The Bulgarian land is rich in nature, history, archaeology, people but still unknown even to us – the Bulgarians. I once again comprehended that when I found myself in the Balkan village of Stefanovo in the district of Lovech, 155 km away from Sofia. The spot is hidden inside a small valley and it is divided in two – one half of it is old, proclaimed to be an architectural reserve back in 1982. Still, it sees no large-scale tourist inflow, nor the support of the state.

Most of Stefanovo’s houses are two-storey buildings, built up of oak beams and with roofs, covered with heavy stone plates. The walls between the beams consist of entangled with wattle plastered with a thick layer of clay and straw. This traditional construction isolates the houses and those are warm through the winter and cool in summers. There is a church from the 19 c. here and a school that was shut down in 1965.

Ivan Pavlevski has been researching on the history of his village for years. His book is linked to the old name of the place – Nie, Vrachenite /We, Vracheni People/. Vrachenite comes from the old name of the village – Vratsa.  It is related to the Thracian past of the place:

“The name of the village coincided with the one of the town of Vratsa /Northwest Bulgaria/ and that was why the District People’s Council ordered the village’s name to be changed to Stefanovo,“ Pavlevski says. “Local historians have proven that the name of the Vratsa town was related to the Vratitsa fortress near the Leva River – the name actually meant The Fortress at Springs in Thracian. Looking for analogy I came to the conclusion that the Thracian fortress, situated 2 km to the East of what’s today the Staro Stefanovo architecture reserve was most likely named the same way, as there are 36 springs starting from a spot nearby, which a deep gorge actually. My thesis is that the fortress named Vratitsa stood up surrounded by the water springs. It is known that the Thracians adored water and springs.”

According to Pavlevski the remains of the fortress were almost totally demolished in 1920 – 1921, when then PM Stambolyiski allowed the newly established Labor Forces military units to build up roads with stones from fortresses preserved nearby. There are plenty of dug out and robbed Thracian tomb mounds around the village. Mr. Pavlevski says that the village was named after young Stefan Pashev in 1949. He emigrated in the USSR and returned with the NKVD special forcesduring WWII, but was nabbed and shot down in 1942.

The village prides in ever having consisted of ethnic Bulgarians only. This Bulgarian village had a special privileged status during the Ottoman rule and in exchange it provided unarmed soldiers for the Turkish army, Pavlevski says and adds:

“A part of the population didn’t have to pay taxes to the Turkish authorities. Turks had no right to stay overnight. The locals were proud mountain people of very strong spirit and revolutionary temper.”

This is the birth place of Ivan Yonkov Vratsaliata ( aca Ivanaky Kyurkchi) – a wealthy master of the fur and leader carft. Furrier Ivan Yonkov Kyurkchi organized and armed a group of rebels here. He was one of the Velchova Zavera rebellion’s organizers in 1835, standing up against Ottoman rule for the liberation of Bulgaria. When the planned rebellion was uncovered, Kyurkchiyata was hanged and all of the group were slaughtered.

Stefanovo is also related to the history of an oak, aged over 1,000 years.

“The oak was proclaimed a monument of culture, but it withered in the 1980s. The church rituals and the Ilinden fest took place around it. About ten men were necessary to hug its trunk in a chain. It had a huge hollow which gathered all the kids from the local school. Local patriots turned the oak trunk into a chapel, but one day a candle caused a fire, which burnt down the old tree. Now there is a small chapel built there, covered with stone plates.”

The village has an entrance but no exit out. It is situated that way after moving aside from the main road to protect itself from bandit raids. Here is what Ivan Pavlevski says:

“A large number of the population died during a plague epidemic. Such plague waves were rather frequent in Ottoman times – once every 35-40 years. Those who remained were forced to set the village on fire, to burn the corpses and to move across water, as they believed that the latter would stop the plague. That is why the village is situated in this no-exit-spot. That is why I disagree with the theory that the name Vratsa came from “vrata” /door/, as the settlement is re-built in a place with no exit, no way out to anywhere actually,” Ivan Palevski says in conclusion.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev