Stories and legends from the village of Bov

published on 5/28/10 10:22 AM

Photo: Darina Grigorova

The village of Bov lies on the southern slopes of Stara Planina Mountain, east of the Iskar River gorge. According to some historians, the earliest settlement emerged there nearly 8 000 years ago. There is an abundance of remains from household utensils that the archeologists dated to belong to the 6th millennium B.C. It is believed that the local population in the past lived mostly on stockbreeding and agriculture. There is evidence of ore mining from the dawn of history. There are still fragments from foundries, where metal was produced. Later on, in the 2nd-3rd c. A.D., the settlement was, in all likelihood, of strategic importance to the Roman Empire. It was on the road that passed along the ridge of the mountain. Its stone blocks have been preserved for hundreds of years untouched in the Trustenaya locality, where the remains of the St. Pantaleymon medieval monastery were unearthed. It is believed that the Christian monastery was built upon the site of an ancient Thracian sanctuary.

“There are legends about the village of Bov, just like about any ancient settlement,” Ivan Petkov from the village of Bov argues. One of the most common among them relates the story of the French knight Saint Boeuf, a crusader, who gave the village its name. According to some ethnologists, who studied the history of the place since 1206, this was the destination of exile for many French knights led by the Marquis de Saint Boeuf. It is very likely that the exiled crusaders built a water conduit that provided the villagers with potable water, to which the excavated earthen pipes testify. The adjacent land abounds in remains of fortresses erected for self-defence and surveillance. The highest of them, on Kolibishta peak, dominates the view of the entire locality and the rest of the surveillance fortifications. There is a legend surrounding this peak related to the last of the struggles of the Bulgarians against the Ottoman Turks in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The villagers gathered inside the fortress and defended themselves bravely, until the Ottomans decided to use cunning to break them down. Here is what Ivan Petkov told Radio Bulgaria,

“The Turks tied a donkey to a rope did not give it water for three days. After that they led the animal in a circle round the fortress hoping that it would lead the way to the water source of the fortress’ defendants. And, indeed, the donkey took them straight to the hidden water conduit. According to another legend, the villagers found refuge behind the walls of the St. Michael the Archangel monastery and saved their lives.”

In 1877 the village was liberated from Ottoman domination, and several years later construction work began on the Sofia-Mezdra railway. The villagers gradually settled by the railway station in search of better living conditions.

At the beginning of the 20th century writer and poet Ivan Vazov visited the Iskar River gorge and was fascinated by the beauty of the local scenery. In his travelogue “A stroll along the River Iskar” he acknowledged that his curiosity was provoked by the name of the village of Bov. “All of a sudden, poetic images and recollections of the time of medieval knights rushed into my mind,” he wrote. The villagers tell the story that captivated by the beauty of a young girl from the Dangov family Vazov often visited her parents.

“We have set up Vazov’s trail, along the places he visited or stayed,” Ivan Petkov explains. “It starts at the house of the Dangov family, past the railway station, along the Skaklya rivulet, and ends in the village of Zasele. It is there that Vazov wrote his famous short story “Grandpa Yotzo Is Watching”, the story of a blind man, who went everyday up the hill to ‘watch’ the construction works of the railway line. Rumour has it that the mayor of the village of Zasele once fined the great writer for ‘treading on his grass’,” Ivan Petkov says in conclusion.

Author: Darina Grigorova

English version by Radostin Zhelev

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Stories and legends from the village of Bov

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