Three legends are intertwined in the name of today’s “Marno Pole” park. Each legend is a hypothesis about the name of the locality in which, according to old archives, Paulicians or Bogomils lived in the 17th century.
THE LEGEND OF QUEEN MARA
This is a beautiful and sad tale about a girl who saves her country just when Ivan Alexander’s sons – Shishman and Sratsimir – have divided and weakened Bulgaria as a country.
Then Sultan Murad decided to decorate his harem with the daughter of Ivan Alexander and asked for her. He gave his word that the Bulgarians would live in peace if the beautiful Tsarina agreed with him.
In the evening, when the Sultan’s messengers arrived, the whole city was plunged into darkness. Not a single candle was lit in any house, because the Bulgarians were crying for their queen. The next day they ran along the rocky road that led from the main western gate of the Tsarevets fortress and reached the vast meadow of Eagle Peak. There, the sultan’s envoys had pitched tents in anticipation of the Bulgarian woman.
People showered Mara with flowers as she said goodbye to them, to her loved ones and to her homeland. Among the senders was Patriarch Euthymius, who rechristened the queen and swore her never to forget that she was Bulgarian.
The Bulgarian people did not forget Shishmanov’s sister and named after her the place where she said goodbye to everyone – Marino Pole.
THE LEGEND OF THE WIDOW MARA
According to this story, the widow Mara, her son Stoyan and the duke Mircho raised a rebellion. The year was 1700. The uprising did not succeed, its chieftains died and in honor of the widow, the area was named Marino Pole.
THE LEGEND OF THE KILLED BOLLARS
The most tragic legend tells that after the fall of Tarnovo under Turkish rule, the Ottoman conquerors killed part of the city’s elite in this very place. That is why the field is called Marno and its name comes from the words “plague” and “death”.
THE SUNNY PLACE
“The origin, form and meaning of the name “Marnopole” has nothing to do with the name of Tamara – Mara, nor with the later built church “St. Marina”, nor with the death penalty”, Prof. Marin Kovachev is categorical. The local historian and teacher at VTU “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” is convinced that the name arose because of the exposure to the sun and the summer glow of the sun’s rays. “The name of the most beautiful Tarnovo is also semantically connected with our folk terms for areas that are strongly illuminated by the sun, such as: Pripek, Pripechina, Prisoy, Prisoyika, Prisoyina, Prisoynitsa. The local name is based on a root that lies in the words: mara – “what we feel sometimes when something like sleep is pressing on us”, mora, mara, maranya – “summer time, when it is very hot and stuffy, heat, heat , heat, heat”. Marna water is warm, lukewarm water, explains the professor. According to him, a rare ancient Slavic name has been preserved in the name of the park and it is correct to call the area “Marnopole” and not “Marino Pole”. The last name is a late word formation.
MARNO FIELD THROUGH THE YEARS
In the 17th century, Bogomils or Pavlikians lived in the area of Marno Pole. In 1635 they joined the Church of Rome. The field was then a village, writes Konstantin Irechek in “Travels through Bulgaria”. The village was rich in wine, grain, cattle. People had their own church – “St. Trinity”. The houses numbered 200, and the inhabitants – about 860 people.
In a guidebook for Veliko Tarnovo from 1907, it is mentioned that the Marinopol neighborhood was distant from the city and developed as its suburb. It served as a camp and shooting range for the Turkish army. In the middle of it was a Turkish cemetery surrounded by deep ditches. These cemeteries were called “Tokachiiski” after the name of the Ayanine Tokachiya. The ruler was the first to be buried there together with his family.
Information about Marinopole is also present in Felix Kanitz’s travelogue “Danube Bulgaria and the Balkans”. Kanitz describes his visit to Marinopol and the magnificent silk spinning mill, mill and distillery.
“The silk mill was hired and managed by enterprising Italians and Swiss.” Every Friday in Marno Pole there was a market of watermelons, melons, vegetables, birds and wood.
The field gradually became part of the city, and in 1885 residential buildings began to be built there. From 1925 to 1930, about 500 houses were built in the area.
The park began to take its modern appearance in the middle of the 20th century.
In 1954, the construction of the park began. It was formed on an area of about 20 acres and forested with bushes and trees.
In 1955, the construction of the Summer Theater began according to the project of arch. Zhivko Dragomirov. The theater was opened 6 years later.
On July 6, 1957, a bust-monument of Gen. Gurko.
A fountain was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The project is by arch. Stefan Georgiev.
Today, a water cascade extends in place of the neat fountain. There is also a “legend” about her. Specialists and architects, who do not at all approve of this monument of socialist construction, remember that the longtime chief architect of old Plovdiv, when he came to Tarnovo, was amazed. According to him, the park was disfigured, and the concrete with which half of it was filled could have been enough to build an entire airport runway.
Sashka Alexandrova, 2009
