Spring is timidly arriving on the slopes of Sredna Gora, turning the branches of trees and shrubs green and spreading its brand new green blanket over the ground.
A delicate white color has colored everything around and thousands of bees are already flying, humming their monotonous song, and feverishly collecting honey.
The azure sky above me is bathed in blue and only here and there are small white clouds visible.
To the north, the Balkan Mountains curiously peek out between the easternmost slopes of Ihtimanska Sredna Gora and the westernmost ridges of Saštinska Sredna Gora.
He is still covered in his thick old winter coat, worn out in places here and there.
To the south, the ridges of the graceful Rila Mountain are still completely covered in fluffy snow and the strong Sun pours its rays on them in abundance.
It's a weekday, and everything is somehow quiet. The village is slowly waking up on this early spring morning.
A cracked bell - a vivid symbol of the revival of the Bulgarian liberation idea and the sacrifice of the Bulgarian people in the struggle for human justice - will never resound.
Here at this place in the Boishteto area in the village of Petrich on April 23, 1876, Voivode Georgi Benkovski arrived with his Hvarkov detachment and the Bulgarian lion rose up!
The rest is history!
The "Bell" monument in the Boishteto area in the village of Petrich was erected as a tribute to the 172 residents of the village who died in the pogrom of the April Uprising in 1876.
In terms of the percentage of victims compared to the number of inhabitants, Petrich ranks second after the city of Batak. This gives reason to the chronicler of the rebellion, Zahari Stoyanov, to declare:
The poor!
They hold first place among those villages that built the foundation of Bulgarian freedom with the ashes of their village!
The place where the monument is erected was not chosen by chance - in these places the voivode Georgi Benkovski and his Hvarkovata cheta inflicted the first and only defeat on the centuries-old enslaver.
The project is the work of sculptor Neno Nenov and architect Alexander Barov and was defended before the state art commission chaired by Dechko Uzunov. Its construction began in 1976 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the April Uprising.
The "Bell" monument in the Boishteto area in the village of Petrich was built by a construction company in the town of Srednogorie with funds from the budget of the settlement system and support from the administration of the Sofia District.
This monument is the most massive monument in the area, approximately eight meters high. The cracked bell symbolizes the melted church bells that were used to cast bullets for the rebels.
On the front side of the monument is a huge panel with motifs from the rebels' battles against the Turks in the area, with the flag of the Hvarkovata cheta at the top of the frieze.
On the other side of the split bell is mounted the figure of a lion cub, which the rebels used to put on their caps.
The "Bell" monument in the village of Petrich was opened on June 12, 1987 on the occasion of the 111th anniversary of the April Epic.
In 2009, criminals removed the bronze lion, which weighs approximately 400 kilograms, from its place on the south side of the bell with the intention of stealing it. Residents of the village and the mayor Ivan Uzunov prevented the daring theft.
In 2010, with the support of Elatsite-Med AD, the huge lion figure was re-mounted on the monument at the end of April and the beginning of May. Specialists from the company repaired the damage to the bronze lion - a negative result of its fall to the ground.
In 2016, four commemorative plaques were placed in the park near the stairs to the monument, telling about:
the material losses that the village of Petrich suffered
the words of the hero of Petrich Neno Gugov, who, captured and chained before the Ottoman Pasha, insisted that he alone was to blame for the uprising, thus saving his ruined fellow villagers from repression
the members of the Petrich Revolutionary Committee
those who died for freedom at the Smoleshka River.
How to get to the village of Petrich, Zlatitsa municipality?
Petrich is a village in Western Bulgaria, Sofia Region, Zlatitsa Municipality.
It is located in a mountainous area on the border between Sashtina and Ihtiman Sredna Gora.
Part of the village is the Bodyat neighborhood, located a few kilometers from it. In the past, there were many more neighborhoods - Belega, Angelovi Koshari, Varlina, Chebara, Fartunite and others.
The Topolnitsa River flows through the village and four smaller rivers flow into it – Mirkovska, Smolska, Kamenishka and Gugov dol.
It is assumed that this proverb gives the name to the village.
Petrich is located:
66 kilometers (about 1 hour and 02 minutes by car) from the capital
106 kilometers (about 1 hour and 38 minutes by car) from the city of Plovdiv
435 kilometers (about 5 hours and 15 minutes by car) from the city of Varna
344 kilometers (about 3 hours and 34 minutes by car) from the city of Burgas
30 kilometers (about 30 minutes by car) from the city of Panagyurishte
How to get to the "Bell" monument in the village of Petrich?
The "Bell" monument is located at the northern entrance to the village of Petrich.
And finally, my dear friends,
you shouldn't miss checking out
the special photo album with moments –
discovered, experienced, filmed and shared with you!
コメント