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"The Tsar's Fortress," Veliko Tarnovo's acropolis during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The hill was ringed by defensive walls and towers, enclosing many churches, residences and the Bulgarian Tsar's palace. The citadel was destroyed by the Ottomans in 1393, but partially rebuilt during the communist era to encourage nationalist patriotism. At night there is a popular but very strange sound and light show, where the buildings are illuminated in psychedelic colors and shoot laser beams across the night sky while a disembodied voice narrates Bulgarian history. I took this photo during one of the rare, subdued moments of more natural illumination. Tsaravets Fortress, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.
This room (the gavit, or zhamatun) is one of the unique aspects of Armenian medieval architecture. It doesn't have any western equivalent, but it is a kind of large multipurpose hall that was attached west side of the church, generally some time after the construction of the church itself. They were gathering places for monks and parishioners, work spaces and burial places (note the many gravestones above). They often have a large oculus or lightwell in the ceiling, although this particular one, unusually, did not. The early thirteenth century gavit of the St. Astvatsatsin Church (first half of tenth century), Sanahin Monastery, Armenia.
A moment suspended between control and chaos.
Fire spinning against neon lights, music in the air, bodies watching in silence.
Not staged. Not clean. Just alive.
Captured in Phi Phi, where nights burn brighter than days.
📍 Phi Phi Islands, Thailand
2024
📷 Google Pixel 8 Pro (Manual Mode)
Mrs. Orca having a rest before we tackled Koncheto Saddle. This was the most strenuous day of the Five Mountains Trail, in my opinion. It was only about twelve or thirteen kilometers in distance, but had very steep ascents and descents, and in between a lot of traversing steep slopes and narrow ridges, which called for a lot of concentration.
A friend of ours once sat out the night in a thunderstorm in that small metal emergency shelter (2760m) in the distance. He recalled it fondly but it was not an experience I would have cared to share. Mrs. Orca near Banski Suhodol (2884m), on the way to Koncheto Saddle, Five Mountains Trail (E4), Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria.
Mrs. Orca looking over Dalgoto Ezero (2310m) toward Vihren and Kutelo Peaks, on the Five Mountains Trail (E4), Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria.
Artist: vale is graffiti artist from France.
Found in one of the amazing graffiti lanes in Melbourne.
In antiquity Sofia was known as Serdica, after a Thracian tribe in this region. This 4th century building--the oldest surviving building in Sofia--was built during the reign of Constantine the Great, who was so fond of the city that he considered moving his capital here before settling on Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul. There is not complete agreement on the original purpose of the building, but it seems most likely that it was part of a royal bath complex, then later became a baptistry and then the Church of the Rotunda Saint George (or Sveti Georgi) in the early middle ages.
In a pattern typical in the Balkans, when the Ottomans took over in the 14th century they converted it into a mosque and plastered over its ancient Christian frescoes. The Ottomans were expelled in the late 19th century, and in the decades that followed the plaster was removed from hundreds or even thousands of regional churches/mosques, revealing ancient and medieval frescoes that were often amazingly well-preserved.
After WWII, when the communists took over, they typically sought to diminish the role of religion in public life. Sometimes they just demolished churches, but they rarely did so with the most historic ones, fearing international condemnation and domestic backlash. In the case of Sveti Georgi they constructed an enormous government building that encloses it on four sides and completely sealed it off from the view of all those who did not enter into the complex.
The Church of the Rotunda Saint George, AKA Sveti Georgi, Sofia, Bulgaria.
My poor rhodie suffered severe damage from the heavy snow and ice this past winter. We lost 2 of the main branches so it doesn't look as full anymore, but I still love those blooms.
We initially planned to visit Rila Monastery as part of our E4 hike. It is not actually on trail, but is near enough that you can look down upon it from a high ridge near Malyovitsa Peak (2729m). However, reaching the monastery from trail would involve a steep descent losing about 1400 meters of vertical elevation, and then regaining that elevation to get back on trail. In the end Mrs. Orca and I could not bring ourselves to do it, and we instead visited the monastery by car with a friend after completing the hike.
Some kind of swifts, viewed from the monastery's oldest surviving structure, the 14th century Hrelyo’s Tower, Rila Monastery, Bulgaria.
A small medieval chapel overlooks Debed Canyon and Sanahin (below and just out of frame to right). To the left, some few hundred meters deep in the canyon, sits the large and interesting industrial town on Alaverdi. It was once a major supplier of copper to the USSR but is now in steep economic decline. The Debed Canyon, viewed from the Trans-Caucasian Trail just above Sanahin, Armenia.
Tevno Ezero (Dark Lake) (2512m) and the Tevno Ezero Shelter, on the Five Mountains Trail (E4), Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria.
In the Ottoman Era (mid 14th to late 19th century) Plovdiv was known as Filbe (essentially Turkish for "Philip's city," after the Greek name, Philippopolis). During this time the city would have had many public bathhouses, but I believe this is the last remaining one. It was constructed with facilities for both men and women in the 16th century and functioned as a bathhouse well into the 20th, but has since been converted into a contemporary art gallery. We tried to visit several times, but always found it closed. Chifte Banya (Ancient Bathhouse), viewed from Nebet Tepe, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
On the ridge above Ribni Ezera. Our guidebook described the climb of the next hour or two as the most difficult and technical section of the E4 in Bulgaria, but it didn't seem that way, perhaps because soon after I took this photo the clouds came in so thick around us that we did not see much of the terrain and it was really just a matter of one foot in front of the next. It was also supposed to be among the most scenic but, for the same reasons, that wasn't really the case. Looking down on Ribni Ezera (2230m), where we spent the previous night, on the way to Makedonia Hut, on the Five Mountains Trail (E4), Rila Mountains, Bulgaria.
Hagphat was at the height of its importance as an Armenian religious and intellectual center when the absurdly rapid Mongol Expansion of the 13th century overran Central Asia, East Asia, the Middle East and (briefly) Eastern Europe. Kayan Fortress was built in 1233 by the Hagphat monastery as a defense and refuge against the coming onslaught. It towers above Debed Canyon and has steep cliffs on three sides, but it fell to the Mongols just eight years later and was never rebuilt.
It can be reached as part of a footpath that connects Sanahin and Hagphat and also passes the ruins of one or two old chapels and some hermitage caves, all of which are contemporaneous with the monasteries. When we visited we found nothing much to look at except the ruins of a chapel (with grass growing on its roof, above) and an extensive system of walls. We were also quite surprised to see many workers employed at clearing away trees among the ruins and attempting to make the site more accessible, I presume using UNESCO funds. Workers were similarly employed on trail and at the caves, so it appears there is a project underway to develop the trail for more tourism, something that seems unlikely to succeed to me, given the fact that almost everyone who visits the monasteries appears to do so as part of a day trip via tour bus from Yerevan or Tbilsi. Kayan Fortress, in the Debed Canyon between Sanahin and Hagphat, Armenia.
Sofia takes its modern name from this 6th century basilica dedicated to Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia in Greek). It was built in the reign of Justinian and is therefore contemporaneous with the more famous church/mosque of the same name in Constantinople/Istanbul. During much of the half millennium of Ottoman occupation it served as a mosque. It was eventually abandoned, but has since been restored and is now an active Bulgarian Orthodox church. It was itself built atop the site of several earlier churches dating to late antiquity which had been destroyed by successive waves of invaders clawing apart the crumbling Roman Empire. Today there is a very worthwhile museum in the excavated underground beneath the church where you can descend centuries into the past and visit these churches to view their ancient Christian mosaics and tombs, some with surviving frescoes. The Hagia Sophia, aka Sveta Sofia church in Sofia, Bulgaria.
One might be surprised that Bulgaria was at the forefront of European conservation. In the second half of the 19th century industrialization helped to produce a growing middle class that sought some temporary escape from the conditions that created it, and found it in a retreat to the country's abundant mountain ranges. This happened elsewhere in Europe, too, but in Bulgaria it coincided with an upsurge of patriotism that accompanied the 1878 liberation from the Ottomans.
In 1895 Aleko Konstantinov, proclaiming "Get to know your motherland and you will fall in love with it,” organized the first recreational climb of Vitosha, the large mountain overlooking Sofia (He was also the first to propose the National Trail that eventually became the Kom-Emine). This led to the creation of a hiking society, the Bulgarian Tourist Union, and eventually to the country's excellent hut system and a number of protected areas, including Vitosha Nature Park (1934), the first nature park on the Balkan Peninsula.
When the communists took over in 1944 they saw hiking as a healthful and patriotic leisure activity that dovetailed nicely with socialist ideals (i.e. it was a group leisure activity, but a classless one that required discipline and perseverance from all). They nationalized the hut system and the Tourist Union and greatly increased the number of huts and protected areas. With the collapse of the communist regime in 1989 conservation gave way to unregulated logging, an increase in poaching, and some noticeable decay in the hut system, which was privatized. We also saw new development projects, such as ski hotels and ski lifts, enabled through the current regime of crony capitalism, which have significantly damaged some of the natural areas. Nevertheless, the core protected areas remain and Bulgaria is still home to some magnificent wild areas and a remarkable amount of wildlife, including wolves and bears.
European brown bear print on the Five Mountains Trail, Verila Mountains, Bulgaria.