A Small Street with Twelve Houses, Draga Sapundjieva, Koprivshtitsa
Posted by maria dimitrova 21-04-2006
My street is one of the many cobbled romantic streets in Koprivshtitsa. It is very short and has 12 houses, some of them hidden behind high stone walls. To get to the houses the owners and their guests have to enter through big wooden gates, with locking mechanisms which are unique to Koprivshtitsa. A small river runs along the street. It murmers during the rainy months and dries up during the rest of the year. A small bridge crosses the river, showing off its curve.
My street remembers the history of many generations and of houses which were built more than a hundred years ago. One of the houses was built by the family of Mihail Gerdjikov, the leader of the Preobrazhen Uprising in Macedonia and Lower Thrace. The house has a wooden chardak (large balcony) and a white cherry tree in the garden. Across from it is the house of Todor Maleev who took part in the April Uprising of 1876 against the Ottomans. It's a real challenge living in a town with so much history!
The houses in my street have always been as many as they are today. But the people who live here the year round are much fewer than they used to be. During the cold winter months only half of the houses are lit up at night, smoke comes out of only half of the chimneys. It's a little sad to see the wooden gates being padlocked after the summer is over. During the winter we keep thinking about the summer when everyone will be back home.
