Galata Bridge to Ayub

EXCURSIONS

The best way to see the Golden Horn is by going up it in a fair-sized caique pulled by two men. Fare 15 to 20 piastres (2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d.) there and back. The small steamers plying between Galata Bridge and the various stations on the Inner Horn are both uncomfortable and dirty, and on account of their awnings utterly unsuitable for sight-seeing. Fare (Galata Bridge to Ayub) 50 paras (2nd.).

The Golden Horn, or Bay of Constantinople, extends from its junction with the Bosporus at Seraglio Point to a spot away up the harbour, called the Khlyat Haneh or Sweet Waters of Europe, at the confluence of two small streams, the Kedaris or Ali bey Suyu, and the Vorvlsses or Khlyat Haneh Silyu, and separates Galata and Pera from the Stambul side of the city. Its names of Keratios Kolpos (The Horn Gulf) and Chrysokeras (Golden Horn) are derived from the resemblance of this arm of the Bosporus to the shape of a ram’s horn.

The Golden Horn is some six miles long, with an average width of about 490 yards, and a mean depth of twenty-three fathoms, and is spanned by two bridges. In olden times it was closed during the various sieges by a chain stretched across it, from Seraglio Point to Galata.

The most interesting suburbs on the Golden Horn are—Galata, Pera, Kassim Pasha, Phanar, Balata, Haskeui and Ayub.

Galata was originally known under the name of Sykce (fig-trees), presumably from a grove of fig- trees having once existed there; but the place was afterwards called Galata, from the Gauls who formed a settlement there ; and this name has clung to it throughout its subsequent occupation by the Genoese, down to the present day. Galata is now the place where the banks, steamship agencies, stock exchange, and offices of agents and representatives of European firms are established. The old Genoese walls which formerly enclosed Galata have been pulled down years ago to make way for the erection of modern buildings, and scarcely a vestige of them now remains.

Galata Bridge to Ayub

EXCURSIONS

The best way to see the Golden Horn is by going up it in a fair-sized caique pulled by two men. Fare 15 to 20 piastres (2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d.) there and back. The small steamers plying between Galata Bridge and the various stations on the Inner Horn are both uncomfortable and dirty, and on account of their awnings utterly unsuitable for sight-seeing. Fare (Galata Bridge to Ayub) 50 paras (2nd.).

The Golden Horn, or Bay of Constantinople, extends from its junction with the Bosporus at Seraglio Point to a spot away up the harbour, called the Khlyat Haneh or Sweet Waters of Europe, at the confluence of two small streams, the Kedaris or Ali bey Suyu, and the Vorvlsses or Khlyat Haneh Silyu, and separates Galata and Pera from the Stambul side of the city. Its names of Keratios Kolpos (The Horn Gulf) and Chrysokeras (Golden Horn) are derived from the resemblance of this arm of the Bosporus to the shape of a ram’s horn.

The Golden Horn is some six miles long, with an average width of about 490 yards, and a mean depth of twenty-three fathoms, and is spanned by two bridges. In olden times it was closed during the various sieges by a chain stretched across it, from Seraglio Point to Galata.

The most interesting suburbs on the Golden Horn are—Galata, Pera, Kassim Pasha, Phanar, Balata, Haskeui and Ayub.

Galata was originally known under the name of Sykce (fig-trees), presumably from a grove of fig- trees having once existed there; but the place was afterwards called Galata, from the Gauls who formed a settlement there ; and this name has clung to it throughout its subsequent occupation by the Genoese, down to the present day. Galata is now the place where the banks, steamship agencies, stock exchange, and offices of agents and representatives of European firms are established. The old Genoese walls which formerly enclosed Galata have been pulled down years ago to make way for the erection of modern buildings, and scarcely a vestige of them now remains.

Galata Bridge to Ayub

EXCURSIONS

The best way to see the Golden Horn is by going up it in a fair-sized caique pulled by two men. Fare 15 to 20 piastres (2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d.) there and back. The small steamers plying between Galata Bridge and the various stations on the Inner Horn are both uncomfortable and dirty, and on account of their awnings utterly unsuitable for sight-seeing. Fare (Galata Bridge to Ayub) 50 paras (2nd.).

The Golden Horn, or Bay of Constantinople, extends from its junction with the Bosporus at Seraglio Point to a spot away up the harbour, called the Khlyat Haneh or Sweet Waters of Europe, at the confluence of two small streams, the Kedaris or Ali bey Suyu, and the Vorvlsses or Khlyat Haneh Silyu, and separates Galata and Pera from the Stambul side of the city. Its names of Keratios Kolpos (The Horn Gulf) and Chrysokeras (Golden Horn) are derived from the resemblance of this arm of the Bosporus to the shape of a ram’s horn.

The Golden Horn is some six miles long, with an average width of about 490 yards, and a mean depth of twenty-three fathoms, and is spanned by two bridges. In olden times it was closed during the various sieges by a chain stretched across it, from Seraglio Point to Galata.

The most interesting suburbs on the Golden Horn are—Galata, Pera, Kassim Pasha, Phanar, Balata, Haskeui and Ayub.

Galata was originally known under the name of Sykce (fig-trees), presumably from a grove of fig- trees having once existed there; but the place was afterwards called Galata, from the Gauls who formed a settlement there ; and this name has clung to it throughout its subsequent occupation by the Genoese, down to the present day. Galata is now the place where the banks, steamship agencies, stock exchange, and offices of agents and representatives of European firms are established. The old Genoese walls which formerly enclosed Galata have been pulled down years ago to make way for the erection of modern buildings, and scarcely a vestige of them now remains.

The awakening

In the 18th century the rest of Europe was already on the threshold of the modern world. Bulgaria, unfortunately, did not have the opportunity to develop those first intimations of the Renaissance that can be seen in certain art or literary works of the 14lh century. Political enslavement was aggravated by religious oppression: the Bulgarian Patriarchate was abolished and the Bulgarian Church brought under authority of the Greek Patriarchate.

Moreover, the national consolidation had to take place in the absence of a Bulgarian State — which could have facilitated the process with its organizations.

That is why the Bulgarians and the other Balkan Christians under Turkish domination sought to overthrow the Ottoman bondage and establish their own national states.

Mount Athos

In 1762 the monk Paisiy of the monastery on Mount Athos wrote his Slav-Bulgarian History and in the following decades many copies of the manuscript started circulating to achieve wide distribution of the patriotic and anti-Greek ideas of its author. The work was first printed in 1844. From 1835 onwards began to be established outside the monasteries schools teaching in the Bulgarian language. In all larger towns sprang up “reading rooms” which made a powerful contribution to the development of national consciousness and to the diffusion of the national culture. Meanwhile, the 18th century was marked by a decay of the Turkish military and feudal system. Gradually, the Bulgarian lands became a Field for the economic activities of many foreigners and this implied even closer economic links with the Western states Tours Bulgaria. The rapid economic development created the material prerequisites for the rise of the Bulgarian national liberation movement.

So the remarkable work of the monk of Mount Athos served its historical purpose: to become the first national program for political and spiritual emancipation of the Bulgarians. In 1806 he created a collection of festive precepts called A Sabbath Book and this was the first Bulgarian printed book. The idea that a modern Bulgarian school should be set up was first conceived by Petar Beron who acquired his thorough college education in Heidelberg and Munich. In 1824 was published his famous Fish Primer regarded by historians as the actual beginning of the new Bulgarian education. The struggle for the establishment of the popular Bulgarian idiom as the language of education, divine service and literature continued. In 1844 the first Bulgarian magazine Lyuboslovie w’as published by Konstantin Fotinov in Smyrna (present-day Izmir in Asia Minor) and two years later, in Leipzig, Ivan Bogorov leafed through the pages of the first Bulgarian newspaper Bulgarski orel (Bulgarian Eagle).

Behind the Sultan’s private box

On the western side of the church, and behind the Sultan’s private box, is the Cold Window, so called from the cool wind which always blows through it; it is considered a place of exceptional sanctity, having been the spot whence the celebrated Sheik Ak-Shems-ed-Din, who accompanied the Conqueror, first preached the Koran in St. Sophia. In one of the windows in the western gallery is a translucent stone, called the Shining Stone. The two immense tapers, one on each side of the Mihrab, are only lighted during Ramazan, and are literally columns of wax. The inscription forming a pendant to the pulpit is a quotation from the Koran, and is a masterpiece of ornamental writing; it is the work of Sultan Mahmud II.

Despite the removal of most of the emblems of Christianity and the addition of those of Islamism, the interior of St. Sophia cannot be said to have much changed by its conversion into a mosque; but the addition of towers, walls, minarets, and other structures outside, has altered the exterior appearance of the building almost beyond recogni-tion. The four minarets are the work of different Sultans: that at the south-east corner is the oldest, having been erected by Muhammad II.; it is of different shape from the others; that at the northeast comer was built by Selim II., and those on the western side by Murat III.

Church of St. Irene (HarbiehAmbari = armoury), now used as a museum of ancient arms. Admission by imperial warrant. It is situated in the Old Seraglio grounds guided tours istanbul, and was never converted into a mosque. It was built by Constantine the Great on the site of the heathen temple erected to Irene (Elptfvrj), or Peace, and named after the fane it superseded, and has no connection with St. Irene, the Christian martyr. It was burnt down in 532 A.D. during the Nika riot, and rebuilt by Justinian. This church is in a fair state of preservation, though it suffered considerably during the earthquakes of 1894. The ornamentation is simple in character. According to most authorities the church of St. Irene was the place where the second General Council met in 381 A.D., during the reign of Theodosius the Great, and proclaimed the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity against the followers of Macedonius.

Christian union

It is, however, curious to note that this building, which was once the scene of this Christian union, has now been chosen, as if by the irony of fate, as a museum of objects of strife, and is crowded with ancient arms and armour, modern weapons, and trophies. Most interesting among these are the sword of Muhammad II.; that of Scanderbey; an armlet of Tamerlane; the gold and silver keys of numerous conquered cities, and more ancient tokens of surrender in the form of little bags of earth; and two standards, said to have been those of Ali, bearing three double-edged swords on a red field. The collection also contains a large quantity of chain- mail, some fine Circassian helmets, and numerous red and green banners and flags.

The Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, called Kutchuk Ayiah Sofia (St. Sophia the less) by the Turks, from the beauty of its columns and ornamentation, lies behind the Hippodrome, close to the railway line, and near the Marmora sea – shore. Admission 5 piastres per head. It was built in 527 A.D. by Justinian in the vicinity of the palace of Hormisdas, where he resided prior to his accession to the throne. According to tradition the church was erected and dedicated to these two saints by Justinian as a thanksgiving offering, for having, in reponse to his prayers, appeared in a dream to his predecessor, the Emperor Anastasius, and induced that monarch to release him from prison, where he had been cast with hie uncle Justin I. for alleged conspiracy against the throne. Justinian is said to have devoted all his private fortune to the endowment of this church. The building is nearly square, being 109 feet by 92 feet exclusive of the apse.

WALL PAINTINGS FROM TOMBS IN THE NECROPOLIS OF SERDICA

The mosaic depicts the early Christian notion of the Paradise – the Garden of Eden, composed of symbols.

2. WALL PAINTINGS FROM TOMBS IN THE NECROPOLIS OF SERDICA 3 fragments

4th century Fresco 0,72 x 1,04 x 0,25 m 0,55 x 0,80 x 0,16 m 1,5 x 0,93 m

From tombs in the Eastern Early Christian necrop-olis around St. Sophia Church in Sofia

Decorated with candelabra and wine sprouts. K. M.

3. WALL PAINTING WITH THE IMAGE OF AN ANGEL

A fragment Triumphal Arch First half of the 4thcentury Fresco 1,40 x 1,60 m

A sector of the murals the interior. Removed from the arch in the Red Church, Perushtitsa, Plovdiv region, in 1920!

An Angel holds a medallion with Agnus Dei in hands raised above his head.

4. EPITAPHSFROMTHEEARLYCHRISTIAN NECROPOLIS OF SERDICA

5th- 6th centuries 4.1 MARBLE 39 x 43 x2,2 cm Inscription in Latin in 3 lines

+ HIC R …V1ESC1T/ T. IOANNES FIUVS bulgaria tour QEORGIINEVSTRIS

Epitaph ofTlitus]Ioanns, son of the illustrious Georgios

The inscription accompanied by a palmette and an ornament

4.2 MARBLE 21 x 51 x 5 cm Inscription in Latin in 3 lines

+ HIC REQUIESCET U1R THEUPREPIUS / EPISCOP +

Epitaph of the most beatific man Bishop

4.3 MARBLE

24 x 26,5 x 2,5 cm Inscription in Latin in 3 lines + DECIUS HIC I FAMULUS … / ANDRAE Epitaph ofDecius, servant of Saint Andrew An ivy leaf carved below the inscription

4.4 SANDSTONE

27 x 27 x 4,5 cm Inscription in Latin in 4 lines

+ CONTANTIA / NUSICEST POS / ITU- SUTREQI / ES CATIN CELI +

Epitaph of Constantine, interred to rest in heaven

A serpent carved below the inscription

5. EPITAPH OF EUGENIA DEACONESS

Local work June 12th 538 Marble 1,18 x 0,65 x 0,08 m 13-line inscription in Greek:

Here rests Eugenia who died as a deaconess, once living in the house (= church) of the famous Apostle Andrew, and ending her pious life on 12th June, indictio I under the reign of our God-like and devout Emperor Flavius Justinian, great Augustus and Autocrat, when the Consul was Flavius Julius

Discovered at Nebush site, nearby the Mineral Baths of the village of Eleshnitsa, Blagoevgrad re-gion, set up in the altar of the local church.

6. PORTRAIT OF A MAN

Eocal work out of a local stone 6th century Sandstone H. 26 cm; w. 11 cm; d. 19 cm

Discovered within the debris of a Byzantine fortress near Obzor (former Gyozeken, Kozyak grad), Burgas region.

One of the rare world examples of the heroes of the new age – a stiff, universal mask covering a soul striving for the God.

Many partisans from Varna

During the struggles against fascism (1941-1945) the first sabotage group was set up. Many partisans from Varna fell m battle. ‘

Today Varna is a rapidly developing city with large shipyards, a dry dock, etc.

The Rock Monastery

The Asparouh Bridge is 2 kilometres long and 16 metres wide and rises about 60 metres above Varna Bay. Tankers with 2.000 tons displacement are able to sail beneath.

The Varna-Uyichovsk ferry service links the Soviet Union port with Varna. The line is serviced by two Bulgarian and two Soviet ships.

The Palace of Culture and Sport has a Congress Hall, a revolving stage, which can be converted into a rostrum, simultaneous translation facilities, a large conference hall, 7 small halls and an exhibition hall turkey sightseeing.

There are covered football and tennis facilities, a spacious press centre and snackbar.

Hotel Cherno More

Hotel Cherno More, three stars, has 414 beds and four suites, panoramic restaurant on the 22nd floor, winter garden, two conference rooms, bar, taverna and covered parking lot. Tel. 3-40-88.

The dolphin aquarium is an interesting sight. The glass hall of the main pool is 12 metres long and 12 metres wide and it is linked to a small pool with water tunnels where the dolphins rest. The water for the pools is taken from the deepest parts of

the Black Sea 80 metres from the shore.

DRUSHBA

1 . Hotel Kaliakra

2. hole I – resta uront Riviera

3. Hotel Rubin

4. Hotel lebed

5. Hotel Pronto A, Restaurant Emona

7. Sekfor B – Holzbungolows Secteur – B – Bungalows Sector B – Wooden cottages

8. Hotel Nezabravka

9. Hotel Emona

10. Hotel Rostca

11. Hotel Gloria

12. Hotel Rusalka

13. Hotel Norcis

14. Lbden f(Jr Rei»canaenken Ar]agosins ae souvenirs Souvenir skops

15. Hotel Bor

16. Restauront Varna

17. Restauront Manastirska izbo

18. Restauront Kiliite

19. Hotel Lotos

20. Hotel Praga

21. Administration

22. Freilicbtheaer und -kino Theatre-cinema de plein air Oper-air Theatre and Cinema

23. Hotel Odesos

24. Restaurant Cernomorec

25. Apotheke Pharmocie Chemist’s Shop

26. Post

27. Ldden for Rerseandenken Bator de souvenirs Souvenir stands

28. Hotel Rozo

29. Umkieiderdume Cabines Cloakrooms

30 Hotel Caika

31. Tonkstelle Pompe 6 essence Filling station

32. Zertiol AutobushalteStelle, T«te de I gne d’autobus, Central bus station

33. Camping £aika

34. Camping

35. Hotel Korol

Varna hosts the annual Varna Summer International Festival of Red Cross Films, opera performances, concerts, etc. 1 here is also a symphony orchestra.

Gorna Oryahovitsa

Some ten kilometres to the left a road leads to Gorna Oryahovitsa (pop. 39,000) — the largest railway junction of North Bulgaria. It was a craft and trade centre during Ottoman rule. After the Liberation it developed as a railway station following the construction of the Varna-Sofia line. Hotels: Raho- vets, two stars, 5 floors, 3 suites and 146 beds, restaurant, night club, national tavern, cafe (tel. 4-16-30).

Return to E-85 and enter the picturesque Derventa Gorge, where, facing each other on the rocks, are the Tiansfiguration Monastery and the Holy Trinity Monastery.

The Transfiguration Monastery is 6 km north of Veliko lumovo. The ruins of the old mediaeval monastery are some half a kilometre in the woods, south of the present-day monastery. It was probably founded during the reign of Ivan Shishrnan, in the 1570s. It fell into oblivion for several centuries, after repeated plundering. The frescoes were painted by Zahari Zograph of the Samokov school of painting. He painted the whole church and icons from 1849 to 1851. Interesting from an ethnographic point of view is the Doomsday fresco painted on the eastern side of the vestibule. Also remarkable is the Wheel of Life fresco on the outside southern altar wall, showing human life from a philosophical point of view.

In 1838 the Tryavna master-engravers made a magnificent iconostasis which is one of the masterpieces of the Tryavna school of wood-carving. They also made the iconostasis in the small Anunciation Church. The large monastery library holds valuable incunabula, historical documents, etc.

The Holy Trinity Monastery is situated among rocks op posite the Transfiguration Monastery, on the steep banks of the River Yantra. It is supposed to have been founded by Patriarch Euthimius. Several prominent literary figures worked there.

Veliko Turnovo

Veliko Turnovo (pop. 63,500; is one of Bulgaria’s most beautiful towns. It was capital of the Second Bulgarian State from 1187 to 1396. There was a Byzantine fortress on the Tsarevets hill in the 5th-6th century, built by Justinian, which was captured by the Slavs in the 7th century sofia sightseeing. In 1185 Turnovo was the centre of a nationwide uprising led by the brothers Assen and Peter. The uprising was successful^eter was declared Tsar and Tumovo capital of the new Bulgarian state, which lasted for two centuries until Bulgaria fell under Ottoman domination. The town maintained lively commercial links with Dubrovnik, Genoa and Venice. It became one of the largest literary centres of its time. Magnificent works were written here, some of which are still presented — Manasses9 Chronicle (in the Vatican library) and Tsar Ivan Alexander’s Tetraevan- gelia (in British Museum, London). In 1350 Theodosius of l umovo founded Kilifarevo Monastery near Turnovo which was a literary school.

Students from all over the country, from Russia, Wallachia and Serbia, studied here; Patriarch Euthimius was among them. He founded a second literary school in the Holy Trinity Monastery, known as the Turnovo School. His disciples, Grigorii Tsamblak and Konstantin Kostenechki, continued their teachings in Wallachia, Serbia and Russia. On July 17, 1393, after a three-month siege, 1 urnovgrad fell under Ottoman domination. The capital was burnt, destroyed and plundered, but the spirit of people remained alive and many uprisings broke out in the 16th, l7th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century the town was a major craft centre. A Bulgarian men’s school was opened followed by a girl’s school in 1845. In 1835 the town was the centre of an uprising, known as the Velcho conspiracy. In 1870 Vassil Levski founded the Turno- vo revolutionary committee. During the Uprising of April 1876 Tumovo was the centre of the First Revolutionary District. Troops led by General I.V.Gurko liberated the town on June 25, 1877.

Bulgarian population

By this treaty a Bulgarian state was established on the lands of the Balkan peninsula inhabited by a predominantly Bulgarian population. Under the Treaty of Berlin, however, the countify was torn into three: the area from the Timok to the Black Sea and around Sofia formed the Principality of Bulgaria; Southern Bulgaria became Eastern Roumelia under the direct military and political rule of the Sultan and the rest remained under Turkish rule. The Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia were united in 1885 after a revolutionary uprising.

The development of ties with capitalist countries and the growth of the working class gave rise to socialist political consciousness. In 1891, the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party was founded which later became the Bulgarian Communist Party. The Bulgarian Agrarian Union was set up in 1899.

During 1912-1918 Bulgaria took part in the Balkan Wars and in World War I. Following parliamentary elections, an Agrarian government led by Alexander Stamboliiski came to power. It did not last very Jong. A military fascist coup d’etat was carried out on 9th June 1923 and in September 1923 the world’s first anti-fascist uprising broke out and was led by the Communist Party of Bulgaria. It was brutally suppressed. The period between 1924-1941 was marked by acute Glass and political struggles city tours istanbul. In 1941, the establishment consented to the Nazi forces entry into Bulgaria. Following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, the Bulgarian Popular Front formed a resistance movement. Victory was achieved on 9th September 1944 with the assistance of the Soviet Army. In 1946, a referendum proclaimed Bulgaria a People’s Republic and a period of accelerated economic and cultural development ensued. The People’s Republic of Bulgaria is a socialist state governed by representatives of the working people, headed by the working class. The National Assembly is the supreme body of state power and the sole legislative body. It has 400 national representatives, elected for a term of five years.

Economy

Economy — Great changes have occurred over the last four decades: from a backward agricultural country with poorly developed industry, Bulgaria has become a modem industrial and agricultural state. Before World War II the ratio between industry and agriculture was 25:75, whilst in 1975 it had grown to 83:17. New industries have been developed which were non-existent in old Bulgaria: machine-building, metallurgy, chemical industry and power generation. The country’s national income has shown a 13-fold increase in the last 40 years, with industry accountmg for some 57%, closely followed by agriculture, construction and trade.

Industry A prominent feature of the country’s economic development is Its industrialization. Production in machine-building, chemical, metallurgical industries and power generation have grown at enormous rates. Bulgarian electric trucks, hoists, electronic calculators and automatic equipment have world-wide recognition. Vessels built by Bulgarian shipyards are sold to countries which themselves have also developed dynamically together with the chemical industry, petrochemical industry, plastics, artificial fertilizers and the pharmaceutical industry. Power generation is key to the country’s development; in 1939 the production was 266 million kwh whilst in 1983 it reached 4,300 million kwh. Numerous thermal and hydroelectric power stations have been built over the years and are now complemented by a nuclear power station in the whole of the Balkan peninsula.

Bulgaria Land of Ancient Civilizations

The Thracians had developed the artistic crafts to a high degree. Decorative motifs taken from the animal world were widely used in them. The use of the animal body or its parts, conventionalized and freely combined in such a way as to produce bizarre and fantastic motifs, suitable for the ornamentation of the most ordinary objects used by man in his daily fife, is characteristic of the animal style in art; it was used on weapons, implements of production, vessels, and particularly as ornaments sewn on waistbands or placed on horse’s trappings, etc. As it is characteristic of the deccrative art of those tribes and peoples among whom hunting and animal husbandry play an important part in economy, and among whom totemism developed early on, at the stage of the clan order, the animal style found similar favourable conditions for developing in the decorative art of the Thracians.

The earliest example of the Thracian animal style in the Bulgarian lands is a bronze plaque found at Gurchinovo (Kolarovgrad district), on which a number of animal bodies or parts are represented in a highly conventionalized way; the character of the organic original is, however, perfectly clear in them. This plaque dates back to the end of the 6th or beginning of the 5th century B. C. The figure of a lion is represented in its entirety on a gold pectoral found at the Bashova mound near Douvanlii; in this the division of the body into its component parts is clearly marked. Certain finds from the necropolises near Panagyurishte, Bednyakovo (Pazardjik district), Brezovo (Plovdiv district) holidays bulgaria, Radyuvene (Lovech district), Mezek (near Svilengrad) and elsewhere show the following stage in the development of the Thracian animal style in the 4th century; here a variety of buckles and ornaments used on reins are shaped as separate parts of animal bodies or combinations of them.

Completely abstract character

Moreover, their organic forms are so highly conventionalized that they acquire a completely abstract character. In the silver treasure found near Loukovit in 1953, and consisting of numerous objects — vessels, reins and their ornaments — the animal forms in the decoration of two of the pieces are so greatly changed that they unnoticeably merge into the group of plant motifs and are completely lost amid the many-leaved rosettes.

The Thracian animal style is so close to the Scythian that many scholars do not recognize its existence to this day, and consider the objects found in Thrace as of Scythian origin, or directly produced under the influence of the Scythian animal style. Actually, the Thracians had long had Scythian tribes as their neighbours in the northeastern parts of the peninsula, as already mentioned above. They had long established political and cultural relations with them. Nevertheless, the extensive distribution of objects decorated in the animal style all over Thrace, the number of which increases on both sides of the Balkan Range, can now be traced as far as the lower reaches of the River Maritsa at Mezek (near Svilengrad), which leaves us no choice but to recognize the fact that in this case we are dealing with the products of an original Thracian art.