"Zagrazhden"  A Pomak Village over Rhodope Mountains,  Plovdiv - Bulgaria  July.2017

The village of Zagrazhden is located in South-Central Bulgaria in Rhodopes mountain and is included in Municipality Banite (Smolyan District). Surrounded by valleys and high mountains, 1000 meters above sea level a settlement at an altitude. The village is at a distance of 55km from Asenovgrad (direction town of Smolyan), 100 km from Plovdiv and 170km from Sofia. The small river Kazanche passes the village. Zagrazhden is enclosed with 3 well-known nature reserves - Kormisosh, Dzhenda, and Slivka. Zagrajden is a town located in the Ahriyan Pomak region, and the inhabitants of the settlement are all of Pomak origin.  (guide-bulgaria.com/sc/smolyan/banite/zagrajden)

I have been in this beautiful village due to the Plovdiv Summer School program. The village, where mining was used in the past, is a place where mostly the elderly population live today. It is possible to see the traces of the communist era at everywhere. Scrapped old trucks in the village, the legendary East German car Trabant clad in small ceramic stones. Villagers taking morning animals to the pasture. Zdravko, who hosted us at his home during our fieldwork and sang nature songs for us when he found out about our wedding anniversary with my wife. Our work coincided with our wedding anniversary, and we had a small congratulatory conversation with him at that time. I explained it when he asked the reason for our phone conversation. He said, "Then I will sing a song for you" and sang a beautiful nature song. Another colleague of mine, the Bulgarian Georgi, translated his words for me. It is possible to see the traces of the communist era at everywhere. Scrapped old trucks in the village, the legendary East German car Trabant clad in small ceramic stones. Villagers taking morning animals to the pasture. Zdravko, who hosted us at his home during our fieldwork and sang nature songs for us when he found out about our wedding anniversary with my wife. Our work coincided with our wedding anniversary, and we had a small congratulatory conversation with my wife at that time. I explained it when he asked the reason for our phone conversation. First, he offered raki which he produced himself, and said, "Then I will sing a song for you" and sang a beautiful nature song. Another colleague of mine, the Bulgarian Georgi, translated his words for me. On the wall of the village mosque, I saw a red star and Bulgarian engraved inscriptions on a marble slab and asked my friend Georgi what it meant. The meaning of the article was "Here on September 2, 1944, was held an action of the guerrilla brigade "Vassil Kolarov" by its units "Raycho Kirkov" - Parvomay region and "Georgi Benkovski" - Assenovgrad region." This plate was showing that the communist guerrillas were active in that area during the 2nd Worl War.