The home of madness - Karlukovo

Left: Prohodna Peshtera. Right: Peshtera Kontrabas (Double Bass)

Bulgaria, I.2014

I am hanging on a rope around 40 meters above the rocky bottom of Prohodna. I am not sliding down, but am being slowly lowered, entirely dependent on Hristo and Dayana who are gradually putting me down towards the bottom of the cave. I insisted on being able to photograph on the way, which now seems not such a good idea - one has always this illusive feeling of control of the situation, when he's holding the device in his own hands.

When I'm looking down - through the lens or with naked eye - I realise why Karlukovo is said to attract madmen. Not only because the mental institution located here, but also (or mainly?) because of the caves. It is one of the regions of Bulgaria, that are most "pierced" with holes, over 300 caves of different sizes, from 30-40cm to 50m of height. But in this moment I am thinking mainly about getting my feet safely on the rocky bottom of the cave and not to drop this damn camera in the meantime. The descent stops for several seconds, I don't know why they stopped to lower me, the treaky imagination whispers the darkest scenarios into my ear. I try to flippantly swing my legs to gain some courage and make an attempt to reach the radio, find out what problems do they have up there...

My imagination is running fast, enhanced by the surreal surroundings - the walls covered with rotten-green, rusty-brown and moldy-blue colours. The rocks, which have seen and remember many things. And many people, of which the treacherous human memory has already forgotten.

Euphoric joy and relief come, when at last I land safely on the ground and untie the rope. Lowered down through one of the "Eyes of God" all the doubts stated above - literally - go away..

The Eyes of God - Prohodna Peshtera. Photo: Wiki Commons

The grerat number in the Karlukovo region comes with the great number of more or less real stories and legends. In some silent nights from the last houses of the village a horrendous dog yelp can be heard, made by animals that were thrown into the Dog Cave (Kucheshkata Dupka). The creature driven mad by hunger and darkness whimper for help, finally fighting with themselves for the meat still sticking to the one of "the other one". How much truth is in these stories - cannot tell, but one of the speleologists states that one time he has found a dog in the Dog Cave, blinded from eternal darkness, which he's taken home with himself. Others say, that they've found suspiciously high amount of animal bones... with marks of teeth used in this fractricidal fight for survival.

That's a one more mark made by the madness in Karlukovo region - I think to myself, closing the window in "Peshteren Dom" shelter. With a view on the mental institution on the other side of Iskar River. In the past years there were noted several escapes from the hospital, and caves surrounding it gave a perfect shelter to the patients. One of them is said to even get back to society, trying to find work and start a normal life. But after few months he concluded that "oh no, I am not that mad" and returned back to the clinic...

Bulgarian-Romanian spring greeting

Martenitsas in Veliko Tarnovo, August 2013

It is year 680, just a year after Bulgarians have arrived in the Danube Delta from what is now Ukraine. After they've established a fortified camp on Peuce island, worried Byzantine emperor Constantine IV sets off with a land army and a fleet to prevent the forecoming invasion. Bulgarians under the command of khan Asparukh are defending themselves on Peuce, while Byzantine emperor's health suffers from the swamp climate, so he leaves the siege. The rumors spread in the army, that emperor has fled, soldiers start to panic and desert. Khan Asparukh pursues the army and wins the battle of Ongala. To deliver the news of victory to the main camp, he send a pigeon with white threads tight to its leg. The pigeon gets wounded by an arrow, but heroically arrives to Peuce with white threads stained with its own blood.

What does it have to do with the spring? It is one of given (by Bulgarians, of course) origins of the tradition of Martenitsas (rom.Mărţişor), which can be found in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and northern Greece. In the first days of March people give each other bracelets and adornments made of white and red yarn. The receiver should wear them on hand or attach them to their close and keep them until the first signs of the spring - blooming birch tree or a stork coming back from the south. Some also add seeing a swallow, but one swallow doesn't make a summer, does it?

What has to be done after first signs of warmer days are spotted - you need to take off the bracelet and hang it on the blooming tree, sharing the happiness and health that you were experiencing during the period you were wearing it. Another option is to put it under a stone and checking after few days if there is some insect underneath. If it's a larva then we'll find happiness in the forecoming year. If it's ants we still will find our luck, but must work hard for it. Worse omen is when we find spiders underneath...

A good year, but also some short-term bliss is provided by one of the Romanian versions of martenitsas - where they are in form of necklaces with a coin attached. After seing a sign of the spring you have to trade the coin for red wine and white cheese (colours of martenitsa) and consume them due to temporary and future happiness.

The custom of martenitsas is widely connected to Baba Marta (rom. Baba Dochia), grumpy and moody old lady, personificating coming spring. Martenitsas are worn to plead the old lady and bring on the warmer days.

As one of the Romanian legends tell, the son of Baba Dochia, Dragobete, married a girl against the will of his mother. Angry and evil gammer sends her daughter-in-law to wash a piece of a dirty wool in the mountain river, and return only when it turns white. Though cunning lady gives her not dirty, but black wool. Desparate and freezing girl stars to cry, when a bearded old man appears (a God in disguise) and hands her a red flower, adising her to wash the laundry with it. The wool turns to white and happy girl comes back home to her husband. After hearing the tale Baba Dochia thinks that the spring came - hence the man had fresh flower. She takes her herd and wearing 12 coats sets of for the mountains. It gets warmer on the way, so she gradually leaves coats behind, but the tricky March weather turns around and evil Baba Dochia freezes.

Another Romanian custom tells about 9 coats, which were taken off by Baba Dochia. The coats stand for the first days of March - from 1st to 9th. In the end of February women choose one of these nine days as an omen - the weather that will come on this day will mark their happiness in the forecoming year.

The origins of the whole martenitsa and Baba Marta/Dochia celebrations aren't clear - are their Roman (since 1st of March was devoted to Mars), Tracian or other. The truth probably lays in the middle, with each culture contributing a bit in its own way, but these is why the folklore connected to the coming of the spring is so reach. And I hope the recepies will turn effective!