Hristo Botev Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The Cache is dedicated to one of the famous Bulgarian poet and national hero - Hristo Botev. It was placed after the Event "Multi-task geocache meeting in Vratza"
Hristo Botev (January 6, 1848 – June 2, 1876) was a Bulgarian poet and national revolutionary. Botev is widely considered by Bulgarians to be a symbolic historical figure and national hero.
Botev was born in Kalofer. In 1863, after completing his elementary education in Kalofer, Botev was sent by his father to a high school in Odessa. While there, he was deeply impressed by the work of the liberal Russian poets of the day.
Botev returned to Kalofer at the beginning of 1867, where he temporarily replaced his ill father as a teacher. In May, during the festivities celebrating St. Cyril and Methodius, he made a public speech against the Ottoman authorities and the wealthy Bulgarians. Botev was pressed into leaving the town as a result.
The whole Bulgarian revolutionary movement was put in danger with the capture of Vasil Levski by Ottoman authorities at the end of 1872. At the time Levski was the indisputable leader of the Bulgarian insurgency. He had established an enormous net of revolutionary committees, supervised by the Bulgarian Central Revolutionary Committee located in Romania, which had the task of preparing the Bulgarian revolutionaries for the future general uprising against the Ottoman rule.
In the beginning of 1876 the Bulgarian revolutionary émigrés in Romania were convinced that a general armed uprising of Bulgarians against Ottoman occupation was imminent. In April 1876 the émigré community in Bechet decided to organize an armed company to cross the Danube and take part in the expected uprising. The organizers (known within the movement as “apostles”) of the planned insurgency in the 3rd Revolutionary District centered in Vratza, who had crossed into Romania to try and solicit additional support from the Bulgarian expat community, met with Botev and convinced him that the planned guerrilla company would be best employed in their area. While busily recruiting and arming fighters they were reached by the news that the insurgency had prematurely started.
At dusk on May 20 (2 June new style) 1876, that a single bullet most probably fired by concealed Ottoman sharpshooter hit Botev in the chest, killing him almost instantly. After the death of their leader and chief inspiration, the company suffered a serious drop in morale and began to disperse. Very few managed to evade capture or death. In all, 130 company members were killed and most of the others captured and imprisoned or executed. This happened at the col of "Vola" summit.
The cache is placed under a stone with moss a few meters away from the place of Botev's execution. On that place there is a stone with sign hammered out on it - "To the Grat Botev. Your prophecy come true - you are alive. 20 May 1876"
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Sbyybj gur qverpgvba cbvagrq sebz gur ybat rqtr bs gur fgbar jvgu fvat ybbxvat sebz vgf uvturfg fvtug.