Let the festivities begin....

Today is Stara Zagora Day! What does this mean exactly? Another excuse to take the day off and do nothing. Well, not nothing I guess. The festivities started days ago. There have been concerts and dancing and of course the carnival. All this fun celebrates the 130th anniversary of the Stara Zagora Uprising.


And the story goes...on October 5, 1879 General-Governor of Eastern Rumelia Aleko Bogoridi laid the foundation stone of Stara Zagora town, which had been burnt to ashes by the Ottoman Turks. According to writer Atanas Illiev, one of the chief chroniclers of Stara Zagora, only 221 Bulgarian houses remained in the ten-thousand-strong town after the raid of Suleiman Pasha and his hordes. About 700 Bulgarian widows and their little children were crammed into hastily knocked up huts. In this same year, the Municipal Councilors of Stara Zagora adopted the urban development plan of Czech architect Lubor Bayer, which would determine the development of the town for many years on. Thus, the town was literary revived from the ashes.

I guess there is reason for celebration!