From the Regional Museum of History, Plovdiv website:
The Bulgarian National Revival Exposition of the Museum of History, Plovdiv, is arranged in the Georgiadi House owned by Georgi Kendindenoglou, a wealthy Bulgarian tradesman and dealer of frieze coming from an old Plovdiv family for which there were evidences as early as the 17th century. Soon after he built his house, Georgi Kendindenoglou presented it as a portion for the marriage of his daughter Elena with the Greek trader from Thessaloniki Dimitar Georgiadi. The house was erected in 1846 by the eminent Bulgarian master-builder Hadzhi Georgi. It is one of the most beautiful examples of the widely spread in the 19th century a Plovdiv type of symmetric house. Around spacious halls, in the middle of each floor, there were four rooms symmetrically situated. The ground floor is formed as an indoor courtyard with pavement. It serves as a connection between the street and the backyard. The whole building is characteristic of its beautifully carved wooden ceilings, cornices, built-in cupboards and richly decorated wall recesses, called alafranga. The structure of the building is wooden and frame-built. The woodwork is made of cut oak, and the filling in between of adobe. The house was thoroughly restored in 1960 and acknowledged for a national monument of architecture. The Exposition traces back the history of the town of Plovdiv in the period XV-XIX c. The exposition area is 825 sq.m., situated in ten halls and two salons, with the appropriate artistic arrangement, which does not impair the interior design of the house. Visitors are able to touch and be absorbed into the atmosphere of the remote past of the town owing to the rich material, documental and picture evidences of the exposition, which was a time of foreign rule, and a time of maintaining the national identity of the Bulgarian people, and struggle for separate Bulgarian education and church, and national independence. In 1371 Plovdiv was captured by the Ottoman Turks. Reproductions of Dutch engravings of XVI c. represent the period of capture of the Plovdiv region: destroyed strongholds, which offered heroic resistance to the invaders. A painting of the artist Dimitar Kirov illustrates one of the tragic events in the Bulgarian history: the forcible conversion to the Islam. During the period of the Ottoman rule, Plovdiv preserved its position of an important administrative and economic center. It is known as one of the most beautiful towns in South-East Europe, where Turks, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, etc. lived together. The haidouk movement was one of the first forms of opposition to the tyranny of the conquerors, as it was typical of all Balkan nations. The visitor’s attention is drawn by the clothing and arms of the haidouks, as the three principal regions of the haidouk bands are represented: the Rhodope Mountains, the Sredna Gora, and the Stara Planina. Dimitar Gyudzhenov’s painting depicts the figure of the legendary Angel Voivoda who acted with his band in the region of the Rhodopes, Thrace, the Stara Planina, and Macedonia, in the course of 33 years. Viktor Todorov’ sculpture stands for the collective figure of the Bulgarian haidouk as people’s protector. At the end of 18th and in the beginning of 19th century Plovdiv developed as one of the most important economic centres of the Ottoman Empire. The intensified agrarian production led to a blooming of crafts and trade. Visible evidences for the economic flourish included a numerous craftsman’s products: copper domestic utensils, homespun tailoring and shoemaker’s tools. In the neighbourhood of Plovdiv, the first textile factory of Mihail Gyumyushgerdan was established in 1848. Photos of that time show shops and markets littered with craftsman’s products exhibited for sale. The visitor can see a picture of the famous Kurshum Han (the Kurshum Inn) in Plovdiv. It is interesting to take a look at the authentic safe of a Plovdiv tradesman of 19th century, commercial book-keeping documents and a firm inscription on a shop in Greek. The necessity of more education for the Bulgarian people during the National revival was initially satisfied by Greek (Hellenic) schools. With a view to preserving the Bulgarian language and cultural independence, Bulgarian class schools, modern book-printing and book publishing appeared. The visitor can get acquainted with the first books and textbooks in Bulgarian. Great role for the revival of the Bulgarian spirit fell to Nayden Gerov, eminent teacher and man of letters, who founded the first Bulgarian class school in Plovdiv in 1850. The Day of the Slavic enlighteners St.St. Cyril & Methodius was firstly celebrated in Plovdiv on May 11, 1857. The dress of the Bulgarian educational figure Yoakim Gruev, worn by him as Deputy province governor, representative of the Bulgarian population in the Turkish province assembly, can be seen in the show case. The foundation of the Bulgarian exarchate in 1870 was one of the most immense events in the new Bulgarian history. For the first time after nearly five-century yoke, the Bulgarian people were recognized as independent people, and the Bulgarian exarchate was the first national institution. In the limelight there came the figures of Dr. Stoyan Chomakov, Salcho Chomakov, Georgi Chalakov, the Bishop Paisiy of Plovdiv. A lithographic copy of the firman in Bulgarian, Turkish and Greek, which proclaimed the independence of the Bulgarian exarchate, can be seen. Photos show the principal figures and centres of the church and national battle, icons, church plate, a clapper and ecclesiastical old-printed books are exhibited. About the middle of the 19th century, an organized struggle of the Bulgarian people for political liberation began. Its first ideologist and leader was Georgi Sava Rakovski. According to the revolutionist’s tactics designed by him, Bulgaria could be set free by the creation of military units outside the country, which upon entering into the country, would made the Bulgarians rise in revolt. Under his leadership, in Belgrade in 1862, a volunteer military unit called the First Bulgarian legion was formed. An authentic box of G.S.Rakovski, where he kept the revolutionary archives and personal things, is exhibited. Following the failure of the revolutionist’s tactics, an idea of liberation through preparation of a nation-wide armed uprising within the country arose amongst the Bulgarian revolutionaries. The idea was developed and realized by Vasil Levski called by the people the Apostle of Freedom. He established an orderly network of revolutionary committees all over the country, which were to prepare the people for an armed uprising. In 1869 Levski found a revolutionary committee in Plovdiv. His noted associates in the town were Konstantin Doganov, Hristo Ilich, Dr. Rashko Petrov, Dimitar Matevski, and others. In 1872 Vasil Levski was arrested by the Turkish authorities and after a trial hanged in Sofia on February 19, 1873. The most large-scale and heroic act of the Bulgarian people in their battle for national liberation was the April uprising of 1876. The personal belongings of Priest Gruyo of Bansko, his epitrachelion and the cross with which he swore in the delegates of the National assembly in the Oborishte place where the decision for rising in revolt was taken, are exhibited in the Exposition. An authentic rebel’s uniform, the rebels’ flag, cold steel and firearms, the famous cherry-tree cannon and the bell, which signaled the beginning of the uprising in Klisura, can be seen. The rebels demonstrated unprecedented heroism and self-denial giving a merited repulse to the several times more numerous and well-equipped enemy. The April uprising was cruelly crushed, as only in one small town like Batak, about 3000 women, children and defenceless old people were beheaded. There were also a great number of casualties in Panagyurishte, Klisura, Strelcha, Perushtitsa, Bratsigovo. The Plovdiv prison was crowded with arrested rebels from the region. The response to these events from all over the world is reflected. Victor Hugo, William Gladstone, Prince Tseretelev, and other eminent intellectuals and politicians, raised their voice in defence of the Bulgarian people. Plovdiv became a seat of the inquiry commission appointed by the Great Powers, in which representatives of Russia, England and USA took part. Eugene Schuyler, an American diplomat, Januarius MacGahan, Special correspondent of the Daily News, and Prince Alexey Tseretelev, Russian vice-consul in Plovdiv, had special merits for disclosing the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria. It is interesting to see in the Hall the writing-desk of Lady Emily Strangford, an English peeress and benefactress of the Bulgarian people, who built ambulances, schools, boarding-houses for victims of the April uprising. Attempts to settle “the Bulgarian issue” in diplomatic way failed, and on April 12, 1877 Russia declared war on Turkey, which remained in the Bulgarian history as the War of Liberation. The Bulgarian army of volunteers, which numbered about 12,000 people, also took active part in the war. The Bulgarian battalions fought in some of the most significant battles: at Stara Zagora, Shpka and Sheynovo. Plovdiv was set free by the army of General Y.V.Gurko on January 16, 1878. The three day battles on the flanks of the Rhodopes which followed, represented the last great combat of crucial importance for the outcome of the Russo-Turkish war. On March 3, 1878 the Peace treaty of San Stefano was signed, which reinstated the Bulgarian state after nearly five century Turkish rule. The show cases exhibit Russian arms and other military equipment, an uniform of the Bulgarian army of volunteers, medals, belongings, and photos of volunteers.
