The businessman – a local butcher – and two associates recently went to the Kazanlak Chief Architect to ask to renovate the central town garden around the Georgi Kirkov monument. Photo by BGNES
A local businessman in Bulgaria’s central town of Kazanlak is being searched for after he dug up the central town garden in an attempt to find gold under the monument of Georgi Kirkov.
The businessman – a local butcher – and two associates recently went to the Kazanlak Chief Architect to ask to renovate the central town garden around the Georgi Kirkov monument. After stating that they were part of a foundation who wanted to honor the memory of Kirkov by using their own personal money for the repairs, they were given permission to start work.
People living in the area notices strange noises and when they investigated they saw men digging at the foot of the monument which had had a 1,75 meter fence erected round it for the work. They notified the Chief Architect – but by the time the authorities reacted the garden had been dug up and left and the workers had gone. Police have since been searching for the businessman and his associates.
The monument of Georgi Kirkov, a Bulgarian journalist, parliamentarian, socialist politician and union activist, is built on a plot of an old Turkish house which had a marble fountain in the courtyard. When it was torn down in the 1970s workers stumbled upon a ceramic pot with coins, which the communist authorities confiscated, there has been a legend ever since as to what gold may be buried at the site.