Bulgarian Sculpture - Possibly first in a series, with commentary and story

I have had the fortune to be able to see a lot of examples of Bulgarian sculptural art, and there is a lot of favourites of mine from Sofia, but I am in Plovdiv now, and there is plenty around, so this morning I spent some time capturing some from mostly Garden of Tsar Simeon ( http://www.visitplovdiv.com/en/node/3118 ).

There is not really much in the way of examples of communist era stuff here, but some I got certainly seem to be in this category stylistically speaking. The garden was built in the late 19th century, so this should not be a surprise. I am quite sure that many of the pieces do not date back to then, however.

A sculpture, but a tribute to a hero of the revolution that led to modern Bulgaria's current independence, Hristo Botev. The text says 'He never dies' (Toy ne umira).

This plaque from beside it has english text that you can read that talks about him.

In Sofia, between the National Assembly and Sofia University there is a sculpture similar to this one, but not made in bronze.

This is more in the modernist style, of which a lot was made during the communist era. You can see that it is a representation of a human hand.

This one is probably even more modern, but I could be wrong. There is a certain style of Bulgarian sculpture which is very abstract. I can only guess that this one is an allusion to the industrial world of today.

Modern Bulgarian sculpture, both communist era and since, has a very dark feeling about it, even magical.

This one I think captures the magick more so than the darkness, yet I think it probably represents a root growing into the ground, rather than a drill. Or something like a tornado.

This one, you can tell, is modern, but it apes the style of Classical era sculpture, but deliberately is very rough.

The two above are examples of more modern, abstract sculpture, just a play on geometry and spaces. These are not exceptional pieces but they are very nice to look at.

This is a sculpture out the front of I think some kind of theatre. I forgot to remember which. This is a very good example of communist era Bulgarian sculpture, with its combination of dark mood, abstraction, and representation. The face represented is that of a famous opera singer by the name of - well, I did manage to catch the english translated plaque underneath - Boris Hristov.

In Garden of Tsar Simeon, according to this sign, dogs are banned. Well, they aren't, if you have them under control, and actually, nobody pays attention to this in fact. However, the parks are absolutely full of cats. I hope sometime to be able to do a series of photos of cats but they can be difficult to catch with a slow photo taking device like a mobile phone.

I am not absolutely certain whether this is ancient, or relatively modern, but it certainly appears to be done in the style of ancient Rome. I would guess it is modern, since the park was only built in the late 1800s. There is a ginormous sculpture up the top of the hill just behind where this is located, and I am sure there is more sculpture for me to see if I walk around the other sides of the hill.

This was the exact place I slept last night, below the rock wall I just showed you. It was ok, I went down only about 2 hours after dark, but once it got to about 5:30am it was too cold for me to be able to resume sleeping, so I got up, and that was when I decided to start making the pictures for this post.

Here is another shot of the same stonework perhaps a little better framed.

Off in the distance, this is just up a path beside the rock wall above, is Mladeshki Hulm, the location I took photos of yesterday.

This is some more, naturalistic abstract sculpture that is in a style that is uniquely Bulgarian. It is clearly a representation of mother and child.

I don't think there was a plaque explaining this one, but it is a traditional Bulgarian violin he is playing, this instrument has a very grating, sharp sound, with metal strings, I once saw one being played in the Tsentralna Gara Sofia by a busker.

This is not sculpture, but a mosaic, and is typical of the Communist era. There is walls decorated similar to this in Sofia also. This one is a mosaic, though, not a relief sculpture as one notable one I know of from Sofia. This mosaic bears the names of this city, (Plovdiv) and Leningrad (St Petersburg).

This is clearly a relatively modern brass sculpture, sitting on the edge of what is clearly a fairly new piece of garden terrace edging. You probably don't recognise it unless you have been to Bulgaria, but this is typical of Bulgarian Gypsies, with the big ears and rough clothes, this one clearly is representative of a Gypsy from possibly the early 20th century or late 19th.

I undoubtedly will post more about sculptures I see, but today, you got to see some of the ones you can find in Garden of Tsar Simeon. I will eventually climb the mountain beside it, and show you that giant sculpture up close.