A detour to an enormous monument high on a hillside and visible for 30 kms left us open-mouthed. The monument to the Founders of the Bulgarian State was built in 1981, and is a testament as much to concrete as it is to the founders.
We’re here for scale, rather than to show off our sunglasses. Needless to say, there were few women, but some of the figures reminded us of transformers (around the same time?)
Another detour – this time to the UNESCO site of the Madara Horseman, the only rock relief in Europe. There is some debate about its origins, but it is at least as old as 8th Century, because one of the inscriptions surrounding it records a debt owed by the Emperor Justinian to the Bulgarian Khan Tervel.
In case you can’t make it out, you don’t need to guess this time (see Pleven). This is a triumphant ruler in a symbolic hunting scene, says our guidebook. The horseman has speared a lion and is being followed by his loyal dog and led by a bird, Apparently in his hand he holds a wine cup though we couldn’t see it – but that has led some to believe he is Thracian as they liked a good glass of wine as well as a battle,
And finally, a heroine of a kind. We went to Balchik to visit Queen Marie’s Palace and the Botanical Gardens which surround it. It’s a bit weird – it was built in the 1920s by this grand-daughter of Queen Victoria and one time queen of Romania. She seems quite a character, joining the Bahai faith and dying of cirrhosis of the liver. She’s also rumoured to have kept a young Turkish lover at the Palace, her summer home.
Sue was pretty disappointed with the planting, feeding back that pansies were a bad idea and they should concentrate on shrubs:
OMG. Did you feel like you were in Gullivers Travels?
It was very weird – such huge, blank and menacing figures – disturbing combination of Christian orthodoxy and the Wagner group ( those cheery Russian mercenaries)…
I absolutely love the rock sculptures! One for my garden, please. And on gardens, Sue is quite right about the ridiculous pansies. I doubt that the snazzy Queen Marie would have approved, either.
Thanks, Tara – I like pansies in small groups in a pot where you can deadhead and generally tidy them up but as mass planting – nooo…
Oh the giant concrete sculpture and the quasi heroine… I meant to place comment here!
Not a problem, Elizabeth – very glad you’re following the journey!
Cubism gone mad and 60 years after the event! Have to say I quite like it – would probably have looked better on a smaller scale. Sue, spot on re the pansies. The only argument you can muster in the gardener’s defence is that he or she wanted to keep things as low level as possible to preserve the vista to the sea.
Suspect the smaller scale wasn’t really an option? ( Big, we want it big. Needs to be seen 30 kilometres away! Needs to be seen from Moscow..). And yes, I think we’re all agreed on the pansies – too small, too messy, can’t be seen from Moscow…
Not being seen from Moscow seems like a plus to me. Herbaceous borders not shrubs!