The
road to Cherven crosses the rocks of the Polomie and leads straight to the
Medieval city – where 12th to the 14th century is a prosperous period for the
city described with active, thriving life and its main role
is to protect the Danube part of the territory of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom from
invaders.
Stepping on
the stones of the path to the fortress, if one closes his eyes and imagines, he
will be sent back in time and feel the urban culture one has once read in books
or watched in expensive movie productions. It is quiet now but the bells of the
churches and monasteries of this hill can still be heard ringing somewhere back
in old times.
However,
it is noisy in the summer because archaeologists are constantly studying the
legacy left by the Cherven Bolyar (the ruler of the city).
Once upon a
time, centuries ago, Cherven (meaning: beautiful, pretty) was extremely
picturesque and was an aristocratic addition to the valley of the Rusenski Lom
River. The inner fortified city is on a high hill and the outer city was at its
foot. There used to be many forests here and when the traveller walked out of
them, a magnificent urban silhouette appeared in front of him, with churches
and dwellings, high and low, large and smaller, amphitheatre buildings that alternated
harmoniously. The feudal castle was
naturally situated in the most representative and inaccessible place and was
very imposing.
The churches built in the style of
the Tarnovo School of Architecture stood above the residential buildings. Two of the sixteen Cherven churches are the largest in
Bulgaria.
They looked like the churches in
Nessebar – with alternation of belts of stone and bricks for decoration, with
rich plastic art decoration and with frescos marking the pinnacle of Bulgarian fine
art. The iron, ceramics, gold, silver and other objects found during the
excavations prove that people with a special sense of aesthetics lived here,
both in their own homes and in the buildings they were constructing. The glory of the city was so great even after its
destruction that all travellers up to Felix Kanitz did not miss to visit it.
If you are tempted by fine
arts, here is a place where you can experience how strong your talent is and
how powerful your imagination. There is a tower, there are
buildings foundations – one just need a hand to lift them up and revive the
canvas.
Here, the spirit of the Middle Ages has cleared its cruelty and has only left
its aristocracy.