Bulgaria Marks 130 Years since Memorable Shipka Battle

Society | August 21, 2007, Tuesday // 00:00

Bulgaria celebrates Tuesday the 130th anniversary of the memorable battle at the Shipka mount, one of the decisive ones in the Russo-Turkish, which lead to the liberation of the country from 500-year Ottoman yoke.

The fierce battle that took place at the mount of Shipka took the lives of hundreds and, as the poem goes, the desperate Bulgarians, were besieged at the peak for three whole days as the Turks were closing in on them.

The battle was preceded by several others in the area, all of them lead by Suleiman Pasha, who before the Shipka mount battle decided to attack directly instead of making an outflanking movement and use a less guarded route.

The Turks tried for three days to take the peak. The decisive stage of the battle started on the third day, August 23. Around 5 pm the Bulgarians were already out of bullets and shells. The Bulgarians were already exhausted; the whole area was covered with the bodies of the killed soldiers and the situation looked hopeless, when finally the Russian General Radetski arrived at the place with his 53rd Volin infantry regiment.

This last-minute reinforcement helped the defenders to push back Suleiman Pasha, thus cutting his way to the armies of Osman Pasha and Mehmed Ali Pasha. This way the advance of the Turks towards northern Bulgaria was blocked.

To mark the heroic battle of Russians and Bulgarians together, people donated money for building the 31.5-meter-high monument. It was designed by architect Atanas Donkov and sculptor Alexander Andreev. Its official unveiling in 1934 gathered thousands.

A bronze lion keeps guard of the entrance to the monument along with a statue of a woman who symbolizes the victory over the Ottoman troops.

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