House-Museum of Colonel Vladimir Serafimov (Serafimov's House) in Svezhen Architectural-Historical Reserve
- Stefan Ivanov
- Aug 5, 2022
- 16 min read
Updated: Jan 21
Once again I am coming back here – to the village of Svezhen!
What a village! What an ending!
So steeped in history! This is how the Bulgarian language was saved!
It is no coincidence that today the place is preserved as an architectural-historical reserve Svezhen or AIR Svezhen.
There's something in Fresh!
It floats through the air...
Noises with the noises of the forest...
Thundering with the roar of storms...
Sings with the romola on Svezhenska Reka...
It creaks with the creaking of the old dilapidated Adjarian houses...
It can be seen on the faces of the people sitting at the tables of the local horemag...
You can feel it in the streets as you step on the worn cobblestones...
Something great, something special, something Bulgarian and native!
It must be the authentic Bulgarian spirit that still inhabits these authentic Bulgarian villages and cannot be felt anywhere else.
Last time I didn't manage to visit Colonel Serafimov's native house, because a great May storm drove me away in a hurry, and now I have to catch up.
I have an appointment with the manager of the place - Mrs. Elka Genova, tourist activities specialist AIR Svezhen. They are waiting for me.
It's a hot sunny August weekday, and I have almost the whole day at my disposal to go around this, hidden in the bosom of the beautiful Sarnena Sredna gora, a Bulgarian jewel, to sink into its history, to talk to the people here, to photograph everything and I'm ecstatic!
Joy has filled my heart and song is pouring out of it! I feel light as a feather!
I park right in front of the monument to Colonel Serafimov.
Opposite is the town hall building (on the left) and the first village community center in Bulgaria, built in 1868, named after the first Bulgarian national artist born here, Hristo Stanchev (Krusev).
Above the monument, the old white building of the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul looms before me. On my previous visit here I was her guest.
A typical summer weekday in Svezhen - people from Svezhen are working in the yards of their houses, there is no one on the streets, the sun is hot, hot, and I am walking around the village with a camera in my hand, wandering through small and narrow streets. My goal is the Seraphim House. That's where I'm headed.
All along the river, all along the river - the road winds now on one side of Svezhenska Reka, then on the other.
Here I am on another bridge and the sought-after fork.
Colonel Serafimov's house - 15 meters
I turn into the narrow alley.
Passing the first house, a high stone wall rises on the left side of the road, and soon I reach a huge wooden gate.
On it I find a square plate with the following inscription:
AIR Svezhen object number 33
Colonel Serafimov's house
I nudged the old door, it swung open heavily, creaking merrily, and I stepped into another great story.
That's what I gave away!
I am here much earlier than the appointed time, but luckily for me the site is open and I have the unique opportunity to look at everything very carefully, to capture every detail, to capture every element, so to speak - to feel the place!
Along the wide path paved with flat stone slabs, I make my way to the old house of the Seraphim family.
To the left of the path are the ruins of the old Adjarian church "St. George".
On the right is the newly built information center, built in 2020.
One of the branches of the trail leads to the old Adjarian cemetery, where the cells of the copyists-calligraphers of the Adjarian Literary School were once located.
I continue towards Seraphim's house.
Seraphim's House
Here is the birthplace of Colonel Vladimir Serafimov – a small, neat cottage, built entirely of black oak.
In this house on August 12, 1860 (according to other sources, on August 23, 1861), the famous Colonel Vladimir Serafimov was born - the Liberator of the Rhodopes, commander of the 21st Srednogorsk Infantry Regiment during the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation.
Seraphim's House is one of the oldest in all of Svezhen. This house is one of the oldest typologies of preserved authentic wooden houses from the Bulgarian Middle Ages during the Ottoman rule and one of the few buildings over 300 years old preserved in our country.
Seraphim's House is a unique architectural and constructional immovable cultural value, a cultural monument with the category "National Significance", announced in the State Gazette No. 86 of 1986.
It remained unaffected by the burning in 1877 of the medieval church "St. George", a famous educational center of that period, in which the Adjarian isographic art literary school operated. An entire school for copying, illustrating and binding manuscripts, also known as the Karlovo-Adjarian literary school, operated here and is the first successor to the Tarnovo literary school.
Walking past the back of the house, one of the huge main supporting beams is visible (they once had excellent timber).
There is not a single nail driven into the main structure of the house.
The restorers have left some of the oak planks, which have grooves in them, and these vertical columns are called kens. The kens have grooves and the oak planks are inserted into each other with profiling.
The way the assemblies were made can easily be compared to a modern 3D puzzle.
The type of construction is typical of houses built between 1750 and 1775, which is evidence of the age of this antique.
The original stairs at the entrance were located to the right of the left window. During the conservation and restoration activities, they were moved to the form in which we see and use them today.
Currently, similar old houses can be viewed and visited in another architectural and historical reserve - Koprivshtitsa - a museum town with exceptional cultural and historical monuments from the Bulgarian Renaissance, as well as in the Bozhentsi Architectural and Historical Reserve and the Zheravna Architectural Reserve.
I climb the three stone steps and am now a guest of Seraphim's house.
Imperceptibly, the old world begins to tell me its story, and I listen to it with amazement, absorbing every word.
A beautiful colorful rug and a white carpet are thrown on the wooden railing to collect sunlight. Later I understand that I am facing a typical Adjarian rug, a valuable gift from a local grandmother who was visiting here with her grandchildren.
There is a rug at home, can I donate it to the house here – she shared.
The rug was woven in 1932. The wool from which the rug is woven is hand-spun and dyed with natural dyes. It was woven on a loom here in Svezhen (actually in Adjara, because until 1934 the village bore that name).
The first room on the right is the living room or so-called room. This room was built during the second construction period of the house.
The dimensions of the room are 3 meters and 30 centimeters by 2 meters and 84 centimeters.
The old door to the room is odaia, propped up by a small three-legged wooden stool.
The room has a plank floor, walls, and ceiling, which is richly ornamented with plank paneling, with carved elements at the end.
Light streams through the windows. Delicate white curtains add elegance to the decor.
The walls are also clad in boards that are connected with elements called shims.
This method of assembly makes it possible to seamlessly accommodate the linear expansions of the wood when it shrinks or expands due to temperature differences during different seasons.
On the floor and along the walls are displayed authentic tools and instruments typical of the era.
The opposite wall is full of cupboards. Here in Svezhen these cupboards are called musandras.
Everything is handmade – both the ornaments and the boards themselves. Everything is smoothed by hand. I put my palm on the wood – it is incredibly smooth.
Here is this simple locking element, shown in the following photo moment, called a knob.
Notice how simple the assembly was – two wrought iron elements with a ring and that’s how it opens. Does this remind you of anything? Of our modern kitchen cabinets or the overhead doors on airplanes.
I’m going to show you and tell you about things that people used three hundred years ago, and we use the same things today, but made with new technology.
In front of me is the unique huge built-in wardrobe – a dream for every lady.
On the one hand, these wardrobes allow you to store piles of clothes, blankets, rugs, blankets, while at the same time the space arranged in this way also plays the role of insulation. Arranged with all the listed home-woven and sewn clothes and blankets, this wide and deep wardrobe perfectly isolates the two adjoining rooms.
This is so practical!
Before I invite you to enter the next room of the Serafim House, I will tell you that here - in this home - the Deacon of Freedom - Vasil Levski, who is related to the teacher Geno Serafimov (1813 - 1877), the father of Colonel Vladimir Serafimov, has stayed here more than once.
The ancestor of the Seraphim family was Spahi Vidul from the Plovdiv village of Kochmalare (today Otets Paisievo), and his brother Spahi Todor, laid the foundation for the family of the Apostle of Bulgarian freedom – Vasil Levski.
Vidul was a violent head, which is why the Turks took his life early.
Rusi, his only son, fled to Adjara with his mother. He bought a house there and started a family. In the middle of his life, his son Stoyko dedicated himself to Christ and went to "St. George the Painter" on Mount Athos. Along with the tonsure, Stoyko took the monastic name Seraphim, giving his name from then on to all his heirs in the family. With him was his older son Georgi, who studied Greek and church singing first in Hilendar, and then in Athens. After accumulating enough knowledge, Georgi returned to the village and became a teacher – the famous Bulgarian Revival activist Daskal Geno.
Why was he called Daskal Geno, since his name is Georgi? Because here in Adjara, the Gjorgevs were called Geno. That is how he was recorded and that is how he remained known – as Daskal Geno.
Adjarians respectfully addressed him as Daskal Geno, not only because of his teaching profession, but above all because of his huge heart and constant willingness to help people. Everyone who could read benefited from his personal library. Daskal Geno financially supported the publication of books by Sava Radulov, Rayno Popovich, Petko Slaveykov, Botyu Petkov, Hristaki Pavlovich and Ivan Bogorov.
Daskal Geno is the father of 13 children, 11 of whom remain alive and well and occupy their own place in life. Among them are teachers, lawyers, priests, community center leaders, officers, rose growers, merchants.
Levski, the third cousin of teacher Geno, really visited this home quite often.
In order not to arouse suspicion from the Turks, i.e. to have a reason to visit here so often, Levski made a fictitious engagement with a local Adjarian girl named Gena.
They say that the children of the teacher Geno have preserved the memory of the frequent visits to their home of an armed monk, as well as of their father's prohibition to get up at night and enter the guest room. From history we know that in his meetings with Bulgarians from Troyan, the Deacon presented himself as a merchant from Adjar.
And here in this house, to provide him with a safe escape route, a hiding place has been made, which leads to a nearby ravine through a secret tunnel, about 50 meters long.
The entrance to the hiding place is behind a small door, disguised as an ordinary door to one of the cupboards. This door is closed from the inside with a wooden latch and becomes like the back of the cupboard, thus it is not visible that there is a secret hiding place.
It is quite dark here.
Just like 300 years ago, there is no electricity in this house today. That is why lanterns have been placed on the ground next to the wall, with which visitors can shine their light to see even the smallest interesting details that this house jealously guards.
The old Svezenci people remember that once, when this old place was an ordinary abandoned and uninhabited ruin – more than 60, even 70 years ago, when they were children, they had a lot of fun here in this house. They used this tunnel during their long, continuous children's games. They did great mischief – from here through the house, along the tunnel and into the ravine. And then their grandmothers – fun!
There is an entrance to the same hiding place from the other room, i.e. an exit to the hiding place was made from both rooms – a kind of safe escape route.
This is not just another closet in front of me – it's the secret door to the other room, but it's made to look like an ornament in the same way as the other closets in the room and visually doesn't differ in any way.
And this here is a peephole – an opening the size of a gun barrel. The barrel is inserted into the opening, the trigger is pulled and it rattles. And from the outside, through a special mechanism – an L-shaped iron, it closes and locks.
There are many such holes on the walls, which are not made by knots, but deliberately drilled.
I bend down carefully, because in the next room the ceiling is low and the thresholds are high, and I step into the next room. This room is called the house.
It was built during the first construction period of the house.
Its dimensions are 4 meters and 28 centimeters by 5 meters and 29 centimeters.
Entering the house with a lit lantern in my hand, because even though it is almost completely dark outside in the middle of a summer sunny August day, I close the door behind me.
Here is the other entrance to the hiding place. During the restoration, this wall with the cupboards was moved very slightly inward. You can see exactly next to which beam the wall was originally located.
The room is made with a clay floor, plastered with mud. There is a corn mat on the floor, and the goat's head is placed on it, the rug is on top, and everyone, lined up next to each other, slept here. This is the room where everything was done.
Here is the hearth where they warmed themselves, the place where they cooked, the place where they ate.
The low table on which food is placed in a single dish is called a paralia.
Until the head of the family breaks off the bread, no one touches the food.
This place next to the hearth is called a corner.
Do you know who slept in this place?
The head of the family slept in this place - the oldest man.
Next to him slept - not his wife, not his dog, but the eldest boy in the family (the family), i.e. the second important figure who will continue the lineage.
These were the two most important figures in the family - the one who takes care of the security and sustenance of the family at the moment and the one who will continue the lineage one day.
Here is the clay sach. In it, typical Adjarian bidis were made, and in some houses they even continue to be made today. This is a mixed dough (it looks like today's pancake mixture, but has nothing to do with our modern pancakes). This mixture is made from flour, water and possibly an egg (but you can also do it without an egg) and a little salt to taste.
The sach is spread with bacon. In the past, when they baked them, many bidis would make something like sugar syrup – molasses and pour it over them to make it a little sweet. That's it!
Now I'll show you two unique things that you won't see anywhere else!
This is a 300-year-old vertical window built into the roof.
An old photo of this roof was found and the restoration was based on it.
This window used to be closed with a wooden lid – a unique sliding 300-year-old ceiling that still functions flawlessly! It's incredible!
It's practical – this way the space for heating is reduced.
I'm not at all surprised that the room is so low. This is Sarnena Sredna Gora and the heating period is very long. In Svezhen, even in the summer, stoves have to be lit. And the lower the room, the easier it is to heat.
I slide the wooden lid, stopping the light from entering the room through the window, and turn off the lantern.
Then I look at the fireplace.
It shines!
It shines, not because some special lighting system was installed today, but because the characteristic wide Adjarian chimney was built above it.
Later, after I climbed onto the extensive panoramic terrace built on the new building of the information center, I looked specifically at the roof of the Seraphim House and was convinced of how large and wide this typical Adjarian chimney is.
I'm thinking. Doesn't this sound like today's ultra-modern aspirations?
And doesn't this whole room sound like the ultra-modern open spaces in our homes today?
Here is the waterplace. Here are the menzi. The water was carried with the keel with the menzi from the spring of the river, where there was some water source.
This is how things happened and there was no no, I don't want, not now.
Their day started very early - in the dark. At noon they had to have lunch.
Do you know what the head of the family did after lunch?
He would go to bed with the words:
Let the bread say – the king eats me, don't be lazy!
Paying homage to bread is one side of this ritual. But when you think about it, it is a kind of healthy moment in behavior, so that after eating you can take the necessary little break, so that the food can be more easily digested.
Their work was associated with hard physical labor. If you start pushing yourself immediately after eating, will you feel good? This is one of the few facts that introduce that healthy element into everyday life.
On both sides of the hearth, two niches are formed, called bezuli. An original architectural solution has been built here – a small wooden windbreak wall. It plays the role of stopping and returning the heat back into the room – from the hearth to the room. At the same time, it forms a corridor area to the other door. This is a buffer through which, when opening the door, cold air does not enter from the other room, which is not heated.
Unique and quite practical!
Today, the architect of the house remains unknown.
It is not known who built the house, but here even today one can see some extremely original and practical solutions, made simply but multifunctional, which are in no way inferior to today's ultra-modern homes.
I step into the next room.
Here are the loopholes – openings in the walls, like in the previous room.
This is the small door leading to the backyard and the stable. The room below was where they kept the small livestock. Originally, the stable was in another part of the house.
This room is called the naturia. This is where they kept their belongings, utensils, and behind it is the barn where they kept the grain. The lid is currently closed. Here are the cottages – everything is wooden.
This room was made during the first construction period of the house.
Its dimensions are 4 meters and 28 centimeters by 3 meters and 28 centimeters.
In this room is the authentically made candle inscription – 1876 and the initials K. G. S.
Experts have deciphered these initials as those of one of the sons of the teacher Geno – Kiril Georgiev Serafimov.
There is another inscription above it – the G and S are handwritten, but the third letter is still disputed.
At one time, there were mainly two methods for long-term storage of products – drying and salting. This was happening in these ducks on the ground in front of me – meat and bacon.
Why am I telling you this?
Because now I will tell you about that famous authentic Adjarian dish that is prepared here – about dried green beans with meat, and this meat must have been from the kache. The meat is taken out of the kache in advance – from one day to the next, to desalt it and then it is cooked.
The name of the dish is:
Васуль на шумки
These pods are still removed today – when the beans are green, they are strung together, then hung, like this – under the eaves in the shade to dry. They remain green. Then the meat is taken out and desalted. Then the dried green bean pods are soaked and when the dish is cooked, garlic cloves, but not peeled, are put inside.
Dear friends, I tried to capture all this on video. I created this short film about my visit to the Seraphim House and now I am sharing it with all of you.
Enjoy watching!
From the Serafimov house, I take one of the built paths towards the newly built Information Center building, erected in 2020.
A large panoramic terrace has been formed above the building, offering a wonderful view.
The idea of this panoramic platform is to enjoy the panorama from above and the entire view to see the house, the ruins of the old Adjarian church "St. George" and the valley of the Svezhenska River.
It is important to note that the entire site is publicly accessible to people in wheelchairs.
At this time, there are no entrance fees!
I would like to express my immense gratitude to the curator of the site – Mrs. Elka Genova, tourism activities specialist at AIR Svezhen!
A huge and heartfelt thank you for the story, for the emotion, for the history, for the experience!
How to get to the Svezhen Architectural and Historical Reserve?
The beautiful Bulgarian Sredna Gora jewel, Svezhen, is a village in Southern Bulgaria, in the Brezovo municipality, Plovdiv district. It is located in the Sarnena Sredna Gora and lies 752 meters above sea level.
By Order of the Council of Ministers No. 55 of November 26, 1987 (Official Gazette, issue 96, 11.12.1987), the old part of the village of Svezhen was declared an architectural and historical reserve, representing the cultural heritage of the Bulgarian National Revival.
The reserve includes 110 separate architectural sites (mainly houses), as well as parts of the general infrastructure.
Five of the sites are registered as cultural values of national importance, the rest are of local importance.
AIR Svezhen is located about 22 kilometers north of Brezovo (about 29 minutes by car).
AIR Svezhen is located:
197 kilometers (about 2 hours and 28 minutes by car) from the capital
65 kilometers (about 1 hour and 20 minutes by car) from the city of Plovdiv
355 kilometers (about 4 hours and 38 minutes by car) from the city of Varna
248 kilometers (about 2 hours and 36 minutes by car) from the city of Burgas
In the nearby surroundings are the huts "Svezhen", "Bratan" and "Kavakliika", Bratan peak, the dams "Svezhen" and "Domlyan" and other beautiful places.
The Svezhenska River flows through the village, and not far from the Svezhen resort there is a mineral spring with a built fountain - "Nevenkina Cheshma".
How do you get to Seraphim's House?
The house-museum of Colonel Vladimir Serafimov (Seraphim's House) in the Svezhen Architectural and Historical Reserve is located by the road, moving from the village of Babek in the direction of the village of Svezhen.
And finally, my dear friends,
you shouldn't miss checking out
the special photo album with moments –
discovered, experienced, filmed and shared with you!
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