Union of Bulgaria

UNION OF BULGARIA

Chartering new club in Ruse

1-4 June, 2013

Dear Soroptimists Sisters,

We kindly invite you to chartering new club in Russe, Bulgaria. Please save the dates –

1-4.June.2013 in your calendar!

Preliminary program:

1. June.2013 Saturday:

Arrival, transfer to Cosmopolitan Hotel, Russe

20.00 Welcome party

2. June.2013 Sunday:

10.00 – 13.00 : Guided sightseeing tour of Russe, lunch included

16.00 – 17.30 : Meeting with members of new club

17.30 – 18.00 : Transfer to the Museum of History

18.00 – 19.00 : Official ceremony of chartering new club

20.00 : Union Dinner

3. June.2013 Monday:

10.00– 11.00- :Guided tour round of House of Kaliope

11.30 – 13.00 : Wine tasting in famous Bulgarian vinery LEVENTA

and return to the hotel.

14:30–17:30 :Visiting historical places:Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo,

rock monastery - "St. Dimitri Basarbovski ", Cherven.

19:00 : Dinner in Bulgarian folklore restaurant

4. June.2013 Tuesday:

Departure.

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Cost: Full program between 1 - 4 June

per person in a double room in Cosmopiliten Business Hotel 3 nights 90 Euros,

one person in a single room -3 nights 120 Euros,

Registration procedures will be announced soon.

Included :

Hotel Accomodation for 3 days in Hotel Cosmopoliten 4*

City tour

Vinery Leventa

Visiting historical places

Kaliona hous

All Transfer Services

Welcome party, two dinners and a lunch

Full package: with hotel - 240 euro * double rom

270 euro * single room

Contact: Lyudmila Dimitrova

e-mail:

Dimitrina Varbanova

e-mail;

Rouse

Ruse is a major port city on the River Danube in northeastern Bulgaria. It is the administrative and economic center of Rousse District. The town is an important transport, economic and cultural center in northern Bulgaria with a population of 149642 inhabitants is the fifth largest city in the country and the second largest in Northern Bulgaria after Varna. In the regionis locatedrefinery of “Prista Oil” and “Danube bridge” - the only bridge on the Bulgarian-Romanian border on the River Danube.

Ruse is often called "Little Vienna" because of architectural monuments, which are represented styles Baroque, Modern, neoclassical and art nouveau. Here are the Pantheon of National Revival and the National Museum of Transport.

The Kaliopa House, a popular name for the Bulgarian"Urban lifestyle of Rouse" museum was built in 1864. According to a legend, the house was bestowed upon the beautiful Kaliopa (born Maria Kalish), the wife of the Prussian consul Kalish, by the governor of the Danubian Vilayet, Midhat Pasha, who was in love with her.

The facade's design resembles the style of houses in Plovdiv. The frescoes at the upper floor were crafted in 1896. The exposition represents the role of Rouse as a gateway towards Europe, and the influx of European urban culture into Bulgaria at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Sample interior layouts are shown, of a drawing-room, a living-room, a music hall and a bedroom, with furniture from Vienna, as well as collections of urban clothing, of jewelry and other accessories, of silverware (cutlery) and china, which mark the changes present in the daily life of Rouse citizens. The first grand piano, imported into Bulgaria from Vienna, can be seen here.

Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo

The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo (Bulgarian: Ивановски скални църкви, Ivanovski skalni tsarkvi) are a group of monolithic churches, chapels and monasteries hewn out of solid rock and completely different from other monastery complexes in Bulgaria, located near the village of Ivanovo, 20km south of Rousse, on the high rocky banks of the Rusenski Lom, 32 m above the river. The complex is noted for its beautiful and well-preserved medievalfrescoes.

Ivanovo rocks near the church complex

The caves in the region had been inhabited by monks from the 1220s, when it was founded by the future Patriarch of Bulgaria Joachim, to the 17th century, where they hewed cells, churches and chapels out of solid rock. At the peak of the monastery complex, the number of churches was about 40, while the other premises were around 300, most of which are not preserved today.

Second Bulgarian Empire rulers such as Ivan Alexander and Ivan Asen II frequently made donations to the complex, as evidenced by donor portraits in some of the churches. Other patrons included nobles from the capital Tarnovo and nearest big medieval town Cherven, with which the monastery complex had strong ties in the 13-th and 14-th century. It was a centre of hesychasm in the Bulgarian lands in the 14th century and continued to exist in the early centuries of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, but gradually decayed.

The monastery complex owes much of its fame to 13th- and 14th-century frescoes, preserved in 5 of the churches, which are thought of as wonderful examples of Bulgarian mediaeval art. The rock premises used by the monks include the St Archangel Michael Chapel ("The Buried Church"), the Baptistery, the Gospodev Dol Chapel, the St Theodore Church ("The Demolished Church") and the main Church, with the 14th-century murals in the latter one being arguably the most famous of all in Ivanovo and noted as some of the most representative examples of Palaeologan art. Many century-old inscriptions have also been preserved in the monastical premises, including the famous indented inscription of the monk Ivo Gramatik from 1308–1309.

The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo were included in the UNESCOWorld Heritage List in 1979.

There is Bulgaria's only active rock monastery - "St. Dimitri Basarbovski ". He is cared for and well maintained. It has a beautiful landscaped garden, full of flowers and fruit trees. The path that goes through it will take you to the well carved by St. Demetrios, it is believed that the water in it is healing. At the foot of the cliffs, there are two dining rooms. From there, 48 steps lead to a site where there is a niche in which he slept St. Demetrius.

One of the most important towns in the Second Bulgarian Empire existed near the village and was also called Cherven. During its heyday between 12th and 14th centuries, it was one of the largest commercial and military centres in the region. It was fully destroyed after the

Also there's a rock church carved iconostasis. In the other two steps leading to the cave where the bones were placed on the deceased monks. After a while they moved and the room is transformed into a museum collection. legend of St. Demetrius Basarbovski states that he was born in the village Basarbovo and led a modest life. He decided to monk at a nearby monastery to the village and there spent his entire life. It is said that he died between two rocks to the shore of the river Lom. When the river after torrential rain dragged him under the sand, he appeared in the dream of a blind girl and pointed where you are located. When the locals found it, the body was intact. They moved to the village church and from that moment began to happen at different miracles. Today, the relics of St. Demetrius is kept in the Cathedral "St.St. Constantine and Elena"in Bucharest.

Cherven