2005 Danube River Cruise

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Day 21, November 11, 2005 - Arbanasi, Bulgaria
Hiding high on a plateau 2.5 miles northeast of Tarnovo, and overlooking Tsarevets and Trapezitsa to the south, Arbansasi is one of Bulgaria’s most picturesque villages. The origins of Arbanasi have presented scholars with a characteristically Balkan ethnological puzzle. The village’s name led most historians to assume that it was founded by Albanian refugees fleeing Turkish reprisals after a failed 15th century uprising, although this is disputed by modern Bulgarian historians eager to establish the continuity of Slav settlement in the area. What’s beyond doubt is that the people who lived here in the village’s 18th century heyday belonged to the Greek cultural orbit, speaking Greek and giving their children Greek names. The inhabitants grew rich on the proceeds of cattle droving, drying meat for their own consumption and selling the fat to the local Muslims, who considered it a delicacy. The leather was loaded onto caravans and taken east, where it was exchanged for Asiatic luxury goods like silk and spices.
Arbanasi’s merchants invested their wealth in the big, fortress-like stone houses for which the village is famed, but they also endowed churches, chapels and public drinking fountains, turning the village into a lively urban center for the local Christian population, hidden from the eyes of Ottoman-dominated Tarnovo below.
Day 21, November 11, 2005 - Church of the Nativity
Inside you will find richly colored frescoes, dating from the 17th century. The main entrance leads into a long gallery, its ceiling supported by wooden beams decorated with geometric designs and Greek language inscriptions. At the far end of the gallery, the chapel of St. John the Baptist is richly decorated with images of martyred saints and divided into separate areas for men and women to pray. The main body of the church, to the right of the gallery is again divided into male and female sections.
We were not to be taking pictures in this building. It is a long, low building. We enjoyed a church choir of a few hyms before winding our way up the hill to our lunch stop with local music and dancers. This was a long, but very interesting day.
We had another Captain’s farewell dinner, this nite and Romanian folklore music in the lounge after dinner. We sailed for Constanta at 8:00 p.m.

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