MELNIK

Motionless, breathtaking sandstone pyramids stand amid the outlying hills of the mountain. Hidden among them is a unique town Melnik with its ruins has dug itself so deep into the golden sandy rocks as if still smarting under the blows of misfortune. It has locked itself in amid the rocks so as to be inaccessible. It is content with just a patch of sky, for the sky here is generous.
On entering Melnik, you see that it is not an ordinary town. It is an enchanted spot where nature and architects’ hands have interwoven their masterpieces. Melnik panorama surges distinctly. The mountain massif rises impetuously out of the green mantle of forests and then drops precipitately into frightening chasms.
High up, to the right of the Melnik River, among the groves above the reddish rocks which seem to have been cut with a sword, nestle the ruins of Alexi Slav’s fortress, who was a Bulgarian feudal lord of the early thirteenth century. No one could get across the narrow gorge under the sentries’ vigilant eye to do harm to the beautiful town.
The Melnik River, which receives the waters of the Soushitsa rivulet a little further up to the left, sluggishly washes its rocky bed under the hump of the Roman Bridge overgrown with green moss. The paved road forks to take you to the town centre in the shade of the old plane trees. As you walk about, treading softly as in a church, each building, each open space claim you attention.
To live in Melnik is a delight, but there never has been enough land. That is why the houses, in a miserly fashion, climb one over the other along the two little river beds. During the day their facades radiate friendly kindliness, and at night the diamonds of their windows glimmer like so many image lamps.
One above the other and one next to the other, the two rows of houses are separated only by a narrow strip of cobblestone; they are so close together that two people can reach out and shake hands through the lattice work of windows on opposite sides of the street.
The massive imposing houses have sunk into the sandstone their stone basements with square oak beams fitted into their walls, and their cellars and tunnels dug under the rocks where wine is stored to mellow. Timber beams projecting like so many hands from the stone wall support a broader upper floor with bay windows all round. Its white walls and round chimney gleam like the reflections of other houses in its window panes.
The houses in this museum town are impressive architectural examples of the Bulgarian National Revival period, lovingly preserved in other towns too: Veliko Turnovo, Koprivshtitsa, Plovdiv and Tryavna.
The stones of the town's ruins are collected so that its age-old loveliness maybe restored. Melnik is reviving its history and looking into the future.
Knock at any gate you like. Every house radiates warm hospitality and gives
you a glimpse of Melnik's past.
The Paskalev house is the first to catch the eye. That perfect gem of Bulgarian architecture was built for a rich merchant by masters of the Samokov School. One of them, Alexi Samokovliya (Samokovlis) inscribed his name on a built-in marble slab. On a stage facing a long hall, Viennese artists presented operettas here and played classical music in the nineteenth century. Here European art had found early admirers, in the hall of the Menchev house too.


High living and dancing after the latest fashion were features of the Velev house and of many other houses of well-to-do-Melnik citizens.
The remarkable Kordopoul house, perched higher than the rest at the foot of an immense rock cone, is a real fortress and a repository of old and contemporary art. Built in 1754 it had everything to make its owner's life easy and comfortable: kitchens, bakeries, a bathroom, a hiding place and a parlour. It has the largest wine cellar in the town. Wine was kept here in barrels of ten thousand liters and sometimes of up to forty thousand liters, for twenty or thirty years, until it grew to be finer than any other wine you could find. There was even a prison cell for the children when they did wrong and for the servants when they cheated. They say that Kordopoul also would lock himself up there in punishment if his accounts did not tally. Carpets from Persia and Bukhara used to cover the spacious upper floor. The walls have built-in French-style cupboards, where precious objects and the fine dinner sets were kept. Exquisite woodcarving in colour decorates the ceiling. The merchant, who traded in wine and brandy, in silk and wool, heard here the reports of his agents when they returned with caravans of heavily laden camels and horses. Here he invited merchants from Venice and Vienna to be his guests. Further down, not far from the Menchev and the Velev houses, you see the dome of an old low building. It is a bath house with a double floor and double walls which had the same heating system as the Roman baths.
That richly ornamented wall standing majestically alone far up to the left is a remnant of a Boyar house.
Scholars consider it to be one of the oldest extant residential buildings in the Balkan Peninsula. It was built in the tenth century. In the first half of the twentieth century a Bulgarian architect took a photograph and drew the plan of the house, still intact at the time and dominated by a high clock tower.
Perhaps the Bulgarian ruler Alexi Slav or the Boyar Dragota once lived in it. Excavations around this architectural landmark, which has been proclaimed a national monument, are expected to reveal many interesting facts.
Many of the valuable relics in Melnik have been lost through the centuries and during foreign invasions. But no power could wipe this quaint town off the face of the earth. Houses and fortresses were razed to the ground. Churches and monasteries were torn down.
There used to be seventy-two churches in Melnik. Forty were preserved to the end of the nineteenth century, and now they can be counted on the fingers of one's hand.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Bulgarian builders erected a number of basilica churches and chapels at the homes of various noblemen and later, three-aisled basilicas decorated with paintings like the churches in Bulgaria's mediaeval capital of Veliko Turnovo. On the way to Rozhen, one could see until the beginning of this century the monastery of The Virgin Panatanassa with an inscription from 1289.
Southeast of Melnik rose the monastery of the Virgin Speleotissa (The Virgin of the Cave). Its walls, undermined by erosion, collapsed into the precipice, leaving only part of the foundations. It had been built by the feudal lord Alexi Slav, who moved his capital from Tsepina, now Chepino in the Rhodopes, to Melnik in about 1215. By a charter of 1220 which was found at the Vatopedi monastery on Mount Athos, Alexi Slav made the monastery the sovereign ruler of the population of the village of Katountsi and endowed with various benefits. This meant that neither the bishop nor the royal clerk had any power to enter the village or the monastery and make claims on them.
The built in 1861 Church of St. Anthony is further down, quite close to the wall of the Boyar house. The patron of the church was believed to be a healer of the mentally sick. Therefore they were brought here and chained to a pillar. The iron chain is still to be seen. An inscription on a marble slab recalls the first church service held in the Bulgarian language in that church.


Close by is the metropolitan Church of St. Nicolas, built in 1756. The biblical legend of Adam and Eve is depicted on the iconostasis, and the figures are not unlike the Bulgarians of the Melnik villages.
The Church of St. John the Baptist (18th century) with separate sections for men, women and girls, was built with contributions from the population collected by Bulgarian youths.
It is remarkable for two of its icons: The Baptism of John, and Archangel Michael, where the latter is depicted in an iron chain armour, as in the churches at Boyana, Veliko Turnovo and Arbanassi.
If you look into the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul of 1840, you are likely to
linger admiring the painted iconostasis with its gilded gryphons in flight, its exquisite
woodcarving and magnificent icons.
And if you climb the hill to the southeast, you will see the humble little Church of St. Zonas showing white against the ruins of the Church of The Virgin Speleotissa.
The path is so steep that you have to stop and catch your breath every so often. But the further up you go, the better view you have of Melnik nestling between the sandstone rocks.
It is a long walk through an almost subtropical forest which grows over the maze of strange earth shapes. You can enjoy looking at the various rare plant species and, peering through a tangle of branches to the left and right, you will find your way to the ruins of the Monastery and the Metropolitan Church of St. Nicolas.
Built by the Bulgarian Boyar Yoan Vladimir in the early thirteenth century, that three-aisled, three-apse cathedral resembles greatly the Church of the Holy Martyrs in Veliko Turnovo, while in the stone abaci and cornices and in the niches which once stood in the western wall, it is like the Metropolitan Church in Nessebur. Pulled down shortly before the Ottoman domination was over, that remarkable church had quite amazing frescoes. They were ruined by Muslim fanatics and by the wind and damp air. The superstition of people, who pried loose bits of the icons' eyes to obtain from them medicine against various diseases, further destroyed them.
Everything in Melnik is history: every house, every church and every stone. But history in its most condensed form is to be found in the Pashov house.
The bay windows of that imposing house jut over the stone wall as if trying to look across the town's only street and into the river to see themselves mirrored there. The brown frames of the latticed windows, the circular white chimneys built on the outside, the angles of the roof, the sandstone pyramid rising behind it -all these combine to produce a powerful effect. The house was built in 1815 by masters of the Debur school for Ibrahim Bey, one of the wealthiest landlords in the Melnik and Ser regions.The servants' quarters were in the basement. An oak wood staircase takes you to the hall on the upper floor with its magnificent woodcarved ceiling. The hall gives on the eight rooms of that floor. Here was the harem of Ibrahim Bey.
After the liberation of Melnik from Ottoman domination in 1912 one of its citizens, Angel Pramatarov, bought the deserted house from the state and then resold it to the well-to-do farmer Yane Pashov, after whom it is still named.
The Pashov house is now a museum of Melnik's history. That long history of many centuries is briefly summarized in documents, photographs and a number of exhibits. Yet, when supplemented by a specialist's narrative, they throw ample light on the past of this unique town.
The first settlers here were of the Thracian tribe of the Medi. Improvements were made in Melnik in Roman days on the instructions of the Emperor Trajan. Slavs settled here a few centuries later. The name of Melnik is derived from the Slav word of 'mel' which means white clay or chalk, of which the surrounding rocks are made. Many other settlements in Bulgaria or in other Slav countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland are so named.

Melnik and its vicinity acquired a Bulgarian and Slav character in the early middle Ages, between the seventh and the ninth centuries, when a large number of Bulgarians and Slavs settled here. It is not hard to guess,' wrote Professor I. Douichev, 'what tempted them to settle here: the mild climate, the rich and fertile soil, and the naturally protected place. Nature required little assistance from man. It was enough to raise or build a fortress on those inaccessible heights, in order to be impervious to enemy attacks.'
This settlement was included for the first time within Bulgaria's frontiers in the reign of Khan Persian (836-852). It was attacked by the Byzantines from the south many times, but without success. ‘Protected by the walls of Melnik,' wrote a Byzantine chronicler, 'the Bulgarians had no fear of the Byzantines; because they knew that the fortress was impregnable. After the death of Tsar Simeon (893 - 927) the Bulgarian state went into a decline. Playing the Bulgarian boyars against each other, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II (976-1025) set about the conquest of his northern neighbour. In 1185 the brothers Assen and Peter organized an uprising and proclaimed the independence of the Second Bulgarian State. The brother of Assen and Peter, the valiant Kaloyan (1197-1207) appointed his sister's son Alexi Slav governor of the Rhodope and the South Pirin regions, with Tsepina (Chepino) as his headquarters. At that time Kaloyan interned in Melnik a large group of Greeks from Plovdiv. After his uncle's death before the walls of Salonika and after Boril (1207-1218) seized the throne. Slav moved his capital to Melnik in 1215.
After the death of Tsar Ivan Assen, II (1218-1241) Bulgaria suffered a new decline. Taking advantage of the treachery of the feudal lord Dragota, Byzantium recaptured Melnik by a ruse. Later, with Dragota himself participating, Melnik rose in arms, but to no avail. A dark period of oppression set in again.
At the end of the fourteenth century Melnik fell under Ottoman domination as did the rest of Bulgaria.
At the close of the fourteenth century the now renowned Melnik vine was brought from Syria finding here favourable conditions for growth. The Melnik wine took over the market in the Ottoman Empire, it became known in Venice, Budapest and Vienna, and as far afield as England and Spain.
Trade flourished and the town's economy prospered. The need also arose for national education, for replacing the then dominant Greek writing by Bulgarian.
Eminent patriots came to the fore in Melnik. The great enlightener of the people, Neofit Rilski, who compiled the first Greek-Bulgarian dictionary, received instruction here. A Bulgarian school was founded in the town in 1873, the first teacher in which was Ivan Kozarev, cousin of the revolutionary poet Hristo Botev. The resistance against the Greek phanariots owes much to the Melnik citizen Emanouil Vaskidovich (d.1875) who founded the first Bulgarian secular school in the Danu-bian town of Svishtov in 1815. He also wrote the first Bulgarian schoolbooks.
The struggle for national liberation never ceased. After the death of Gotse Delchev (May 2, 1903) his work was carried on by the brave revolutionary democrat Yane Sandanski, son of the standard-bearer in the Kresna Uprising. He had his headquarters at Melnik.
In 1912 the Turkish governor of Melnik, Kassim Bey, arrested 27 of the most eminent Bulgarian patriots of the town and the neighbouring villages, including the Greek Manoul Kordopoul, who was shot down on October 27 in the Grozni Dol locality.
Before they left the town the Ottomans set it on fire.

Everything that could burn was destroyed. When the war was over Melnik, a border town just north of the Bulgaro-Greek frontier, had no hinterland to speak of. The former district centre of some twenty thousand inhabitants lay in ruins. The once flourishing trade and cultural centre was a black gaping wound in the ravine.
Such was the fate of the smallest Bulgarian town.



FASCINATING ROZHEN AND ITS ICONS


If you walk along the uneven bed of the rivulet which often dries up for months, you will come to Karlanovo. It is flanked on both sides by steep rock.
Thousands of years of erosion have shaped these obelisks of old Quaternary deposits, pressing down the grayish-white Pliocene sands.
Strings of tobacco leaves are drying on the walls of the Karlanovo houses, and the woodwork of windows, doors and shady porches has grown dark from long exposure to the sun.
Sharp conical rocks and deep ravines interspersed with giant petrified mushrooms spring into view. The road goes over a ridge somewhat abruptly to descend towards Rozhen, a tiny village nestling in a mountain fold. Its many bends down the hillside reveal the same panorama on the other side too.
A bright little church stands in a fragrant mountain meadow. It was built by 'citizen Yane Sandanski' who said that 'all nations are brothers and should live as such.'
A hundred paces more and you come to the famous Rozhen Monastery. It
stood alone in the past surrounded by tall forests, but now gleams white from a distance with its high pentagonal walls, its well protected windows, its quaint rooftops and graceful belfry.
A cobblestone path overgrown with moss leads to the spacious verandahs of the monks' cells which enclose the courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard rises the monastery Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, with frescoed walls both inside and out.
The monastery was built in 1217 with donations from the population of the Bulgarian villages of Karlanovo, Rozhen, and Lyubovishte. Man has created here an architectural masterpiece of the middle Ages and an invaluable historical monument.
An old fresco above the main door of the church bears the date 1597.A stained glass window of extraordinary beauty is from 1715. The icons date back to 1611, 1715, 1732. To the left of the entrance is a small chapel, known for its remarkable icon of the Virgin Mary.
In the narthex one can see the portrait of the donor Doiko Hadji, which has come to light after the plaster, was removed. He is depicted in a costume worn by rich Bulgarians in the past. The face of the donor Anastassi has been uncovered too. The nun Melania, another donor, was painted in a rather secular style and has typically Bulgarian features.
It was the Greek clergy who had a dominant position in the ecclesiastical life of the Bulgarians under Ottoman rule.
Bulgarian names are inscribed under many icons in Greek.
One may read the names of the Bulgarians Priest Kosta, Banko Chorbadji and others in the list of donors of the Melnik diocese in 1802 which was written in Greek.
Many eighteenth century Greek inscriptions on graves in Melnik bear the names of Grecized Bulgarians whose fathers' names were Stoyan, Zlatyu or the like.
Bulgarian icon-painters held it as their sacred duty to keep to the prototypes of Byzantine iconography, since Bulgaria had adopted Christianity from Byzantium. This was observed both in Melnik and other Bulgarian' settlements. All the more so because Bulgaria ceased to have a patriarchy of its own after it fell under Ottoman domination at the close of the fourteenth century. It was only in the nineteenth century that Greek inscriptions began to be replaced by Bulgarian as a manifestation of the intensifying struggle for national liberation and religious independence.
Most of the icons in the Rozhen monastery, in the still extant Melnik churches and in the town's rich collection of icons, have features which are characteristic of church painting of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but their inscriptions show that they were painted later, in the eighteenth or even the nineteenth century.