own Maidan
Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, is adorned with a solemn
monument to the Orange Revolution, which in 2004-2005 tried to
topple the corrupt politics of pro-Russian President Leonid Kuchma
and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, only to empower the not-sodifferent, but pro-Western Viktor Yuschenko and Yulia Timoshenko.
Vinnytsia is dotted with events prompting unequivocal feelings.
In 1937-1938, thousands of locals deemed enemies of Stalin were
killed during the purges. Later, the Nazis used the infamous
Vinnytsia Massacre in their anti-Soviet propaganda, but this fake
show of humanity didn't deter them from killing Vinnytsia's Jewish
population.The black-and-white picture of a single man, with
German soldiers behind his back and dead bodies under his feet, has
become iconic. The last Jew in Vinnytsia, read the caption on the
back of the original photograph.

88

fiction

GEORGI TENEV's novel Party Headquarters is the winner of the Contemporary Bulgarian Novel
Contest of the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation and Open Letter Books at the University
of Rochester in January 2014. It is forthcoming in English by Open Letter Books, US, in 2015.

party headquarters
by Georgi Tenev
translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel

To buy a trip to the Cosmos, to pay a million

and some for it Im proud of this idea. But I
need to be completely prepared physically as
well as financially. Medical exams, yes, and all
those procedures.
The leader of the pre-launch cycle Shatrov,
Valentin Ivanovich arrives on his bicycle,

fiction

which is about twenty years old, Ukraine

brand. The chain is always well greased.
He carries the folders and training charts
in a lovingly preserved plastic bag with the
advertising logo of West Cigarettes on it and
straps that have worn thin. There's no longer
any need for me to be amazed, it would be

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terribly impolite in any case not by the state

of his bag or his shirt or his ratty jacket with
its frayed sleeves. The glasses sitting on his
nose plastic frames, a unisex model with
bifocal lenses are held together on one side
by a Band-Aid wrapped around the broken
rivet.
In this unchanging form, Shatrov sits
behind mountains of equipment which
can conquer gravity or which, under
different circumstances, could set off a fatal
intercontinental war. He spins in the chair,
covered in plaid upholstery that sticks up
here and there at the edges of the back rest.
He observes the censors, fills in the charts
with a cheap pen and in that unmistakable
soft Russian way gives me directions over the
microphone, which is as gray as an antique
cartridge. The microphone hangs at the
end of an even grayer cord that gray left
in the past along with Bakelite and tube
televisions. Insulation material made fragile
by time, sclerotic arteries that have lost their
elasticity they are no longer manufactured in
any chemical factory anywhere in the world.
Theyve been replaced by modern rubber,
ultra-flexible, which doesnt slide between
your fingers even when theyre sweaty.
But I, in a jumpsuit under the spacesuit, am
sweating buckets. The inside of the uniform
isnt padded, there are no airholes along the
seams or in the underarms or thighs. The
humbleness of it all, the old-fashionedness,
the wear-and-tear it doesnt worry me, on
the contrary it inspires me. I know, Im
convinced itll launch me into those dark
heights over our heads sufficiently safely.
And there will be so many stars up there that
everything brought along from earth will lose
its significance.
The old emblems havent even been torn off
the jumpsuits. Gold letters over the blue silky
image, a round planet embroidered between

90

fiction

fiction 91

disappears into. My body comfortably hides in

the hermetic cocoon with its big, soft paws
inside I can move my hands, enjoying the slow
movements. My thumbs, magnified ten times
over, wiggle impossibly far away from me. Im
ready to go out into the open cosmos, or at
least Im technically ready.
*
The pre-launch program has been reduced
I received a full set of clothing taken out of
storage, in rustling cellophane wrappers. I have to a minimum. Shatrov isnt happy about it,
but what can you do? I suspect that he soothes
underwear with strong seams that gives off
some old scent, maybe camphor. Pure cotton, his conscience at night with vodka. Poor guy
he probably has to buy the bottle with his
cream-colored, like ivory. Also T-shirts, with
own money, taken from his miserable salary.
three-quarter-length sleeves. Shoes, socks
without heels and a pair for running that go all He even unscrews the cap, but only lets me
the way to the knee. The pants have small slits sniff it Kosmicheskaya, with three red stars
for attaching the small galvanized hooks at the skewered above a blue rocket, like a drawing
out of a children's book.
end of the belts, which connect to something
I ought to buy him a few rounds, I say to
like a seat at the lower back almost like a
diaper of soft cloth, but green instead of white myself, I should come up with some kind of
present for him once everythings finished.
and as furry as an astrakhan. Thus wrapped,
Because, I assume that I'll see him again at
I sit in the hollowed-out shell of the training
the end. I haven't been completely informed
chair. Then in the catapult. The gray jacket is
regarding that question, but Shatrov has been
short in the waist, while its collar is rubbery,
with me continually since the very beginning,
somehow alive from the tension of the elastic
eighteen hours a day. It would seem impossible
sewn inside. Muscles of natural caoutchouc,
for him not to be the first one to greet me
I catch a whiff of its stinging scent around
when the capsule with the landing apparatus
my face. The same smell inside the space suit
hits the soft black earth, the wheat fields of
with the round glass helmet that my head
Kazakhstan.
wreaths of wheat, with the inscription USSR.
This reminds of how during the 1950s K-shev
had tried to unite us with the Soviet republics
on the sly. Now, Mr. First Secretary, we can try
again together.

THE ELIZABETH KOSTOVA FOUNDATION

and VAGABOND, Bulgaria's
English Monthly, cooperate in
order to enrich the English
language with translations of
contemporary Bulgarian writers. Every year we give you the
chance to read the work of a
dozen young and sometimes
not-so-young Bulgarian writers
that the EKF considers original,
refreshing and valuable. Some of them have been
translated in English for the first time. The EKF has
decided to make the selection of authors' work and
to ensure they get first-class English translation, and
we at VAGABOND are only too happy to get them
published in a quality magazine. Enjoy our fiction pages.

*
Traveling in space has many wonderful
aspects and one terrible one which is the
further away you get from the earth, the more
visible the distance between you and your
earthly life becomes. And it becomes that
much sadder and harder for you to accept the
magnitude of the time needed to return. This
feeling grows and keeps growing, except if you
decide not to return at all.
But the most important thing is to scatter
K-shevs ashes completely, with no leftovers, in
the airless non-orbital space.

I don't know which one has more significance

for my life Chernobyl or Baikonur? Perhaps
both things had to happen to me, in precisely
the right order. Because I now possess a body
of cells that have been irradiated deep down.
A body that sits calmly and decisively in the
transport cabin. The cosmos calls to me. The
very same cosmos promised by those reprinted
Russian popular science books from my
childhood. School bulletin boards and pictures
from Pioneers and Rockets magazine, strangely
mixing into the general brownish-blue mass.
The rocket now is beautiful and majestic.
The rocket Energy, a thousand-ton giant.
The terror of seeing the enormous mechanism,
which was created to start up only once. I see
a square of its light hull through the cockpits
side window. The reusable space shuttle
Buran pride of the erstwhile Soviet space
and aeronautical industry attached to the
launch rocket with three hydraulic and three

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fiction

mechanical suction cups. Tucked beneath

them are the pyrotechnical systems, stuck on
with a gray gum, the glue that guards against
an undesirable premature explosion. Later,
in orbit, this final stage will also become
unnecessary. And then the soft explosions will
shove them apart: the Energy from the Buran
on its side, and the Buran from the Energy,
until recently hitched together. They will reach
the sheltered altitude and afterwards will never
meet again. Except perhaps in the ions of the
glittering atmosphere, on its grating upper
edges. There, where the corona of earthly air
comes up against the cosmic nothingness.
There, when the shuttle returns through the
sizzling layers, breaking them like chains. In
the flames washing over its hull, the Buran will
again caress the slender rocket. The Energy,
broken up, shattered into basic pieces, will once
again embrace the shuttle.

93

In this vortex of ions, under the rasping of the

file with which the Universe crafts the galvanic
globe of the stratosphere and sands away the
calluses from the Cosmos feet as if with a
galactic pumice stone amidst the physique
of the cosmic bodies, nothing will remain of
K-shevs body (nor even of his ashes, I hope).

GEORGI TENEV is a novelist, short story writer

and playwright. His novel Party Headquarters
(Altera, 2006) brought him his first serious
recognition in literary circles, winning the
VICK Bulgarian Novel of the Year Award
(2007). The novel came out in Spanish from the
Baile del Sol Publishing House in 2010. Georgi
Tenev writes plays that have been produced by
leading Bulgarian directors. In 2013, he made
his debut as a film screenwriter.

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94

review

fiction 95

#lifefrom
sofia

high
flights

Short-story collection tries

to explain Bulgaria's capital,
amalgamating facts, fables
and urban spirit
airport news

by Dimana Trankova

shopping
Wandering around Sofia as a first-time
visitor could be disappointing. The capital of
Bulgaria lacks magnificence, charm and grand
sites of interest, and many foreign tourists look
genuinely relieved when they reach the end
of their guided tour and are herded by their
bored tour guides toward some restaurant
for the obligatory lunch with Shopska, rakiya,
grilled meat and folk music.
If foreign tourists in Sofia had the guide
from Alexander Shpatov's short story A Yellow
Brick Road, however, their experience would
be quite different. Or probably not. Although
the guide in question makes up outrageous
stories about what in Sofia qualifies as
"major" sights, the only one interested in his
fabrications is one little girl.
Shpatov's collection of shorts stories,
#lifefromsofia, is the book equivalent of
this unfortunate cicerone. The stories try to
explain Sofia to both its citizens and to its
visitors, but not as a guide book, a history
lesson and or a travelogue, but as a burlesque

amalgamation of fact and fiction, of reality

and fantasy, peppered with twist endings.
The sentences are fast, the language is
snappy and the protagonists (where there
are any protagonists) are often borderline
schematic. More often than not, the stories
give you the impression of listening to a
strangers' conversation in the Number 604
bus, or reading someone's chat history,
rather than indulging in fiction. Indeed, the
collection is deep with all of its 176 pages
into the times of the digital and the social
media, from the breathless storytelling to
the clever hashtagging in the title to the app
allowing you to tag at places mentioned in
#lifefromsofia.
Supported by the Programme Culture
of the Sofia Municipality as a part of its
(unsuccessful) campaign for European Capital
of Culture 2019, #lifefromsofia has not only
Bulgarian, but also English-language edition,
in the translation of Angela Rodel. The book
is published by Colibri.

interior design
wine & dine

96

high news fraport 97

varna airport with a regular

route to istanbul also during
the winter months
As from October 26th the winter flights schedule came
into force at Varna Airport.
Year round scheduled flights are operated from Varna to
Sofia, London, Vienna, Moscow and from this year to Istanbul.
After the successful start of the new route to Istanbul,
Turkish Airlines continues to carry out flights from and
to Varna Airport during the winter season. The flights to
Istanbul are four times per week.
Domestic flights to Sofia are operated every day by the
national carrier Bulgaria Air.

Every day Varna Airport services flights to Vienna with

Austrian Airlines connecting the two cities.
On Thursday and Sunday Wizz Air carries out flights
from Varna Airport to London (Luton).
The flights to Moscow (Domodedovo) by S7 Airlines
are operated every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.
Updated information regarding the flights schedule is
available at: www.varna-airport.bg.

26 .

, , , ,
.
, Turkish Airlines
.
.
Austrian Airlines.

WizzAir ().
() S7 Airlines ,
.
,
.

www.varnaairport.bg .

98

shopping

99

Christmas
Is Coming!

by Violeta Rozova

Christmas without gift-giving is like Easter

without egg-hunting it is possible but doesn't
sound very fun. Choosing the right gifts for the
people you love or want to impress, however, can
be stressful rather than pleasant if you leave buying
presents for the last minute. Instead of rushing
through shops, malls and shopping websites,
better leave at least two weeks for finding and
selecting your gifts. It is more fun, and gives you the
opportunity to think over what to buy.
However, there are always safe choices: a box of
luxurious chocolates or a coveted book, a fine piece of
jewellery or an exquisite souvenir, a trip to exotic place
or a pair of state-of-art glasses.
On the following pages, we offer you a selection of
gifts which will make everyone happy.

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for aesthetics and comfort. The consultants at the brand
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100

advertorial

advertorial 101

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Founded in 1991, Zografov & Son are the creators of

unique, high-class souvenirs and gifts made by the best
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collections for men and women, and is happy to make a
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the spirit and uniqueness of Zografov & Son's art.
What kind of people are Zografov & Son's luxury gifts
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Our clients are banks and government institutions,
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102

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perfection

, ,

The glasses and lenses that are comfortable and fit make
your day better. FOX OPTICS (www.foxoptics.com) are
aware of that and have devoted themselves to the quest of
bringing to their clients glasses with or without dioptres
and lenses which reflect their wearers' personal style, their
hobbies, their aesthetic preferences.
In the FOX Optics in Sofia you will
find models which look as if they
have been custom made for you. The
folding Minima Pocket are ideal for
those who want stylish and practical
glasses. For bold but elegant vision,
chose the luxurious BALDININI
and you will feel like a star from the
Golden Era of Italian cinema. FOX
Optics also took the first place in
the client's politics' award, given by
FORBES.

, ,
-. (www.foxoptics.
com)

, ,
.
,
.
Minima Pocket ,
.
,
BALDININI
.

FORBES.
BALDININI

zografov & son

When do you want your glasses to be ready to wear?

With FOX Optics, you decide!
We make turn the ordinary glasses into a mark for our customers' individuality and
lifestyle. We improve the way you live and the way you look, and our opticians
help you find the best frames, glasses and lenses. We use a latest generation 3D
computer which guarantees the precision and high quality of our glasses.

OPTIC SHOPS IN SOFIA

y 61 Aleksandar Stamboliyski Blvd
y 18 Serdica St
y 73 Hristo Botev Blvd
y 26A Knyaz Al. Dondukov Blvd
y Lyulin region, block 443
y Mladost 4 region,
Business Park Sofia, building 10

y 18 Shipchenski prohod Blvd,

Galaxy Trade Centre
y Sofia South Ring Mall, level +1
Central Office
61 Aleksandar Stamboliyski Blvd,
phone: 02 980 0215, 0887 209 191
office@foxoptics.com
www.foxoptics.com

104

shopping

105

manila grace

manila grace

yuno pearls

Solve the jigsaw puzzle

Discover the magic of pearls

Women with style know how important is the skill to

combine clothes and accessories to achieve individual
look. MANILA GRACE Italian brand (www.manilagrace.
com), which already has its own mono-brand stores in
Paradise Center Sofia and Grand Mall Varna, cherishes
courage, individuality and ability
to impose your own handwriting.
The trademark of Manila Grace are
layered combinations of different
in density and colour fabrics. Thus,
the Manila Grace woman can
combine clothes and accessories,
solving every day the pieces of her
personal jigsaw puzzle depending
on her mood, the weather or the
occasion. You can play, too, with
the pieces of ideas and assemble
your Manila Grace puzzle the
result will amaze you.

. MANILA GRACE (www.

manilagrace.com),
Paradise Center, , Grand Mall Varna,
,

. Manila
Grace
.
Manila Grace
,

, .
,
Manila Grace .

Natural pearls are a symbol of beauty and elegance, and

the unique collection of YUNO PEARLS (www.
yunopearls.com; shops in Sofia Paradise Center, TZUM,
Mall of Sofia, The Mall) offers you jewels which bring
light in life and leave a strong memory. Among the most
interesting festive suggestions of Yuno Pearls is the
elegant two-row bracelet of 40 white cultivated natural
pearls finished with an exquisite silver clasp, encrusted
with 32 Zirconium crystals. As an addition to the
bracelet, or as a gift on its own, chose a ring with a single
white cultivated pearl and silver in the shape of ribbon,
encrusted with precision with 14 Zirconium crystals.

yuno pearls

FASHION
I N S P I R A T I O N
Soa Paradise Center | Varna Grand Mall Varna | www.manilagrace.com

, YUNO
PEARLS (www.yunopearls.com;
Paradise Center, , Mall of Sofia, The Mall)
,
. -
Yuno Pearls
40 ,
, ,
32 .
,
,
, 14
.

106

interior design

(
)

The modern home should be

not only comfortable, but stylish

by Violeta Rozova

In interesting times we are living, aren't we? Eating

has become an excuse to pamper ourselves, to seek
organic or exotic products, to play the role of the chef
in our kitchen and of the connoisseur in the restaurant.
Travelling is not anymore a way to see new places and
people, but has become a shortcut to self-knowledge.
Our feeds in the social media mirror not our true selves,
but a carefully coiffured image of ourselves as we want
to be seen.
Our homes also change. In the search of the place
where we could relax and be ourselves, we move to new
homes, buy high-tech furniture and houseware, consult
on the latest interior design trends with specialised
magazines and blogs. For us, the people of the 2010s,

.
,
, - .
, .
, ,
.
.
,
, , ,

COMO Hypermarket

My home
is (more
than)
my castle

(Continues on p110)

( . 110)

108

advertorial

Comfort +
fashion +
quality =
COMO

COMO Hypermarket stepped on Bulgarian soil 10

years ago as a part of the Austrian chain K. Ludwig.
COMO offers to its clients furniture and home
accessories of top quality, produced in the EU. General
manager Svetoslav Radushev tells more.
What are the clients of ?
We select our products in accordance with the latest
international trends, and offer our clients only the
newest and the best. This makes COMO a space for
lovers of trendy and quality furniture, which helps them
to unleash their fantasy. In our store there are products
for each taste: modern and stylish living room furniture
with limitless functions, and bedrooms which can be
freely redesigned. We also offer furniture for children's
rooms, home offices, bathrooms, vestibules, and colonial
furniture from massive wood with modern colours and
designs and long life. COMO reaches out to everyone
who wants to bring more cosiness and quality to his
home.

advertorial 109

What distinguishes furniture? What are its

strong points?
COMO works with world renowned furniture
manufacturers like RMW, STAUD, NOLTE, ROM,
Edward Schillig, and is their only representative in
Bulgaria. Many of the furniture we sell, including the
ones in our newest catalogue, are exclusive for Bulgaria.
Unlike other companies in the field, COMO gives
its clients the opportunity to be unique and enjoy
their furniture for longer time. Last but not least, we
pay attention to both quality and functionality. The
furniture producers we work with guarantee the long life
of each piece of furniture.
In our busy modernity, people have fewer time to
relax and enjoy peace and quiet. So the newest pieces of
furniture are designed to compensate and make everyday
life easier. You now can control the deepness of the
seat of your sofa with pushing a single button, or have
economical LED lighting and built-in headphones or
phone charger. With a single movement of your thumb,
the armchair can help you to stand up or to find the
most comfortable seating position. Comfort and high
quality make COMO's furniture like nothing else.
What are the latest trends in interior design?
Until recently the design and colour of a piece of
furniture were the most important thing, but today this
notion is changing. Beauty is not enough anymore. A set
of living room furniture now has to have technologies
making life easier: LED lighting on the glass shelves
of shelving units and cabinets. Besides their standard
functions as bed and storage space, the sofa beds and
armchairs should offer additional possibilities for
relaxation: comfortable moving head and arm restraints,
legs lifting, relaxation function.
The main requirement to furniture, however, is to
fit, and in order to do this, we offer rich product range,
opportunity to order a model in different colour,
upholstery and types of leather, of planning each 20 sm.
These are the opportunities which 2015 brings.
White remains the trendy colour for living room
shelving units, with glossy covering and warm LED
lightning. In sofa beds and armchairs, the shade of warm
brown is still popular and white leather is going back
in fashion. Bedrooms are with clean lines, and the beds
of the Boxspring type are gaining momentum because
of the comfort they give. Wardrobes in white with oak
accents are very sought after, and if you want to bring
tenderness and individuality in a bedroom, few things
can beat mirrors lined with satin or bronze.

How helps its clients to chose the best furniture

for their homes?
Choosing furniture for your home is an individual
experience and our consultants have individual approach
to each client. Our colleagues go through extensive
instruction classes and are able to give the best solution
to our clients, even before the client has seen our
store in its entirety. We enter our client's home in our
imagination and together with him we find the best
solutions for the space, both financially and aesthetically.
All of the manufacturers we work with have immense
product range and we are positive that you will find
YOUR interior solution there. Our consultants will help
you navigate in this diversity and find the perfect piece
of furniture for your home.
What are we going to find in the expanded
showroom?
In the past few months we didn't spare efforts in
expansion of our showroom. It not only got bigger.
We expanded our product range and the number
of our partnerships. Now we are offering you new,
internationally renowned producers of comfortable,
beautiful, quality and durable furniture.

The best answer to your question, however, is a walk

around the new showroom, where you can see and test
all the new products we proudly present. You can see
them on our web page and e-shop, www.como.bg. It
is the only e-shop for furniture in Bulgaria working in
real time, it refreshes its contents each 2 seconds and
calculates the cost of delivery before you have finished
the order. It makes furnishing your home even easier,
delivery is within 2-3 working days.

COMO Hypermarket
Sofia, Mladost 4, 267 Okolovrasten Pat Blvd
phone: 02 976 7070, fax: 02 976 7071
info@como.bg
www.como.bg
Open daily from 10 am till 8 pm

110

chuchuline

interior design

(Continues from p106)

( . 106)

home is more than a quiet abode, it is the mirror of our

individuality.
Happily, the furniture and interior design industry
changes just like we do. Long gone are the times
when we had a limited choice of furniture and
home accessories. Today, we can create innumerable
variations of interiors, picking from the countless
furnishing solutions; to choose from hundreds of
shades and models of curtains, furniture, lamps. It
is increasingly easier to discover those details which
bring uniqueness in our home: paintings and objects
of art from the diverse art galleries; antique pieces of
furniture or home accessories from the antique dealers
or the flea market; even colourful and exquisite clothes
we don't wear anymore, but use as a colour accent at
home.
To chose from everything on the market, however,
is difficult. On the following pages we offer you a
selection of stores and manufacturers who not only sell
a diversity of quality furniture, but also give friendly and
professional advice on the interior design.
COLOURFUL LIFE WITH COMO
Stylish but warm; modern, yet classical; comfortable
but elegant; colourful but without aesthetic
compromises: who wouldn't like a home like that?
The combination of all these things is not easy. In
COMO HYPERMARKET (Sofia, 267 Okolovrasten Pat
Blvd, www.como.bg), however, you will find furniture
and interior solutions which will turn the home of
your dreams into a reality, and specialists who will
guide you towards the optimal choices for you. A part
of the Austrian chain K. Ludwig, COMO has been
offering in Bulgaria for 10 years the elegant, quality and
modern furniture of the best European manufacturers,
among which are RMW, STAUD, NOLTE, ROM,
Edward Schillig. The rich product range of COMO
includes furniture and accessories for each part of your
home, from the bedroom and the children's room
to the entrance-hall, the bathroom and the living
room everything which will turn your home into a
cosy sanctuary, a piece of art and a reflection of your
individuality.
CHUCHULINE: YOUR HOME
IS YOUR PERFECTION
When you are looking not for furniture to fill your
home with, but for furniture which will be your home,
there is one solution CHUCHULINE (Sofia, 49 Odessa
St, phones: 0884 600 224, 0884 600 211, www.chuchuline.
com). Established in 1993, the company stays true to its
philosophy to create unique interiors which are not only

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CHUCHULINE:

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CHUCHULINE (, "" 49, : 0884
600 224, 0884 600 211, www.chuchuline.com). 1993 .,
,
,
.

FURNITPURE
AND INTERIORS

111

Soa
49 Odessa St
phones: 0884 / 600 224, 0884 / 600 211
chuchuline_bg@abv.bg

www.chuchuline.com

Don't betray the quality!

Something new, something great, something like nothing else... from Chuchuline.
z Practicality meets bold design and high-quality materials for interiors without a match
z Unique top class furniture after individual projects, with modern design and functionality
z Interior solutions for ofces, restaurants, bars, shops, hotels, apartments

interior design

113

chuchuline

112

living spaces, but pieces of art. Regardless of whether

you want a complete interior solution for your home,
restaurant, bar or office, chuchuline will give you the
best ideas, and will visualise them in 3D. The chuchuline
furniture will help you to achieve more finished look
of interior. They are high class, are distinguished for
their modern design and functionality, and are made
by a devoted team of professionals, striving to achieve
perfection.
NIDO FURNITURE STORES:
TO DISCOVER YOURSELF
Created with the co-operation of Architect Mirko
Tattarini, the new showroom of NIDO FURNITURE
STORES (Sofia, 1 Andrey Lyapchev Blvd, www.nido.bg) is
a unique space, a sort of design gallery which shows you
how to "translate" the ideas for interior solutions seen on
the spot, to your home. In a contrast with the industrial
style of the showroom, its interior is taken by wooden
houses where you can touch and feel the complete home
and office furnishing, from the floor covering to the
tiniest detail. The project creates the feeling that you are
walking through a labyrinth, passing through a number

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114

115

interior design

xxxxx

Nido Furniture Stores

116

of genuine interior solutions. In the showroom, you will

find ergonomically built furniture for all types of spaces
and the latest achievements of modern technology.
NIDO's interior designers are professionals and with the
help of over 90 Italian manufacturers will give you ideas
for your home, office, shop, restaurant, while paying
attention to your budget as well.
NEVEN RESIDENCE: A PLACE FOR DREAMS
Sometimes the place you want to turn into a home
forces you to compromise with insufficient space, bad
lighting or unimaginative design. NEVEN RESIDENCE
COMPLEX (www.neven-residence.com) gives you
everything you need to fulfill your dreams. Situated at the
feet of the Vitosha, in the prestigious Simeonovo-north
neighborhood, close to Sofia and the Ring Mall, IKEA,
Business Park Sofia, the gated complex offers a variety of
apartments in both size and design: one, two and multiple
bedroom flats, plus underground and outdoor parkings,
gyms, party hall, spacious south garden with kids corners
and relaxation areas, 24-hour access control, professional
management and maintenance. Each detail in Neven
Residence is made of the best materials and you can buy
your apartment completely furnished, with interior after
your individual design. You can check on the sample
apartments in the complex on www.neven-residence.com.
AREXIM GARDEN LTD:
INNOVATIVE INTERIOR DESIGN
Following the latest world trends in production
of window coverings, AREXIM GARDEN (www.
areximgarden.bg) offers on the Bulgarian market a new
generation of blinds. The energy-saving blinds with
special metalized films block 88 percent of the whole
solar energy. They secure effective protection from
sun heath, optimal protection from reflections, strong
sun light and UV radiation. The "clever" motorized
blinds and curtain rods are an intelligent solution for

.
90
, , ,
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neven-residence.com) ,
.
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Business Park Sofia,
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(www.areximgarden.bg)
.
88% .
, ,

people who want optimal comfort and are offered

for all wooden, vertical, roller, panel track blinds and
Roman shades and curtain rods produced by Arexim.
The company works with the quality materials of world
leaders like Coulisse, Hunter Douglas, Somfy and has a
strong expertise in fulfilling specific projects offering a
wide variety of non-standard blinds.
SAN MARCO: STYLE FROM ITALY
SAN MARCO BG LTD (www.sanmarco.bg) is the
exclusive representative for Bulgaria of Colorificio San
Marco S.p.A, the world famed factory group producing
paints and plasters in Italy. The company has many years
of experience and successfully combines tradition and
innovation, offering a final product of high quality
which defines the European standards. The rich range of
San Marco's products includes paints, plasters, decorative
and specialised products, suitable for each interior and
exterior. They allow you to create a range of different
variants and combination in accordance to your taste
and preferences. To achieve individual and extraordinary
result, trust the team of professionals, artists and
decorators of San Marco, which is all at your disposal.

UV . ""
,
, , , , ,
"".
Coulisse, Hunter
Douglas, Somfy
, .
" ":
(www.sanmarco.bg)
Colorificio San Marco S.p.A.

,
, .
" "
, ,
, .


.
,
, "
", .

WINDOW
COVERINGS
www.areximgarden.bg

Protect your home

the whole year round
Winter:

thermal insulation
with an optimal use of sun rays
eective protection
from sun, and insulation

Summer:

z SHOWROOM SOFIA
83 Tsar Samuil St,
phone: 02 981 8188,
soa@areximgarden.bg
z SHOWROOM PLOVDIV
190 6th September Blvd,
phone: 032 623 312,
plovdiv@areximgarden.bg

z SHOWROOM VARNA
3 Tsar Osvoboditel St,
phone: 052 640 013,
varna@areximgarden.bg
z SHOWROOM SMOLYAN
11 Bulgaria Blvd,
phone: 0301 813 87,
smolian@areximgarden.bg

balkans
travel
high
beamfiction
XXX

118

high news fraport 119

Burgas Airport with direct flights

to three European capitals
Vagabond Media is happy to announce its cooperation with
Penguin Travel, the travel agency based in Copenhagen and
Sofia, to provide a new service to our readers: experience
for yourself all the places, sites, events and everything else
you read about in Vagabond, Bulgaria's English Magazine.

y City Breaks
y Heritage Tours

y Eccentric Bulgaria
y Incentive Travel

We now oer highly customisable, tailor-made tours to

just about anywhere in Bulgaria (and of course through the
Balkans) that you have read about in this journal during
the past six years. Just go on www.vagabond.bg, find your
destination, and drop us an email. We will provide you with
a quote immediately.

As from the end of October Burgas irport is working

on winter flight schedule.
During the winter period the airport continues to
serve scheduled flights to three capitals directly Sofia
(Bulgaria), London (UK) and Moscow (Russia). They will
be operated by three airlines: the national carrier Bulgaria
Air will serve the domestic flights from Burgas irport to
Sofia. The flights to Moscow irport Domodedovo will
be operated by the Russian airline S7 (Siberian irlines)
and passengers could fly to London (UK) via Wizz Air.

At 18:25 every Tuesday and Saturday departs the plane to

London from Burgas.
Flights to and from Sofia will be operated five times a
week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
and Fridays.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are
the days when the flights to Moscow are carried out.
More information can be found on the website of the
airport: www.burgas-airport.bg.

Our new service includes anything from half-a-day tour of

Sofia to a week-long journey o-o-o-the-beaten track
through Bulgaria.
Some examples of what we have to oer:

Jewish Bulgaria

Once Bulgaria was a major Jewish centre in southeastern Europe, which did not
deport about 49,000 of its Jews during the Second World War. Now the Jewish community in the country is small, but the heritage remains sometimes
well-kept and maintained, but often overlooked, ignored and abandoned. With a
highly-qualified guide, who has authored many articles and a book about Jewish
heritage in the Balkans, you can now visit some or all of the Jewish-related sites.
Expect to discover some surprising gateways to a forgotten yet potent reminder of
a world that no longer exists.

Ottoman Bulgaria

Did you know that until the late 19th century Bulgaria was a part of a powerful empire spanning on three continents and incorporating lands as varied as what is now
Egypt, Greece, Israel, Turkey and Iraq? Modern Bulgaria is dotted with remnants
of the Ottoman Empire bridges, mosques, public baths, residential architecture,
water fountains... This is an exciting tour that will give some unique insights into
why Bulgaria is what it is at the beginning of the 21st century.

Communist Bulgaria

In 1990 Bulgaria was the only Warsaw Pact country to re-elect its former Communists in a multiparty election. In 2013 Bulgaria is the only country in Eastern Europe that has not demolished,
dismantled or at least put in context its hundreds if not thousands of Communist-era monuments,
statues and architectural complexes varying from monstrosities such as the Founders of Bulgaria
monument in Shumen and the flying saucer building at Buzludzha to the menacing Red Army monument in Central Sofia. Many of those have been left to the elements to wither, just as the ideology
that once inspired them. In a generation, they will be gone, so now is the time to see them, experience them and see for yourself what Eastern Europe looked like 25 years ago.
Our tours are highly customisable and can be done for anything from a few hours in central Sofia to a week-long
trip in the country. We provide convenient transportation, hotel accommodation, good food and wine and above
all expert guides who will tell you all the stories that will help you make sense of what you see in one of Europe's
least known lands.

Just send us an email on travel@vagabond.bg with a specific inquiry and we will be happy to oblige.

www.vagabond.bg

www.penguin.bg

www.penguin.dk

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: www.burgas-airport.bg.

120

wine & dine

121

Diversity, ambition and quality

define the Bulgarian wine market

by Violeta Rozova

Bulgaria is also the country of several vine varieties.

Some of them are so old that their origins are lost in
the mist of history: Gamza, Siroka Melniska, Pamid,
Mavrud, Dimyat.
The choice of local and imported wines in modern
Bulgaria is overwhelming and the wine consumption in
the country is on the grow.
However, while hitting the wine road, Bulgaria
has experienced some difficulties. The local wine
industry with vast vineyards and wineries producing
for the market, began developing in the beginning
of the 20th Century. During Socialism, the industry
grew and new varieties were introduced on Bulgarian
soil, like Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay and others.
Sadly, in those times winemakers paid more attention
to quantity, not quality. By the 1990s, the Bulgarian
wines were known abroad as cheap and unpretentious.
The privatisation of wine industry in the 1990s blew yet
one more strike many vineyards were abandoned and
wineries were closed.
At the beginning of the 2000s, however, a bunch of
ambitious winemakers started a trend which led to the

sxc.hu

The wine
soul of
Bulgaria

The connection between wine and the Bulgarian lands

is older than is Bulgaria itself. For the ancient Thracians,
wine was a divine beverage which they not only drank
during their feasts, but also used in rituals dedicated
to a deity which later the Greeks called Dionysus. The
tradition is still alive, in the Trifon Zarezan feast of
vineyards and winemakers which is celebrated on 1
February. Today, Bulgaria is a wine country and there
is hardly a new-coming foreigner who haven't asked to
try some of the local wines. And rightly so. Churchill
himself used to stock each year 500 bottles of the heavy
red Melnik wine.

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wine & dine

advertorial 123

sxc.hu

122

diverse and developing wine market in Bulgaria of the

2010s. Today, the consumers enjoy the results of these
changes.
The news for Bulgarian wines which have won medals
on international competitions are not a rarity anymore.
The most ambitious wineries work with the best
winemakers in the world, who have created for them
unique wines. The number of small, mid-range and big
wineries developing wine tourism is growing.
As a result, more Bulgarians enjoy wine and are
interested in its taste, terroir, varieties. In 2014, Bulgaria
ranked 21st in the world in annual wine consumption,
with 20.2 litres per capita. The trend is amazing,
especially if you take in notice that the French, who are
at the top, have decreased wine consumption from 100
litres per capita in 1975 to 44 litres in 2014.
Wine tourism in Bulgaria is still far from what you
enjoy in France, California or South Africa. Yet, while
you travel the country, you can taste the different
characters of its regions in the wines produced there.
The Thracian Valley is the home of almost 70 percent
(Continues on p124)

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bg)
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( . 124)

Winery Number One

in Bulgaria:
CASTRA RUBRA

The story of Castra Rubra Winery is the story of its

owner, Jair Agopian. He is one of the people for whom
wine is not business, but a way of life.
It all started about 15 years ago, when Agopian
discovered the most important truth about the drink
of gods: good wine is made of good grape. He began
searching for the best vineyard in Bulgaria, and ended in
the village of Kolarovo, near Harmanli and the borders
with Greece and Turkey.
Having the best grape and introducing the innovative
bag-in-box technology, Agopian immediately became
a major factor in Bulgaria's wine industry. Initially, it was
hard to sell "wine in carton", but soon both restaurants and
sceptics fell for his wines as they were good and came in a
handy package.
In spite of the good results, Agopian knew that if he
wanted to make truly big wine, he needed good winery.
Then Fate stepped in and met him with Michel Rolland,
one of the ten most influential winemakers according
to Decanter Magazine, and creator of many top wines.
Agopian told Rolland about his future project, Castra
Rubra, and only months later they signed a contract
stipulating that in Bulgaria Rolland will consult only Jair
Agopian's projects.
In 2004, the Frenchman visited Bulgaria and
inspected the place of the future winery in Kolarovo.
The winemaking conditions here are perfect the
sunny days are significantly more than the Bulgarian
average and the soils are so diverse that each vineyard
produces unique grapes. There is history, too, as close to
the village are the remains of the Castra Rubra Roman
fortress which gave the name of the winery.
Michel Rolland was impressed by both the terroir and
the future winery project, and made only small changes
in Agopian's initial plan. The main effort was put into

improvement of vineyards and planting of new grapes

like Alicante bouschet, Sangiovese, Pinot noir, Cabernet
franc, Sauvignon gris, Sauvignon blanc, Grenache blanc,
Syrah, Petit verdot, Chardonnay and Viognier.
Today, the Castra Rubra vineyards and winery are
renowned as the best in Bulgaria.
Why? Because its winemakers chose the harder road.
The grape turns into wine naturally, through gravity
flow process. The whole production is bottled at the
same time and the red wines age in the bottle. There
are no compromises with the quality of the casks or
the ageing period. As a result, the Castra Rubra wines
are divine and of the best quality, comparable with the
world's standards.
Castra Rubra is probably Bulgaria's most decorated
winery, winning golden and silver medals in wine
competitions from Canada to Asia. Robert Parker, the
biggest wine critic in the US, tweeted the following:
"Keep tasting very good Bulgarian wines-From Jair
Agopian-his winery called Castra Rubra".
This is the grand goal of Castra Rubra winemakers: to
show to the world the new, better face of Bulgarian wine
and place the country where it belongs, among the first
in the world.

124

wine & dine

(Continues from p122)

( . 122)

of the red vines in Bulgaria, like Cabernet sauvignon,

Merlot, Mavrud, Pamid, Misket. The specific climate
of the Black Sea coast and the Northeast make these
regions the territory of the white wines like Chardonnay,
Aligot, Dimyat, Riesling, Gewrztraminer, Tamyanka.
The Danubian Plain and the Northwest are the place
to drink Gamza or Vrachanski Misket. The Southwest
is the territory of not only Siroka Melniska, which is
the source of heavy, almost purple wine, but also of
Merlot, Cabernet sauvignon, Pamid. In the Podbalkan,
the area between the Stara Planina and the Sredna Gora
mountains, are grown Red misket, Chardonnay, Muskat,
Cabernet sauvignon, Merlot.
Unfortunately, 2014 is not among the best years
experienced by the industry. The rainy summer resulted
in a serious decrease in wine production throughout
Europe. In Bulgaria, which ranks 18th among the world
wine producers, the decrease is of up to 30 percent. This,
however cannot lead the country's wine industry away
from the right path it has chosen in the past decade.
TELISH WINERY:
THE FACE OF BULGARIAN WINE
Established in 1999, TELISH WINERY (www.telish.
bg) makes quality wines in their price range and has
proven itself as a leader in innovation on the Bulgarian
wine market. The Telish wines are "honest" and have
been keeping up with their quality and have kept their
qualities throughout the years. Telish Merlot and Telish
Cabernet Sauvignon are the first vintages of the winery,
followed by the Tt and Tt Lux series. By now, the winery
has been offering a wider range of wines, among which
are the new and rare for Bulgaria blends like Sangiovese
and Merlot, or of Alicante bouschet and Merlot. The
wines of Telish are well known on the international
market and are present in 15 countries on three
continents. Telish are also proud with their Castra Rubra
winery, whose wines created with the help of Michel
Rolland have been among the best on the Bulgarian
market since 2007.
EDUARDO MIROGLIO:
INSPIRATION CALLED WINE
Inspired by the rich history of Elenovo village, in
Bulgaria's south, in 2002 the Italian producer Edoardo
Miroglio decided to create a winery in the region. The
result is impressive. The annual capacity of EDOARDO
MIROGLIO WINERY (www.emiroglio-wine.com) is one
million litres. The winery produces Merlot and Cabernet
sauvignon wines and also sparkling wines. Edoardo
Miroglio's best wine is Soli Invicto, a blend of Merlot,
Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc and Syrah with dense

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WORKING HOURS: DAILY FROM 10AM TO 9PM

over 1,300 wine

vintages and
400 liquor brands

CASAVINO is the first chain of local wine warehouses in Bulgaria with immense
range of products, professionalism and wholesale prices for mixed boxes of 6 bottles

What can you experience in CASAVINO:

<> Try new interesting wines
<> Join our weekly tastings
<> Chose a wine with a great discount during
our two-week promotion sales
<> Join a wine class and meet other wine
lovers

<> Buy wine and glasses for a party, and

return everything which you haven't
drunk after the event
<> Take a club card for more discounts
<> Talk to people whose life is devoted to
selecting of the most interesting wines
for you, and learn new things!

SOFIA
CASAVINO Doyran, 10A Doyran St, Beli Brezi, phone: 0886 66 09 22, doiran@casavino.bg
CASAVINO Zaimov, 48 Yanko Sakazov Blvd, Oborishte, phone: 0888 90 35 19, zaimov@casavino.bg
CASAVINO Mladost, 91 Al. Malinov Blvd, Mladost 4, phone: 0886 90 96 61, mladost@casavino.bg
CASAVINO Tsar Osvoboditel, 10 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, phone: 0882 44 77 97, tsar@casavino.bg
VARNA CASAVINO Varna, 43 Ivan Vazov St, phone: 052 953 533, varna@casavino.bg
CASAVINO Varna Park, 482 Primorski Park 2, phone: 052 336 013, varnapark@casavino.bg
* For more informa on visit www.casavino.bg or ask the consul ng sta at the CASAVINO warehouses

126

wine & dine

NEW GENERATION OF HEALTHY DINING

To eat well and

healthy in Sofia
has never been
easier!
1. Book a table at
La Skara Restaurant
2. Choose vegetables
and fresh marinated
meat from a selection
made by chefs
3. Grill by yourself
in the BBQ
4. Enjoy the result!
Sofia, Students town, next to block 60 | phone: 0889 369 369
www.la-skara.com | www.facebook.com/laskarasofia

ruby colour with purple glimmer, complex nose, aroma of

fresh and dried fruit, truffle, vanilla and spices. The taste
is juicy and rich, with compact and rounded body, velvet
and sweet tannins and a long finale. Edoardo Miroglio has
also a boutique hotel with everything needed for a wine
tasting and a holiday in an exquisite luxury.
VILLA MELNIK:
WINES TO REMEMBER
Situated in the most developed winery region of
Bulgaria, Melnik and its environs, VILLA MELNIK
(www.villamelnik.com) is a family-owned boutique
winery with 30 hectares of its own vineyards. The
winery produces limited series of wines under the
labels AplauZ, Bergule and Family Tradition from local
varieties like Melnik, Ruen and Mavrud, and rare for
Bulgaria varieties like Pinot noir, Sangiovese, Viognier.
This gives an individuality to the winery's production,
and the awards and the warm welcome of wine lovers
from Bulgaria and abroad are evidence for the wine's
high quality. Villa Melnik is open for visits every day.
There, wine lovers can observe each stage of the wine
production and immerse in its magic.
The increased popularity of wine in Bulgaria has
logically led to an increasing curiosity, and even thirst,
for foreign wines. The times when only connoisseurs and

, .
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Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arriv!,
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KAVAKLIDERE ANATOLIAN WINES:

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KAVAKLIDERE (www.
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635
. Kavakldere 53 23 , 700
. - Ctes dAvanos 2012,

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well-to-do people drank French, Chilean or Californian

wine are long gone. Today, Bulgarian and imported
wines are competing with their qualities and their price
for the palate of the local customer. As a result, more
and more Bulgarians are aware of what Le Beaujolais
Nouveau est arriv! means, can easily tell the difference
between South African and Australian Chardonnay,
and theorise on the fruit tones of Californian Zinfandel.
The restaurants also joined the trend and today the wine
lists of mid-range and exclusive establishments have
wines from the Old and the New World on a par with
Bulgarian vintages.
KAVAKLIDERE ANATOLIAN WINES:
WINE FROM THE HEART OF ASIA MINOR
Turkish wines are still making a name on the
international market, but thanks to Geslin, the importer
for Bulgaria, you can discover the taste and qualities of
the wines of KAVAKLIDERE WINERY (www.kavaklidere.
com). The oldest winery in Turkey has been existing
for 85 years and through three generations of owners,
and has 635 hectares of vineyards in different regions of
Turkey. Kavakldere produces 53 different wines in 23
brands, who have collectively won 700 medals. Among
their most interesting new offers are the elegant and
rich Ctes dAvanos Narince-Chardonnay 2012, made
of grapes of typical varieties and grown on the fertile
volcanic soils of Cappadocia, and Pendore Sirah 2011
from the winery's vineyards in the Aegean region.
Today, when even your local supermarket offers a
selection of wines, the trust in the people who connect the
producers and importers, on the one hand, and customers
on the other, is important more than ever. That is why,
when you are in the big city and are searching for a bottle
of good wine, it is best to buy from a distributor who
knows the market and the wines he sells.
CASAVINO: THE BEST ON ONE PLACE
Regardless of whether they are Bulgarian or come from
the wide wine world, wines in Bulgaria feel at their
best on the territory of CASAVINO, the wine warehouse
(www.casavino.bg). CASAVINO is more than a chain of
wine warehouses situated at key points in Sofia and
Varna. It is an experience and a space where you discover
the best vintages and the most interesting producers. If
you have any questions or are wandering what to buy,
CASAVINO's qualified consultants will help with
advice or opinion. If you want to learn more about the
endless world of wine, you can attend CASAVINO's
wine school. The wine warehouses often have
promotions and tastings, and this makes them the ideal
place to discover new tastes and make new friends, who
are as infatuated in wine as you are.

Importer: geslin@mail.bg
www.kavaklidere.com

128

inside track

high news fraport 129

sofia hotel balkan,

a luxury collection hotel

Burgas Airport with direct flights

to three European capitals

Sofia, 5 Sveta Nedelya Sq

phone: 02 981 6541
www.theluxurycollection.com/sofia

When it comes to location, service and history Sofia Hotel Balkan is not only in the
very heart of the city, but the building itself is part of the architectural heritage of the
capital. The hotel combines timeless grace and modern convenience and is preferred
for the lavishing guest rooms and exquisite event halls. This summer Sofia Hotel
Balkan will take exclusive care for its corporate guests. Until 15 September they can
enjoy free transfer, free upgrade (upon availability) and free access to the Executive
Lounge. And this is only the beginning of the journey that is Sofia Hotel Balkan.

plaza
hotel

As from the end of October Burgas airport is working on

winter flight schedule.
During the winter period the airport continues to
serve scheduled flights to three capitals directly Sofia
(Bulgaria), London (UK) and Moscow (Russia). They will
be operated by three airlines: the national carrier Bulgaria
Air will serve the domestic flights from Burgas airport to
Sofia. The flights to Moscow airport "Domodedovo" will
be operated by the Russian airline S7 (Siberian irlines)
and passengers could fly to London (UK) via Wizz Air.

Varna, 10 Slivnitsa Blvd

phone: 052 684 060; fax: 052 684 061
www.hotelplazabg.com

At 18:25 every Tuesday and Saturday departs the plane to

London from Burgas.
Flights to and from Sofia will be operated five times a
week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays
and Fridays.
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are
the days when the flights to Moscow are carried out.
More information can be found on the website of the
airport: www.burgas-airport.bg

Checkpoint Charlie
Live Jazz on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays

Gourmet Cuisine

East meets West

in Sofia at

12 Ivan Vazov St. Sofia phone: 988 03 70

To make the most of Varna, go for the centre and the Plaza Hotel. Right in front
of the Sea Garden, the exclusive accommodation is packed with features such as
luxurious leather furniture, bathtub, air-conditioning, and free Wi-Fi. The helpful
staff will take on whatever you need done so that you can relax and soak up the
ambience of Varna. The location in the heart of the city is perfect, just steps away from
the beach and with a great range establishments nearby.

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ZINE
NGLISH MAGA
BULGARIAS E

5.95 leva
ISSUE 98/2014

MARCO

I SSU E 9 8 / 2 0 1 4

9 771312 859112

ISSN 1312-8590

09

Clar!s, image builder - Photo Nicolas Claris

CONTICELLI

>> LEGACIES OF COMMUNISM > GEORGI MARKOV GETS MONUMENT IN SOFIA > NIKULDEN IN SOZOPOL >
INTERVIEW: STANA ILIEV ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE FASCINATION OF BEING DIFFERENT >
ARMENIAN HERITAGE > RUSES TRAIN MUSEUM > ANCIENT STAR GAZERS IN STARO ZHELEZARE >
FICTION BY GEORGI TENEV > FUN, ENTERTAINMENT, QUIZZES & MORE >>