10. A Jew hands over the key to the impregnable Tsarevets fortress

All historians are categorical that the Tsarevets fortress was once impregnable and could not have fallen without treachery

“It is also written in the eulogy for Euthymius by Grigoriy Tsamblak,” says Ph.D. Yordan Alexiev from the Archaeological Institute with Museum at BAS.

For three months, the fierce battles for the glorious Tarnovgrad were fought. The inhabitants of the capital defended their city from the hordes of Suleiman Celebi – the son of Sultan Bayazid. Legend has it that just when the Turks had almost surrendered and decided to leave in order to return better prepared, the traitorous Jew appeared.

THE LEGEND OF TREASON

According to legend, Suleiman announced a reward for the one who would help him capture Tsarevets. And he waited. One day someone set fire to the houses in the fortress and while people ran to put out the fires, the traitor let the Turk and his men through the Frankhisar Gate of Tsarevets. The Turks invaded the fortress, looted, dishonored and burned. Streams of Bulgarian blood went to Yantra. Suleiman watched all this, was satisfied that he had captured the stronghold of the Bulgarians and was waiting for them to hand over the main key to the fortress themselves.

When it was all over, the Jew went to Suleiman to collect his reward. Suleiman Celebi, however, said: “As soon as you hand over your own, you will hand over me too” and ordered his head to be cut off.

The decapitated corpse jumped, ran, scrambled over ravines and ravines until it fell into a deep pit full of poisonous snakes. Eagles and eaglets tore the body apart. Since then, this place has been called Kartal Bair or Eagle Peak. Tarnovci also call him Orlovets.

When the Jew was cut down and Celebi passed, the head suddenly shook, the eyes blinked, and, leaving a cloud of dust behind, the head went in search of its body. As she walked around the ravines and ravines, crows cawed and dogs gnawed after her. But she found her body.

The other version of the legend says that when he was cut down, the Jew took his head under his arm and ran away. He ran until he reached a distant and desolate place, and there he fell. This place was Kartal bair. It was called so because only eagles lived there.

The end is the same – because the earth did not want to accept the traitor, many years later the bones remained to be peeled. People passing by said “Damn it!” and threw stones. The pile grew and grew and… according to some of the Tarnovo archaeologists and antiquities researchers, until recently there was a sign on Kartala that proved that the legend was true.

THE JEWS IN TARNOVO

The old explorers Vasil Beron, Mosko Moskov and Karel Shkorpil talk about the existence of a Jewish quarter on the western slope of Trapezitsa. The Jewish cemetery has already remained under the “Trapezitsa” station and according to arch. Teofil Teofilov it was broken when they built the station.

There are two ideas about the graves discovered during the expansion of the meat processing plant in Veliko Tarnovo. According to Nikola Angelov, the large urban necropolis of Tarnovo is located there. Burials were rich, with gold ornaments and tinsel. This proved, according to the archaeologist, who worked in the 1960s, that the burials were Christian.

According to archaeologist Konstantin Totev, head of the Archaeological Institute, and Ivan Chokoev, head of the chemical laboratory at the Regional History Museum, these are exactly Jewish burials.

“However, I think that before making a definitive statement, we should study more fundamentally the manners of the Jews and their burials. That’s why I made an offer to “Shalom” for literature and I’m still waiting for it, says Mr. Andreev.

“10 years ago, together with Ivan Chokoev, while we were working at the necropolis of “St. 40 martyrs”, we came across burials with gold woven textiles. Then we were impressed by Nikola Angelov’s publication in the Yearbook of the Tarnovo Museum. He was talking about graves next to the former “Lion” factory, west of Trapezitsa station. They were discovered during rescue excavations and it is about 20 graves, explains Konstantin Totev.

The two researchers also made several publications and assumed in them that there was probably a necropolis connected to the Jewish rite at the foot of Trapezica. The ornaments found in the graves and the outstretched arms of the bodies gave grounds for such conclusions. However, according to Konstantin Totev, definitive conclusions can only be made after planned and well-secured excavations have been carried out, and on the condition that a synagogue is discovered there. Several times in these 10 years, preparatory excavations were carried out, but regular archaeological excavations were never carried out.

“The late Sonia Georgieva once directed me to these graves,” says the archaeologist and admits that the topic is very interesting. However, their preliminary conclusions will remain only hypothesis without regular excavation.

TREASON IN OUR HISTORY

“Without the betrayals, the story would lose its charm. And in the Bulgarian nature, this is what gives drama”, explains Prof. Dean Yordan Andreev. He also says that in the 14th century the presence of Jews in Tarnovo was very strong. But they were once “the most despised people because they betrayed our God Jesus Christ”.

Sashka Alexandrova, 2009

The photo in the title is illustrative.