ABOUT THE TOWN OF LYASKOVETS
The town is situated in the beginning of the Fore-Balkan (Elena Balkan), eastern from the Arbanasi ridge, under the cliff upon which is the monastery
St.St.Peter and Pavel, 10 km north-east from
Veliko Tarnovo, 2 km south-east from
Gorna Oryahovitsa and 5 km south from
Yantra River. Lyaskovets is on an inclined plane at 192-256 m above sea level. It is opened to east and north to the valley of
Yantra River.
HISTORY
The name of the town comes from the hazelnut tree (leshnik or leska) (Coryllus avellana), which was typical of the region in the past, but at present time only a few are left. An earlier sound of name was Lyaskovitsa that later became Lyaskovets. The first theological school in Bulgaria is opened here too. Today's location of the town is set about XVII century. There are different versions for that or earlier origination but the lack of historical sources does not allow the affirmation of most of them. Lyaskovets is formed like settlement consisting of five hamlets named after their churches: “St. Atanas”, “St. Vasil”, “St. Georgi”, “St. Dimitar” and “St. Nikola”. The hamlets were formed at different times, mainly by different settlers, and then joined one another. East of Lyaskovets (Broda area) there was the village of Chertovets, that migrated in the 90's of XVIII century because of the often raids of Ottomans, kurdjali and others. Its habitants settled in the east end of Lyaskovets (St. Georgi hamlet), which is still called Chertovets by the natives. Even joined by this way Chertovets remained distinct municipality in the time of the Turkish rule.
In Lyaskovets sojourned Vasil Levski and G. S. Rakovski. A house used by them and other revolutionaries belonged to Marin Stanchev and was in the Cherkovskata mahala. It was some kind of inn. Lyaskovets was promoted to town in 1880 by "prescription" of the Tarnovo region chief. At that time major of Lyaskowets is Valcho V. Barzakov and the story about promoting of Lyaskovets to town is connected with him and other famous citizens. According to it the teacher Gancho Lavdov was entrusted with this care. He deleted the letters "elo" from the word "selo" (selo=village) on the municipality stamp, and the letter "s"("c") he changed as "g"("г", grad=town).
One of the most disastrous events in the history of Lyaskovets is the earthquake from 1913. Most of the brick buildings in the town are ruined. All the five churches and other public buildings are ruined.
LANDMARKS
The churches of Lyaskovets make impression - in the small town they are five, not including the monastery
St.St.Peter and Paul. Except for the characteristic for region large number of churches and monasteries, the basic reason for this is the step-by-step forming of the town by immigrants and near villages or hamlets. The churches are:
- The St. Atanas church: The oldest known church at this place was burned down by the kurdjali in the end of XVIII century. Probably it was restored after that because there is available information about it from 1823. The first theatre performances in Lyaskovets also happened here. After the demolition of the church by the earthquake in 1913 a temporary one was built and over the foundation of the ruined one was built the present church in 1927 with money collected by the citizens.
- The St. Vasil Church: The first building of this church was built in 1866, till that time the St. Vasil hamlet was part of St. Atanas hamlet. Before the church at this place there was a small building built in 1856 that was used for school. The disastrous earthquake in 1913 ruined down this church too. It was restored in 1914 by Yorgo h. Yankov. In 1934 the bell tower with town clock was built with money given by Dobri Ganchev.
- The St. Georgi church: The church is in the Chertovets hamlet that was considered as a separate village until the Liberation. The old church was built in 1847. Some time later it was demolished and its place was sold.
- The St. Dimitar church: The old church St. Dimitar was demolished on 17 of June 1856 and the building of the new one began on 21 of April 1857 at the same place. The work continued seven years and cost 180000 stivers. Materials from the demolished in 1856 church St. Troitsa were used. It was the first church in Lyaskovets and was in the first inhabited area.
- The St. Nikola church: The present building is the third one built at this place. The first building about which there is available data was in the yard of the present one and was built in 1808. There was a school in that church. In 1844 in the churchyard was built a school and later at its place was built the first building of "Napredak" community centre. In the south part of this yard was the town clock which tower was built in 1866.
The monastery
St.St.Peter and Paul is built on a rock in the east end of the Arbanassi plateau, at 439 above the sea level. It is located at the distance of 1,5 km. to the south of Lyaskovets.
Description
