KALIAKRA LIKE A FREE BIRD

-text and photos Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

When I went to north-east Bulgaria (21-22 May 2016)
a mysterious Sun made me a special invitation.

So after a short relaxation on the fine beaches
of the Bulgarian resorts (Albena and Golden Sands) on the Black Sea Coast…

…I visited a small peninsula, Kaliakra,
where in the 14th century
Despot Dobrotitsa
made the Capital of the Despotate of Dobruja
(former part of the Second Bulgarian Empire,
which is shared between Romania and Bulgaria today).

But, after him,
the Ottoman conquest of Dobruja left this peninsula in rack and ruin.

Now Kaliakra is a beautiful attraction for tourists, preserving
the memory of the 40 Maidens
who preferred to commit suicide to not become prisoners of the Ottomans,
and the chapel dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron of the seamen,
whose grave is supposed to be here.

Kaliakra, a small Bulgarian peninsula today,
initially lived by Thraco-Geto-Dacians,
then conquered for various times
by the Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman empires,
and by the Kingdom of Romania
(which claimed historical priorities)
before the beginning of World War I…

And, since in Kaliakra a relay transmitter was built in the 1980s,
I wondered if it catches signals sent from the heavens
by the spirit of Dobrotitsa…

Or by the spirit of Mircea the Elder.
the “voievod” and “domnitor” of Wallachia who, soon after 1400,
tried to remake the Christian rule over Kaliakra,
conquering it for a few years from the Ottoman Empire…

Kaliakra, although you are ruined,
I hear you telling me
That you feel like a solar bird.
Always free!