Brashlyan (, '

ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to Western Europe, Central Europe, Southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern ...

') is a village in Malko Tarnovo Municipality, in

Burgas Province Burgas (, formerly the Burgas okrug) is a province in southeastern Bulgaria on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. The province is named after its administrative and industrial centre, the city of Burgas, the fourth biggest town in the countr ...

, in southeastern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. Known as ''Sarmashik'' until 1934, today the entire village is an architectural reserve displaying characteristic

Strandzha Strandzha (, also transliterated as ''Strandja'', ; , or ) is a mountain massif in southeastern Bulgaria and East Thrace, the European part of Turkey. It is in the southeastern part of the Balkans between the plains of Thrace to the west, th ...

wooden architecture from the mid-17th to the 19th century. Brashlyan lies in the low Strandzha mountains of Bulgaria's southeast, northwest of Malko Tarnovo, south of

Burgas Burgas (, ), sometimes transliterated as Bourgas, is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, fourth-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, an ...

and from the Bulgaria–

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

border. The village traces its foundation to the 17th century when the residents of the Yurtet, Selishte and Zhivak neighbourhoods settled in the Lower Neighbourhood of Brashlyan. The village was mentioned in Ottoman tax registers of the mid-17th century as part of the district of Anchialos (

Pomorie Pomorie ( ), historically known as Anchialos (, ), is a town and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, located on a narrow rocky peninsula in Burgas Bay on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is situated in Burgas Province, 20,5 k ...

) and grew into a major centre of

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, animal fiber, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising ...

by the 19th century. The old name ''Sarmashik'' was from

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish (, ; ) was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian. It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet. ...

''sarmaşık'' and had the same meaning, "ivy". Brashlyan church

The Sarmashik Affair, a predecessor of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, took place in Brashlyan in 1903. A band of the Internal Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Revolutionary Organization was surrounded by Ottoman troops in the Balyuva House on 2 April; the band leader (''

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

'') Pano Angelov and the member Nikola Ravashola were killed by the Ottomans. The locals also participated in the actual uprising. According to Lyubomir Miletich's demographic survey of the Ottoman province of

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

in '' The Destruction of Thracian Bulgarians in 1913'', published in 1918, before the wars Sarmashik (Сармашикъ) was a village in the district of Malko Tarnovo inhabited by 150 Bulgarian Exarchist families. The village became part of the

Kingdom of Bulgaria The Tsardom of Bulgaria (), also known as the Third Bulgarian Tsardom (), usually known in English as the Kingdom of Bulgaria, or simply Bulgaria, was a constitutional monarchy in Southeastern Europe, which was established on , when the Bulgaria ...

in 1913, after the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans, Balkan states in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan states of Kingdom of Greece (Glücksburg), Greece, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Montenegro, M ...

. Since the mid-20th century, many local residents have moved to Burgas or Malko Tarnovo. From a population of 650 in 1926, the village's inhabitants have decreased to around 50 by 2008. In 1982, Brashlyan was proclaimed an architectural and historical reserve. 76 local houses from the 18th–19th century are cultural monuments, of which nine are of national importance. The oldest house dates to the mid-17th century and is still inhabited. The monastical school (working in 1871–1877), the St Pantaleon, St Petka and St

Marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

s and the 17th-century

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

of the St

Demetrius Demetrius is the Latinization of names, Latinized form of the Ancient Greek male name, male Greek given names, given name ''Dēmḗtrios'' (), meaning "devoted to goddess Demeter". Alternate forms include Demetrios, Dimitrios, Dimitris, Dmytro, ...

Church have been restored by a local association; an

ethnographic Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

collection and an

open-air museum An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings" ...

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

were set up as well. There are traces of

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

sanctuaries and

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

s several kilometres from the village. Brashlyan is part of the

Strandzha Nature Park Strandzha Nature Park ( ''Priroden park Strandzha'', also transliterated as Stranja Nature Park) is the List of protected areas of Bulgaria, largest protected area in Bulgaria spanning a territory of in the Strandzha Mountain in the extreme sou ...

. The village's territory borders that of the Vitanovo Reserve, the Veleka river valley and the

trout Trout (: trout) is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the ...

breeding pool on the Katun River. The village's fair is organized annually in early August, usually around the 8th, and lasts two days. Brashlyan is mentioned in the "Strandzha

Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. It was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by the First French Republic against Austria, and was originally titled "". The French Nati ...

", the song ''The Clear Moon is Already Rising'', written by the leader of the Lozengrad revolutionary district Yani Popov:

Gallery

File:Bulgaria-Brashlyan-01.jpg File:Bulgaria-Brashlyan-02.jpg File:Bulgaria-Brashlyan-03.jpg File:Bulgaria-Brashlyan-04.jpg File:Bulgaria-Brashlyan-05.jpg

Honours

Brashlyan Cove in Smith Island,

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named after the village.

References

* * *
The Forest Front - Граница в гората - about the Village (youtube.com)
{{Malko Tarnovo Villages in Burgas Province Open-air museums in Bulgaria Strandzha