ZVEZDETZ
Zvezdetz (population
843) is situated in the heart of the Strandja mountain.
Megalithic finds prove the existence of a very early
settlement. Preserved are also some Thracian tombs
- the so called dolmens. Isolated or in groups, the
dolmens are made from big unhewn stone slabs, up to
3 m long , 2 m wide and more than 0.5 m thick. At
their simplest four slabs form a chamber and the fifth
one was the lid. Earth and stone were piled over the
dolmens. Regrettably none of the funerary offerings
can be found there any more. In the XIX century Zvezdetz
was a thriving sheep-rearing center with a total number
of sheep exceeding 50000. The population was probably
making good living and some people were really wealthy.
This is proved by the unearthed treasures of Turkish
coins, one of them, the most substantial, comprising
178 silver coins of very high nominal, presently kept
in the Bourgas Archaeological Museum. The coins were
buried during the time of the kurdzhaliii (Turkish
outlaws)raids and attrocities from which the people
of Strandja suffered about the turn of the XIX century.
Zvezdets was the place where the original of the special
Hasekia decree (a tax exemption decree issued by the
Sultan) was kept during the Ottoman occupation. Zvezdets
provides the best access to Petrova Niva, a wooded
valley, where the leaders of the Strandja underground
agreed to launch the Preobrazhenie Rising in 1903
to finally overthrow political dependence from Turkey.
The place is marked
by a monument and each year becomes the site of folklore
concerts and happenings commemorating this historic
moment. There is a story about a beautiful maiden
Byala Mara Stana. The Turkish sultan heard about her
beauty and proposed to make her a wife in exchange
of anything. She consented on the condition that her
freedom should be exchanged for the freedom of all
the land that a raven black horse could cross from
sunrise to sunset. At sunset the horse died of exhaustion
where today the best beach of Kiten is. The bay was
called Atliman (Horse Bay). The amazon had managed
to pass via 17 villages and they all, together with
the fields and commons were proclaimed a free land
by a special decree - Hasekia (the Turkish "has"
means exempt from taxes and "yaka" means
land). It was a free territory indeed, so free that
the Turks had to have their horses' shoes removed
before they entered Hasekia.