Village of Mezek Svilengrad city

Overview

Mezek is a village in southern Bulgaria with a population of 249 inhabitants. It is located in Svilengrad municipality, Haskovo district. The village of Mezek is located on a flat terrain with an altitude of approx. 170 m in the Thracian lowland at the foot of the Eastern Rhodopes. It is located 10 km west of the municipal center of Svilengrad and 60 km southeast of the regional center of Haskovo.

Mezek was founded 2 km east of its current location in the Orehite area (old name: Yurtishteto) according to old people from the village. In the past the village was called Muzak, which translated by Bogdan Filov means museum. At that time the village consisted of 800 - 1000 houses. It has been the target of frequent attacks due to its location on a busy road connecting Central Europe and the Middle East. Remains found in Mezek testify that it was destroyed in one such attack. After this destruction, the villagers temporarily fled from it and, returning, formed a new village on the eastern slopes of the Eastern Rhodopes. The date of renaming Muzak to Mezek is unknown.

The discovered two Thracian tombs, the popular one near the village and the dome under Sheynovets peak, as well as the impressive medieval fortress nearby give grounds for assumptions that the area has been inhabited since antiquity, but there is no exact information about the origin of Mezek.

South of the village, on one of the first hills of the mountain Gorata (Eastern Rhodopes), is one of the best preserved and largest Bulgarian fortresses. The fortress is medieval and has preserved towers and high fortress walls, enclosing an area of ​​7 acres. It can be reached by a convenient road and on a marked pedestrian and bicycle path. A concrete military bunker was built and covered in one of the corners of the fortress in the 1940s.

In January 1931, the impressive Thracian domed tomb-mausoleum was accidentally discovered in the Maltepe mound, 1 km east of the village. It was studied in the summer of the same year by Professor Dr. Bogdan Filov and Dr. Ivan Velkov and dated to the middle of the 4th century BC. The tomb has a large hive-shaped dome chamber, as well as two pre-chambers. They can be reached along the longest corridor (dromos), in which a permanent holographic exhibition is exhibited, recreating the finds found in the tomb through mirror-reflex holograms.

Below Sheynovets peak and on the ridge of the Gorata mountain (St. Marina), on the border with the lands of the village of Valche Pole and the village of Malko Gradishte, there is another Thracian tomb, the dome of which is built of overlapping squares. It was also studied by Prof. Dr. Bogdan Filov, along with the Mezek tomb. The tomb is reached by the asphalt road from the village of Mezek to Sheynovets peak, and at a left turn on the road, on the ridge of the mountain, a dirt road deviates to the right, passing into a forest path.

The highest peak in the mountain Gorata (St. Marina), the first part of the Eastern Rhodopes, with an altitude of 703.6 m. At the very top there is a monument to those killed in the Balkan War, and at its foot is a large repeater radio and television tower. Around the top are the remains of an old Thracian fortress.

In the immediate vicinity of the village of Mezek is the Katarzyna Estate Wine Cellar, which produces wine with the MEZZEK brand. In the village itself there is also a small boutique winery - Mezek winery, where you can taste authentic local wine. This, and the presence of bungalows and a restaurant, allows for the development of wine tourism.

In the summer of 2006 an eco-trail was marked from the center of the village to Sheynovets peak. Its length is about 7 km. About 6 hours are needed to go and return.