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A stroll through more of the Marais
The Place des Vosges must be one of the most beautiful corners of this beautiful city. Like the Place Dauphine it owes its existence to the city planning ambitions of Henri IV. It was laid out as an elegant residential square where the upper echelons of Parisian society could live and socialise. Much has changed since then, not least due to the Revolution, but it remains as elegant as ever.
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Koprivshtitsa: a Bulgarian time capsule
Koprivshtitsa is no ordinary town but rather a time capsule. Several of its houses are associated with significant players in the 1876 April Uprising against Ottoman rule. The uprising failed, but a fire had been ignited. The brutalities committed by the Turks while suppressing it led to widespread condemnation across Europe which was the trigger for the Russo-Turkish War. This ended in Turkish defeat. Thus the April Uprising can be regarded as having eventually achieved its original aim, the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire.
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A postcard from Sofia
Is it ever OK to be late? It’s something I try my very best to avoid, but occasionally it can be a good thing, as in the case of Boris III of Bulgaria. This is the Hagia Nedelja church. The previous church on this spot was destroyed in a terrorist plot in 1925 to assassinate the king, Boris III. He was attending the funeral service of General Konstantin Georgiev, who had been killed in an assault two days previously, on 14 April of that year. The group from the Bulgarian…
