Every town has its nooks that necessarily slip away from the keen attention of tourists. However, more often than not such seemingly obscure places convey a special atmosphere of mysteries and memories. What makes them even more fascinating is the touch of nostalgia generated by the sweet or bitter memories of the past.
A quiet Sofia street downtown the capital is linked to a dramatic story. In Hristo Belchev Str. stands the house of Bulgarian poetess Mara Belcheva (1868-1937). The lovely intellectual was the muse and friend of great poet Pencho Slaveykov. Their love affair was the gentlest one that Bulgaria has ever known. Today the house has been turned into a restaurant with a special atmosphere. On Sundays it is dominated by the tune of Argentine tango, as fans of the passionate dance try to learn its patterns. The building has been painted in white and light lilac and symbolizes the birth of a tender love that proved stronger than death. Here is more from Zdravka Nikovska, curator at the Petko & Pencho Slaveykov Museum.
“The fateful encounter occurred on a May afternoon when one of Pencho Slaveykov’s cousins took the poet to Mara Belcheva’s home. Since that moment they became inseparable challenging a society still dominated by puritan values. Mara Belcheva was a lady-in-waiting of Prince Ferdinand’s mother. All of a sudden she quit the vanity fair of Sofia’s high-life and the palace. Pencho and Mara maintained a very strong spiritual union. Slaveykov himself once wrote: ‘Unwed in church, however wed in our souls.’”
Who was Mara Belcheva? Quite well educated for the time, she was a graduate of a girls’ college in Vienna, and later studied Literature in Geneva. Quite young, in 1891, and in her early 30s, she was widowed, as her husband Finance Minister Hristo Belchev was assassinated. The moment the young woman met renowned poet Pencho Slaveykov (1866-1912), an unusual love story started. This took place in 1903. He would hymn their gentle love in poems that later became songs. The house in the quiet street in Sofia keeps memories of laughter and sighs, of the rustle of rich frocks, of the scents of fine perfumes and of the rattle of cabs on the pavement. In 1911 Mara Belcheva and Pencho Slaveykov left for Italy, because the poet’s health was too frail. The couple settled in the town of Brunate, off Lake Como where the climate was good enough for him. In a bid to provide for their needs in Italy, Mara sold her Sofia house. Soon however – in May 1912, Pencho Slaveykov died. Desolate Mara Belcheva returned to Sofia and lived quite modestly to the end of her life. Today the 50 lev bill portrays the couple – on the face is Pencho Slaveykov and on the back – the silhouette of Mara Belcheva.
Strolling in central Sofia, you are likely to come across a house keeping memories of another love story that ended in tragedy – of poet Peyo Yavorov (1878-1914) and his wife Lora Karavelova (1886-1913). Today the house has been turned into a museum. Lora was the daughter of Petko Karavelov, prominent politician and statesman who served as Bulgarian PM from 1884 to 1886. One of the most illustrious couples in Sofia in the early 20 c. Lora and Yavorov married, but only a year later their home became the scene of a shocking tragedy. Lora proved to be the great poet’s femme fatale. Madly in love with him, she was gripped by jealousy, and in November 1913 after a violent row, took a revolver and killed herself. On that tragic night Yavorov tried to follow her in death. But he survived from his own suicidal shot, impairing badly his sight. Now he had to face the massive reproach of society, asLora’s family went to sue him. In October 1914 he finally killed himself. What was left behind was his unsurpassed poetry that many generations of Bulgarians truly admire.
English version Daniela Konstantinova
