# Historical Buildings and Sites in Bulgaria



## Tudor (May 5, 2021)

So here is this thing in the middle of nowhere in Bulgaria. I will just copy the google translated narrative and pictures:




​People call it "dikilitash", "pillar" or "Markov stone". In 1871 the place was visited by the Austrian traveler Felix Kanitz, who made the first drawings of the monument. From them and the descriptions it is clear that this is a majestic stone obelisk. Next to it stands the pedestal of the second pillar, the parts of which are scattered around. And near the pillars you can see the remains of a monumental building - friezes, slabs, cornices, gables with reliefs, stelae with inscriptions.

The building was a family mausoleum. It was built in the II century in the estate of rich landowners, representatives of the municipal aristocracy of the nearby large city of Nikopolis ad Istrum. Among the ruins is an inscription that reads:

*"Quintus Julius, boulevard and priest of Rome, 
who survived and with common sense raised in honor of himself, his father and mother." *​
This text leads scholars to the idea that the temple was built by Quintus Julius, a respected city councilor and priest of the official cult of the Roman Empire. In this case, the mausoleum was turned into a heroine, a sanctuary of the deified local prince after his death. The mausoleum was built on a stone podium, which was reached by a monumental staircase. The entrance was guarded by statues of two marble lions.



 

 

​During excavations, the left one was found, while the right one was either destroyed or has not yet been found. During the act of heroization a statue of the Thracian god - horseman was erected on a special pedestal in front of the staircase. He is represented in the usual iconography, but it is possible that the unserved face reflected portrait features of the deified Quintus Julius. It is very probable that there was a full-length statue of him inside, as evidenced by the fragment of a relief image of a human back discovered during the excavations. The mausoleum of Quintus Julius existed until the IV century. It was then destroyed due to religious intolerance of the pagan shrines of the new religion, Christianity, or the frequent barbarian invasions. The lone pillar has remained to commemorate the greatness of the long-lost Roman Empire. Marble statues of a lion and a Thracian horseman, found near the Lesicher pillar.

The last picture is a graphic reconstruction of the building next to the Lesicherski pillar, interpreted by Todor Gerasimov as a temple of the Thracian horseman. Published in "Studies in Memory of Karel Shkorpil" in 1961, p. 252.





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## Tudor (May 6, 2021)

I would like to ask some of the mods to change the title of the thread to some appropriate one, as I am planning to use this thread to post different photos and stories about some interesting historical buildings and sites in Bulgaria. I will probably post only occasionally, but it would be nice to have it all in one thread. I surely welcome other contributors.

As this will not be a post about anything specific I just want to tell you a short story about something that made me really curious and eager to investigate. Recently I visited a town in Bulgaria - Gabrovo, I have never visited it before and as I had some free time and I was roaming around I noticed this building where Gabrovo's theater resides. I decided to give it a closer look. So as I inspected it I noticed that it has lower floors, which were a bit hidden from the outside by metal sheets. But from one of the sides you could easily see a whole set of full size french windows just like the upper floors have, but fully below ground level. So I became curious to find out who the architect was and when the building was built. If I remember correctly, apparently they have started building it in 1907. It is hard to find photos of the building process, but I started some investigation on this matter, so will see what I can find. The other interesting part was that the architect was Nikola Lazarov, whom I have never heard of before. However this guy is the most notable Bulgarian architect as he has managed to design almost half if not more of the most notable buildings all over Bulgaria. It seems like the guy was super talented and a real hard worker. I will make a post dedicated to him and some of his(?) buildings.

Three pictures:




_Theater nowadays_





_Theater pre-1943 (yes, that is what the official dating says - before 1943 )_





_Architect Nikola Lazarov_​
The old photo of the theater is really strange to me. Such a missfit... And those three lines in the sky, I guess it is just photo unwanted effect, but, yeah... maybe I am just looking to much into it.

​


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## Megalonymous (May 7, 2021)

the kutel sanctuary on Bratan is neat


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## dreamtime (May 26, 2021)

Found this today





Plovdiv, Bultgaria​The city has an interesting historical background: Plovdiv - Wikipedia


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## Tudor (May 27, 2021)

@dreamtime are you kidding me?

So we went to Plovdiv which is claimed to be one of the oldest cities in Europe (old name Philippopolis) and I decided to make some photos of things I find interesting. We were there only for a couple of hours so it is far from all that can be seen in this city. There is much to explore left there. Please excuse me for not being very comprehensive, sadly that is the way I am. I will do as in previous posts - post some pictures and add my comments.






So this is one of the spots in Plovdiv where you can see some "super old" roman remains. This is mostly introductory picture, but the reason I made it is the blue house, which to me looks aesthetically... lets say strange. First floor is even a bit below ground, there is a confectionery there and you actually need to go a couple of steps down when you enter. Also it is strange to me that you would build a house this way and have no designated doorway but rather 3 large entrances... My guess is there is one more floor down there where the original entrance door is situated. I will try to investigate when I go to Plovdiv next time.

Here is some photos of the area from the above photo when I took closer look.



 




 

 

I specifically included the child in one of the photos for scale purposes. I made these shots because to me those carves in the stones are only possible to be done by using machinery. No way you can do this by hammer and chisel.

Here is a link for a short video of the floor of this area :


_View: https://youtu.be/oE4awY7coS4_


Here is some old photo of when they started digging up the old Plovdiv remains: 



In Plovdiv there is also this so called amphitheater :




this is an internet picture, as I did not go there, just posting cause it is one of the most popular sights there.

But I went to the antique roman stadium. Here is a photo of how they represent it should have looked:




Here is what you can see of it today: 



 



Nowadays right above where the stadium used to be is the maiн shopping street of the city. On the photo above you can see that they put a large image of the view of what should it look like when the stadium was before.

Ok, so here is one building on the same shopping street just above the stadium:




Here is how it looks from the inside:



Again... Who builds a building without an entrance door, but rather large windows to enter the building... I find it very odd. This stonewall downstairs, it looks very new. I wonder what was originally there.

Here is a few photos of large stones which are linked with metal parts from another area of the city



 







I really did this post in a rush and I apologize for it, but lately I am quite busy 

I will very much appreciate some feedback and advices for my future posts. Are there too many photos? How should I structure it and etc. Thanks in advance.


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## Jd755 (May 27, 2021)

I recognised lead being used to fix something iron into stone. 




Here is a site showing how it was done. Might no be lead in he example above, could be a lead alloy.


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## dreamtime (Jun 4, 2021)

Bulgaria's Early Medieval Cities of Pliska and Preslav: were they really built to resemble 700-year older Roman cities?​_by Gunnar Heinsohn_

Bulgaria’s urban explosion during the Early Middle Ages, which matches the scope of city building in Rome’s imperial period some 700 years earlier, takes the excavators by surprise because even Constantinople cannot not show any new building between 600 and 800 CE. Actually “nothing is known about Byzantine cities from the 7th to the 9th c. CE“ (*Kirilov* 2006, 181). Whilst the most powerful empire of the Early Middle Ages lacks any urban ambition, the Bulgarian newcomers (...) boldly recreate huge Roman urban ensembles whilst the rest of Europe appears to haven fallen asleep in a dark age. It is this absolutely extraordinary, even ravenous, urban appetite of former steppe dwellers that makes the Bulgarians sensational and unique all over Europe. Without question, they add their own touches – like certain patterns on their ceramics. Yet, basically they return to Roman patterns whilst the new Rome, Constantinople, could not achieve anything in terms of city building during the same period.

*Article*: <Bulgaria's Pliska Preslav - early medieval cities really built to resemble 700 year older Roman cities?

*PDF*:


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## Will Scarlet (Jun 5, 2021)

Tudor said:


> Plovdiv which is claimed to be one of the oldest cities in Europe (old name Philippopolis)



That really sounds Greek and Greece is just a stone's throw away from Plovdiv, so why does everything have to be 'Roman'?


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## BStankman (Jun 5, 2021)

kd-755 said:


> I recognised lead being used to fix something iron into stone.
> 
> View attachment 9224​
> Here is a site showing how it was done. Might no be lead in he example above, could be a lead alloy.
> ...



It is very interesting when we find these strap anchors still present.
Generally we are told these were iron, which has rusted away.  Or copper/ bronze which was carried away.
Even if it is lead, what are the chances no one took this for musket balls or fishing sinker or roof flashing over the course of millennia?

Tudor, would you be able to test for malleability?

As an aside but somewhat related, Philip and Alexander of Macedonia seem to have more than their fair share of modern cities in the Americas named after them.  Which leads me to suspect the empire was much more recent, could not be fully written out of history, so had to be pushed back into remote antiquity.


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## maxmoris (Jun 5, 2021)

Tudor said:


> I would like to ask some of the mods to change the title of the thread to some appropriate one, as I am planning to use this thread to post different photos and stories about some interesting historical buildings and sites in Bulgaria. I will probably post only occasionally, but it would be nice to have it all in one thread. I surely welcome other contributors.
> 
> As this will not be a post about anything specific I just want to tell you a short story about something that made me really curious and eager to investigate. Recently I visited a town in Bulgaria - Gabrovo, I have never visited it before and as I had some free time and I was roaming around I noticed this building where Gabrovo's theater resides. I decided to give it a closer look. So as I inspected it I noticed that it has lower floors, which were a bit hidden from the outside by metal sheets. But from one of the sides you could easily see a whole set of full size french windows just like the upper floors have, but fully below ground level. So I became curious to find out who the architect was and when the building was built. If I remember correctly, apparently they have started building it in 1907. It is hard to find photos of the building process, but I started some investigation on this matter, so will see what I can find. The other interesting part was that the architect was Nikola Lazarov, whom I have never heard of before. However this guy is the most notable Bulgarian architect as he has managed to design almost half if not more of the most notable buildings all over Bulgaria. It seems like the guy was super talented and a real hard worker. I will make a post dedicated to him and some of his(?) buildings.
> 
> ...


the missfit comes cus on the original photo..the right wing of the building has 3 windows..on your picture they are 4 already..Seems someone build one more witch is insane for me..or just the original pic is not that original..or is of another building somewhere around the world..


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## Tudor (Jun 5, 2021)

maxmoris said:


> the missfit comes cus on the original photo..the right wing of the building has 3 windows..on your picture they are 4 already..Seems someone build one more witch is insane for me..or just the original pic is not that original..or is of another building somewhere around the world..View attachment 10617


Wow, just wow, absolute stunner. Thanks Maxmoris, I am speechless, will try to investigate, that is the only thing I can say. You have a great eye, sir.

What makes it even crazier is that building actually looks very similar and there is this something that those lower windows that are covered now are only 3 on the modern building, it is missing below the the most outside large window... which looks like they really expanded the width of the building by adding one more window to each side, which I agree is crazy as F...


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## maxmoris (Jun 6, 2021)

Tudor said:


> Wow, just wow, absolute stunner. Thanks Maxmoris, I am speechless, will try to investigate, that is the only thing I can say. You have a great eye, sir.
> 
> What makes it even crazier is that building actually looks very similar and there is this something that those lower windows that are covered now are only 3 on the modern building, it is missing below the the most outside large window... which looks like they really expanded the width of the building by adding one more window to each side, which I agree is crazy as F...





the


maxmoris said:


>


They expanded just the right wing..thats the insane part to me..regarding the basements..Yes..they did not build a proper one under the floor they build..


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## Tudor (Jun 6, 2021)

maxmoris said:


> View attachment 10671
> the
> 
> They expanded just the right wing..thats the insane part to me..regarding the basements..Yes..they did not build a proper one under the floor they build..


No, no it is the same on the left side as well.


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## maxmoris (Jun 6, 2021)

Tudor said:


> No, no it is the same on the left side as well.


Yes..true..I still could not get it..Why would someone expand the wings just to gain 1.5 m of space?..as he have to remodel the roof as well..


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## Jd755 (Jun 6, 2021)

It  was built in the 1800's not as a theatre though.



> At the initiative of Ivan Hr. Manafov, a disciple of Todor Burmov and the teacher Nikola Stefanov, on December 26th /after the old style/ 1861, in the cell of ‘St. Trinity’ Church, ‘Bulgarian Community Cultural Centre in Gabrovo’ was founded. Manafov was elected a chairman.
> 
> 
> The objectives of the Center were the following:
> ...





> After the revolt in 1876 and up to the Liberation, the Community Centre experienced hard times. However, an idea was becoming ripe - it was high time Gabrovo people had built a modern building of the Community Centre in Gabrovo (“the Bulgarian Manchester”). A fund was raised in 1898 and on March 30th the following year the foundation stone of the present building was laid.



Edit to add this bit makes little sense without further investigation as the b&w photographs show a finished building of late 1800 or early 1900 vintage.



> After a certain standstill during the period of the wars, the building was completed and officially opened on December 31st 1922.


Perhaps it refers to the extension possibly made to accomodate the theatre and he basement entrance.

Source




> Racho Stoyanov’ Drama Тheatre makes its performances in the building of ‘Aprilov Palauzov’ Community Centre. The theatre was founded on October 10th 1945 as a successor of the traditions dating from 1923 when at ‘Aprilov-Palauzov’ Community Centre a small amateur theatre troupe was created and in 1929 the Municipal Theatre was established by amateur artists.



Source


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