The “15th – 19th c. History of Bulgaria” Room Exhibition
The room presents valuable samples of the schools of literature, icon-painting, and the goldsmith’s craft in Vratsa region.
The exhibition features some important events in the history of Vratsa during the National Revival period:
– St. Sofronii Vrachanski’s visit to the town in 1794 when he was ordained to be the Bishop of Vratsa Eparchy
– Evidence of the struggles for an independent Bulgarian church initiated by the dwellers of Vratsa and its region and headed by Dimitraki Hadjitoshev
– The First Bulgarian diplomatic mission “Zambin-Nekovich” in Russia in 1804
– The feat of the townsman from Vratsa Nikola Voyvodov in 1867
– Vassil Levski’s arrival in the town in 1872 and the preparations for the April uprising in 1876.
Illustrations at the entry of the exhibition mark the end of the 14th c., when, despite the heroic self-sacrificial resistance it put up, the Bulgarian people fell under Ottoman rule.
However, in a number of churches and monasteries in Vratsa region the cultural traditions were not only preserved, but actually thrived. This is testified by the icons exhibited in the room, which date back from the 17th – 19th c., a church plate and valuable literary monuments, amongst which a manuscript dating back to the 14th c., the so called Galatinski Miney, a handwritten literary almanac from 1772 compiled by one of the most prolific representatives of Vratsa literary school – Priest Todor Vrachanski.
Vratsa was one of the first settlements in the Bulgarian lands, where the ideas for the new Bulgarian enlightenment and education, religious and national independence and political liberation were manifested and realized for the first time during the Bulgarian Revival. In 1822, Konstantin Ognyanovich opened the first secular school in the town, and in 1843 Tsveta Krastenyakova opened the second girls’ school in Bulgaria.
More illustrative materials on exhibition panels highlight events from the cultural and political history of Vratsa region during the period in question.
Special place is devoted to St. Sofronii Vrachanski and his activity. His arrival in the town had an instrumental role in raising the national self-awareness of the population in Vratsa. He was the first Bulgarian to be ordained Higher Bishop during the time of the Ottoman rule, taking the lead of Vratsa Eparchy in 1794.
Another event that is highlighted is the sending of the First Bulgarian diplomatic mission “Zambin-Nekovich” in Russia in 1804. This mission was the outcome of the ardor and the freedom-loving aspirations of the population of Vratsa and St. Sofronii Vrachanski, who had set as their goal to seek for ways and means of overthrowing the yoke.
The dwellers of Vratsa, led by Dimitraki Hadjitoshev, a prominent figure of the town and a patriot, were at the basis of the religious strife and national freedom struggles that resulted in the elimination of the ecclesiastical subordination to the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the establishment of the Bulgarian exarchate.
In 1867 Nikola Voyvodov from Vratsa made up a revolutionary detachment in Galati (Romania) to fight for the liberation of his fatherland. His heroic death on the “Germania” ship left a trail in the people’s memory.
In 1872 a local revolutionary committee was established in Vratsa, which was a subdivision of the Internal Revolutionary Organization, set up by Vasil Levski – “The Apostle of Bulgarian Freedom”. In August the same year Levski arrived in the town, he sang in “Sv. Vaznesenie” Church and gathered the local conspirators in the locality of Skaklya. A map on the exhibition panel marks the settlements in Vratsa region visited by Vasil Levski, and outlines the local revolutionary committees established here within the period 1872-1876.
During the preparations for the April uprising Vratsa was the main town that constituted the 3rd revolutionary district. Chief Apostle of the 3rd Vratsa revolutionary district was Stoyan Zaimov. The conspirators from Vratsa had a banner made by the sisters Kalitsa and Mitsa Krastevi Hadjivasilevi, whose original is displayed in the room. The attempt for the uprising in Vratsa on the night of 18/30 and 19/31 May 1876 was atrociously suppressed and over 30 people from Vratsa were slaughtered.
The exhibition also features materials illustrating the traditional means of living and some crafts in Vratsa, such as: viticulture, wine-production, sericulture and animal breeding and trading in animal products, presented by peculiar utensils, silk fabrics, brands, etc., specimen of the goldsmith’s trade and goldsmith’s instruments, as well as original samples of wood-carving.
Exhibited also is a shroud dating back to 1621, an original fragment of a mural painting of “The Last Supper” (15th – 16th c.), damascenes from the 18th c., a psalm book with silver gilded plating from the 17th c., part of an Episcopal cross-staff, a wood-carved cross with silver forged plating (18th c.), a silver filigree cross (19th c.), silver forged small vessels (19th c.), silver forged cups (19th c.), goldsmith’s tools, brands, valuable old printed editions – a “Primer”, Vienna, 1792, “Obshtoe zemleopisanie” (“General geographic description”), Smirna, 1843, divits (a kind of an inkpot), panakida (a wax-coated writing plate), clay pints (vessels for rakia), moulds for casting bullets and “olovcheta” (wine vessels made of lead), flintlock pistols, yatagans, guns and other exhibits from the presented historical period.