Bulgaria has 1,130 villages with a population of 1 to 49 people, shows statistics from the end of 2012. In the near future, some of these settlements will enter the category of depopulated areas where only the wind will be whistling its miserable and gloomy song in the chimneys of deserted and crumbling houses.

The abandoned homes in whose yards weeds reign over everything have become a bleak and creepy sight across this country. The bustling life that was once making these places vibrant is now long forgotten. At the end of last year, 172 villages disappeared from the map of Bulgaria as they had no inhabitants at all. And sadly their number is to be rising. Given Bulgaria’s aging population (every fifth citizen of Bulgaria is above the age of 65, or this makes 19.2 per cent of the country’s population) it comes as no surprise that for the first time the number of rural residents has dropped below 2 million people (the precise figure is 1 million 976 thousand).  In 2012 alone, 24 Bulgarian villages have disappeared from the map, which is nothing other than tragic. Experts from the Institute for Demographic Study with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences are in the opinion that the deserted Bulgarian villages are actually many more that the official figures, with their number reaching 500. The regions with the highest mortality rate in this country are Vidin, Montana and Vratsa. This is the most underdeveloped region in Bulgaria’s Northwest and this gives scholars serious grounds to believe that very soon more and more villages there will lose their last residents. Many deserted villages and hamlets can be seen also in the regions of Veliko Tarnovo, Gabrovo, the Rhodopes and border regions. Near the Greek border in the vicinity of Ivailovgrad there are also several almost entirely depopulated villages. The old people have died whereas the young are seeking their living elsewhere. 

© Photo: archive

Hristina Kyupekchieva is the mayor of two villages in the region of Ivailovgrad -  Dolno Lukovo at the Bulgarian-Greek border and Meden Buk. She tells us the sad story of the adjacent villages where the hald-ruined houses are no good even for the nests of birds. The road is hidden under lush undergrowth and the last time human steps were heard there was long in the past. The electricity supply is cut and the magnificent wildlife there is slowly but surely taking the place of people. Dolno Lukovo manages to keep surviving for the time being, says its mayor Hristina Kyupekchieva.

“The permanent residents of the village are some 80 people. Most of them are elderly people aged 50, 60, 70 or older. They are mainly involved in agriculture,and they grow tobacco. The young people have left for the towns or outside the country. A dozen of people work in Greece and Cyprus. Some return, some however stay. We have quite a lot of deserted houses, the majority of houses are empty as no one lives there. And when you don’t maintain a house, it starts to crumble."

Hristina Kyupekchieva tells us with sadness about the fate of nearby villages.  “For example, the village of Gorno Lukovo has only two inhabitants and the village of Cherna Cherkva has only one inhabitant, in Zhalti Chal there is no one any longer, she says. In the village of Meden Buk there are still some 40 elderly people. The region started to get depopulated on a mass scale following the transition to market economy in 1989 when many factories and small workshops closed down and the young people went seeking for a living in bigger cities or abroad:

“Well, when there is no school and no work, how could we expect that young people will stay, their children don’t have where to go to school”, says the mayor. “The nearest school is in the village of Svirachi, at 6 km from Ivailovgrad. And we are 25 km away from the town. And that’s why many families were forced to leave the village and settled in other villages and towns in Bulgaria. We have very beautiful nature but since there are no means of subsistence, it is only natural that young people are running away. They return here for a short time during the vacation to enjoy the mountain and go fishing in the Byala River. But the vacation is over really quickly and then it is only us, the old people, who remain here."

© Photo: archive

The picturesque mountain peaks have deprived the residents of the village from the opportunity of being connected to the world via the internet. On the other hand, they protect them from storms, flooding, because Dolno Lukovo is actually situated at a high altitude. On festive days the residents of the village light candles in the local church built in 1806 and pray for the souls of the deceased and for a better future for the living. While better days come, they will keep living among the magnificent nature of this Bulgarian region which unfortunately keeps being abandoned not only by the young people. 

English version: Rossitsa Petcova