For the fairytale called Tryavna

YOU ARE FINALLY HERE. I’ve waited you to come to my town. To be delighted by the fresh air! To feel the proud Balkan! To touch the lush green fields. To sip from the cold headsprings! To feel the Bulgarian spirit which have proved his power and talent more than once.

I can assure you – when walking on the cobblestone streets you are about to forget about the time. You will be able to see the little thing’s beauty and your only desire will be that fairytale to be endless.

WELCOME!

I believe that when you’re leaving and turn back for a last time you’ll promise to yourself to come back again. I know you will.

Once upon a time

Take a look. Sit and listen. Throw your shoes off. Relax your tired feet and you will hear the Balkan’s whispers.

You close your eyes! Do you hear the sound of the sea? The same sea that has fondled the pebble or the grass you’re sitting on.

What about the Thracians? Beautiful, red-headed, in white dresses – they are carrying gifts to their deities at the Elov’s mound. The Balkan is keeping so many secrets! If it could talk it would be speaking for years – for the roman legions, having passed across our lands, for the mighty power of the Bulgarian kings and for the churches they have built in order to celebrate their win over the Byzantine in the summer of 1990. Only if it could talk…But the Balkan has kept his secrets deeply through the years so that it tells them to the one who has ears to hear them and eyes to see them.

No, no, do not open your eyes! Ah…the name “Tryavna”? Well, I’m still wondering. Is it because of the grass (“treva” in Bulgarian) or is it because of the apiaries called “truvni” or…once you’re here and you see everything around with your own eyes maybe you will find the answer yourself.

While you’re travelling in your thoughts take a little stop and ask about the charter – the one written in ottoman-turkish from 1565 where sultan Syuleiman the Conqueror gives his permission to build a settlement for “derventdzhii” (passage’s keepers).

I did not mislead you, did I? The Balkan is keeping many secrets and many questions are waiting for their answers.

Now you may open your eyes, so that you can look while I’m taking you to the far-off world.

This is the square. It will be our time-machine. The old square with a clock-tower and the humpback bridge are taking us into the past. Do you know how many tears have cried the girls from Tryavna before they finally got a clock-tower? Being separated from their “sokai” (head adornment) felt like being separated from their family’s royal past. But not from the Bulgarian pride. When leaving, they certainly knew that have left something behind.