Reisesführer
East Macedonia & Thrace
Captain Petko Мonument in the town of Krumovgrad
The monument was erected in memory of the legendary Thraciam revolutionary Captain Petko Voivoda.The monument represents the hero on a pedestal. The height of the figure without the pedestal is 4.5 meters in full size. It is made of white stone. The sculptor of the monument is Peter Ivanov Dimitrov from Sofia. It was opened on March, 10th 1975.
Petko Kiryakov was born on December 18th, 1844 in the Bulgarian village of Dogan Hissar (now Aisymi), which was located in Western Thrace, present-day Greece. His family was large. The Turks killed his brother and his cousin in front of his eyes and that made sixteen-year-old Petko Kiryakov organize a small group ,with which to fight the Turks in his region. The young man quickly became a defender of the rights of all poor people -Bulgarians, Greeks and Turks. Soon the name of the youngest Rhodope leader passed from mouth to mouth while the bold and unexpected forays of Petko’s groop made the Turkish beys and pashas tremble with fear.
The head of the intrepid leader was estimated at 10,000 pennies, but he could not be captured.
The glory of Petko Kiryakov drifted throughout the Aegean Sea and reached as far away as Greece. In 1864, Captain Petko went to Capri island to seek assistance from the great Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi to aid Cretan rebels. Petko lived in Garibaldi’s home for a few months and they became close friends. ). Garibaldi helped Petko organize the well-known "Garibaldi Battalion" in Cretan Revolt, consisting of 220 Italians and 67 Bulgarians, who heroically fought the Ottomans on Crete. Petko voivoda and the detachments in his command bravely defended the island.. Petko Voivoda again acted as a courageous leader and was assigned to military rank of Kapitan ( Captain).
After the uprising failed, he returned in the Rhodopes and in 1873 created the first Bulgarian - Rhodope detachment called "Defence," which aimed to protect the Bulgarian people and to help its development, both religious and political. Much of the “fines” that Petko imposed on Turkish notables for their iniquities, were donated to churches, schools and given as aid to the poor.
With this detachment Petko was included in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). His unit liberated Maroneia from Turkish yoke in December 1877, and established a Christian government there. For 3 months he fought against the Turks and saved the local population from Turkish molestation. After that he took part in the liberation of the Rhodopes.
Captain Petko Voivoda died in 1900 at 56 years of age.
Captain Petko Voivoda become very famous and people spread the rumour that a bullet could never reach him. Once the Turks prepared to attack a village, but the villagers heard about this and sent a man to Petko Voivode.
Petko said to the man:
- Go now and tell the people that they have to take a bag and make it look like person person and the tie it tie the bell tower. Then you should wall up and leave a very narrow slot in the window,right below the bag.
The man quickly went back to the village and everything was done as commanded by the Petko Voivoda.
Then Petko came to the village and climbed on top of the tower. He was a very accurate shooter. He sat next to the slot and waited for the Turks. When they approached, he shot and hit one of them.
They looked to see where the bullet came from. They beganshooting at the bag because they thought it was a man. They went on shooting for a while and finally decided that it was all over. They wanted to know who shot at them though.
As Petko had instructed, they were told that it was Captain Petko Voivoda and that the village was his.
They were just about to start plundering the houses when they heard the bell again. The next second, a Turk threw himself on the ground because a bullet had reached him. They started shooting at the bag. Nobody saw the narrow slit through which Petko was shooting.
Scared to death, the Turks left. They truly believed that a bullet could not catch Captain Petko Voivoda and never again dared to come close to this village.
His revolutionary work has been commemorated with numerous monuments all around Bulgaria, as well as in his native village in modern Greece and on a hill in Rome, where a monument of Garibaldi also stands.
ADDRESS
Keine Informationen verfügbar.Kontaktinformationen
Keine Informationen verfügbar.
Privacy Policy
Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights - Responsibility of the Site and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace
The content of this portal has been collected and evaluated by each partner of the project (Region of East Macedonia & Thrace, Regional Administration of Smolyan, Regional administration of Kardzhali και Regional Administration of Haskovo) for the area which each partner represents. Each partner represents each region for the implementation of the Action 3.2 "Content Collection" for the approved applitcation form of JTI - TARGET project under "Greece - Bulgaria 2007 -2013" Interreg Call. The content including images, photos, graphics, texts, textures and in general all the data of the portal is in the responsibility of each partner. The content update and upload of each region belongs to each partner which has also the copyright for those content. This means that the content in this portal of all the point of interests of the Region of Smolyan belongs to the Partner Regional Administration of Smolyan. The content in this portal of all the point of interests of the Region of Haskovo belongs to the Partner Regional Administration of Haskovo, The content in this portal of all the point of interests of the Region of Kardzhali belongs to the Partner Regional Administration of Kardzhali, The content in this portal of all the point of interests of the Region of Region of East Macedonia & Thrace belongs to the Partner Region of East Macedonia & Thrace.
Given the nature and the size of the Internet, under no circumstances, including the case of negligence, will the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace is not responsible for any kind of loss caused to the visitor/user of the pages, services, choices and contents of this portal, which one undertakes at one’s own initiative. The portal and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace do not guarantee that the pages, the services, the choices and the contents will be provided non-stop and without errors and that the errors will be corrected, because each content belongs to the Region that belongs. Furthermore, the portal and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace do not guarantee that the servers, through which it is made available to users, do not contain “viruses” or other harmful contents. The Region of East Macedonia & Thrace guarantee the correctness, completeness or even the availability of the contents, pages, services, choices or their results only for its Region, not for the other Regions.
Links to other Websites
The
Portal and the Region of East Macedonia & Thrace do not control the
availability, the content, the personal data protection policy, the
quality and the completeness of the services of other web sites and
pages to which it directs users through hyperlinks. Consequently, for
any problem arising during their visit/use, the user has to address
directly the corresponding web sites and pages, which have the full
responsibility for the delivery of their services. The Portal and the
Region of East Macedonia & Thrace can under no circumstances be
considered to agree with or accept the content or the services of the
web sites and the pages to which it directs users or to be associated
with them in any way.
Applicable Law and other Conditions
The
aforementioned terms and conditions of the use of the Portal, as well
as any modification of them, are governed and completed by the Greek
law, the law of the European Union and the relevant international
treaties (like indicatively and not restrictively the Law 2472/1997 for
the protection of the individual and the protection of personal data, as
completed by the decisions of the Chairman of the Committee for the
Protection of Personal Data, the Presidential Decrees 207/1998 and
79/2000 and Article 8 of the Law 2819/2000, as well as the Law 2774/1999
and the European Law (directives 95/46/EC and 97/66/EC). Any provision
of the above conditions that becomes opposing to the law, it ceases to
apply by right and is removed from the present, without the validity of
the remaining conditions being affected in any case. No modification of
these conditions will be taken into account and will be part of this
agreement, unless it has been officially formulated and incorporated
into it.
