People call Stara Zagora the town of linden-trees, of poets, of straight streets and of beautiful women… All this is true but it refers to the town’s most modern history. Yet if we take a trip back in time we will unearth facts which are fascinating and which shape the face of the town to this day. Petra Taleva takes you to Stara Zagora to unravel the mysteries and the secrets of this charming spot. How many times has it been reborn?

“The people of Stara Zagora are proud to be living in a town which has been inhabited constantly throughout the last 10,000 years. That is why they invariably suggest that their guests start their tour from the Neolithic Homes Museum. Incredible as it may sound, two of the oldest Neolithic homes in Europe with the most abundant finds have been preserved from the New Stone Age down to this day. There are 1,826 incredible exhibits on display – different figures of men and women, objects and moulds, even pottery shaped like a tulip and painted with white dye… This part of Europe and the world continues to amaze scholars with its concentration of artifacts. There are over 120 ancient settlement mounds in the environs, a veritable challenge - now and in the future - to historians, anthropologists, ethnographers, researchers.

© Photo: wikipedia.org

The regional museum of history

Through these long millennia the town has had eight different names. Unless you are an expert, it is difficult to see the connection between them: Beroe, Augusta Trajana, Irinopolis, Boruy, Vereya, Eski Zaara, Zheleznik and the present name – Stara Zagora. According to some researchers the words Beroe – Boruy – Vereya – Zheleznik all mean “iron”. The Chalcolithic copper mines also once contributed to the region’s fame. They have been proved to be the biggest ore-dressing centre in Europe in the 5th century B.C. The people who inhabited these lands in ancient times – the Thracians were superb metal workers, capable of forging stout warrior armour. On the other hand gold was used for decorating munitions, for making exquisite jewellery and utensils… During the 7th millennium B.C. the settlement was harbour to three major navigable rivers and the climate was exceedingly mild and favourable. Several thousand years later, after a powerful earthquake, two of the rivers disappeared. However, the region remained inviting and well suited to stock breeding, farming and fruit growing. Nowadays, students at the Thracian university in Stara Zagora study veterinary medicine, agriculture and economics.

© Photo: wikipedia.org

The Zagorka Pond

A wonderful legend has come down to us through the ages of an ancient mound with a sanctuary at its foundations. It was big and richly decorated as a Temple dedicated to the goddess of fertility should be… The museum expositions depicting the life of Neolithic man are a major tourist attraction. Visitors can hardly believe their eyes when they see furnaces and pots for storing grain and…beer. Because where there’s tasty bread there’s always good beer… As to loaves, pastries and Thracian-style banitsa, the tradition has been preserved through the millennia…While some of the most famous beer brands Europe are still brewed in Stara Zagora even now.

But where does the name Augusta Trajana come from? Around the year 107 A.D. after his victory over the Dacians Emperor Trajan passed through this region and decided to name the town after his own self. The settlement was given the right to mint its own coins. Seven centuries later, history repeated itself but with a different ruler. After an imperial visit by the Empress of the Byzantine Empire Irina in the year 784 the town was renamed to…Irinopolis. Rulers took their turns on the throne, tastes and whims changed…The town too changed its name but survived.

© Photo: wikipedia.org

The Augusta Trajana Forum

A biography that includes a fire is not the best beginning for the rebirth of a town, yet that is what happened to Stara Zagora several times. A year before the country’s Liberation from Ottoman domination, during the dramatic events of 1877, the town was razed to the ground. But the spirit of the people was strong. On October 5, 1879 the foundation stone of the new town was laid. Since then October 5 has been celebrated as the Day of Stara Zagora. But how did the town get its straight streets? The new town plan was assigned to Czech architect Lubor Baier newly arrived from Austria-Hungary. He was ambitious – he wanted the town to be in no way inferior to the cities of America architecturally and he succeeded. From then on Stara Zagora became known as the town of straight streets. To this day the town’s art gallery as well as the High school of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy both bear the name Lubor Baier.

Having come down to us through the millennia, the name Beroe is well known to the people of Stara Zagora of today, especially if they are fans of the local football club bearing the same name. But Beroe is also the name of a stadium, a sports complex, a town square, a factory, a hotel… Even in the Western portion of the Antarctic, on the island of Livingston, there is a hill named Beroe which reminds Polar explorers of the Bulgarian town of linden trees, of the Augusta Trajana forum, of the Roman thermae, part of the Stara Zagora mineral baths, a favourite spot for guests from near and far.

The layers of cultural and historical heritage organically intertwine with modern architecture. The ancient street is now treaded by a different generation entirely. Their own ancestors would have been stupefied if only they could see them:
Young, bizarre looking, self-assured, talking as if to themselves mobile phones in hand. They have their favourite places: bars, clubs, parks, the observatory. But they also go to the Roman thermae, to the opera, to festivals, to the museums, they enjoy the poetry of poets like Geo Milev, Vesselin Hanchev, as well as of budding poets their own age. Where do the young of today like to meet? Paradoxical as it may sound, times change, as do generations but the place to meet friends in Stara Zagora has remained the same – the two “mushrooms” in the town’s centre. Not that they are anything special, just plain cylindrical poster pillars with a “hat” of sorts on top. Now you know where to go in Stara Zagora so that you will never feel alone; there is always a crowd around the “mushrooms”. The town reborn continues on its way. 

English version: Milena Daynova