Riot!
To arms!
The ecstatic shouts of the people's freedom fighters - Georgi Benkovski, Panayot Volov, Zahariy Stoyanov and Georgi Ikonomov, in the presence of the Panagyurites Todor Belopitov and Toma Georgiev, resound this court!
Genuine joy fills their male hearts!
Volov is so enthusiastic that he fires his rifle twice in the air!
They are waving the Karlovo flag, made especially for Benkovski's flying squad, since Raina Popgeorgieva's flag is not ready yet.
Men's eyes glisten in the April sun lighting this home of:
April 20th, 1876!
Minutes earlier, 19-year-old Georgi Salchev arrived from Koprivshtitsa, having traveled the five-hour journey between Koprivshtitsa and Panagyurishte in only two hours, and his horse, exhausted by the furious race, died before the bearer of the letter entered Panagyurishte.
Young George brings extremely important news, which will remain in the annals of history forever like the bloody letter that was written earlier that day by Todor Kableshkov, the faithful companion and companion of the revelers.
The letter reads:
Brothers!
Yesterday he arrived in the village of Nejeb Aga, outside Plovdiv, who wanted to imprison several people together with me. When I was informed of your decision, which was made in the Oborishte meeting, I called a few brave men and after arming ourselves, we went to the Konak, which we attacked and killed the mudyurin, with a few guards...
Now, as I write you this letter, the flag is flying in front of the inn, the guns are thundering, accompanied by the echo of the church bells, and the heroes are kissing each other in the streets!...
If you, brothers, were true patriots and apostles of freedom, then follow our example in Panagyurishte...
Koprivshtitsa, April 20, 1876.
T. Kableshkov.
I was an eyewitness when everything mentioned in Todor's letter took place.
I'm leaving for Klisura to do the same.
N. Karadzhov
The letter was signed with the blood of the mudyurin killed in Koprivshtitsa.
It was from this beautiful yard that the great April Fools' Epic began that spring so many years ago!
The rest is history!
Today is April 20. I am stepping on the same stones on which, during those great times for the Bulgarians, the feet of the freedom fighters who gave their young lives for the freedom of Bulgaria stepped!
Aboute Tutev's house
The Tutev's house fully survived those memorable events in 1876!
It remains in its authentic and unchanged form to this day, as it was at the time of the April Uprising, as it was visited by Benkovski and Volov.
Today Tutev's house is a cultural monument of national importance and has been turned into a museum.
Here is written the appeal to the people to announce the April Uprising:
Bulgarian brothers!
The end of brutal atrocities has come...
From today, in the name of the Bulgarian people, we announce either freedom or death...
Onward, brothers! God is with us!
The owner - Ivan Doichev Tutev, originating from an old Voynuga family, is a Panagyura craftsman, merchant and revolutionary, a participant in the April Uprising.
He built the house in the period from 1873 to 1874.
The following year, the panagyurist Ivan Mrkov Galabov painted her.
The exposition in the house today fully recreates the atmosphere of that fateful day - the guest room where the fighters for the freedom of Bulgaria stayed and the room of the scribes who transcribed the vocation to the Bulgarian people.
A copy of the Karlovo flag is also shown.
Karlovo flag
The flag of the Karlovo' revolutionary committee was sewn by Maria Ganeva from Karlovo, daughter of the chief courier of the internal revolutionary organization in Thrace – Ganyo Madjaretsa, and with the help of the nieces of deacon Maria and Gina Nachevi, Tina pop Hristova and nun Efrosinia Tsocheva.
On one side of the flag, a crowned lion standing on a broken Ottoman flag, and the inscriptions "Karlovo district" and "Death or Freedom" are embroidered with tinsel.
A cross is sewn on the other side.
The guarantor of the flag - the deacon of freedom - did not live to see it unfurled.
Three years after Levski's death in the days of feverish preparations for the April Uprising, the flag was shown to Panayot Volov, who liked it so much that he ordered Maria Ganeva to sew the same for the Panagyurishte insurgents of the Fourth Revolutionary District.
On April 4, 1876, Ganyo Madjaretsa and Panayot Volov brought it to Panagyurishte.
It was on his terk (pattern) that Georgi Benkovski ordered the local teacher Raina Popgeorgieva Futekova to sew the main flag of the Fourth Revolutionary District.
The second Karlovo flag remains in history as the first flag flown in Panagyurishte during those memorable days!
In Karlovo, the uprising did not break out at all.
The original Karlovo flag survived even after the Liberation, but unfortunately around the middle of the last century it suddenly disappeared.
Mihail Maletsky later made a copy of it based on preserved photographs.
In 1947, the heirs of Ivan Tutev donated the house to be turned into a museum.
In the 1950s, the first partial restoration of Tutev's house was carried out.
In the period from 1975 to 1976, a second restoration was carried out by a team of architect Petar Dikidzhiev.
In the period from 1988 to 1991, a major restoration of the Tutev's house was carried out under the direction of architect Kirilka Geneva, and the frescoes were restored by Zdislav Karchevsky.
I wish you an exceptional and impressive walk!