1780 – To be Known How Stoyan from Gabrovo Built the Road and the Bridge

The inscription carved in the rocks next to the ruins of the “old’ bridge over Veselinariver and the road along its right bank (ca. 2 km away from Kapinovski monastery) dates to 1780 AD and attracts attention with its content. This is a traditional type of a text which relates to a particular activity of a particular person. In our case, the inscription informs about the restoration of the road and bridge which once connected the town of Elena with Tarnovo, attempted by a certain representative of the elite group of wealthy men (so-called “chorbadzii”) in Elena. In fact, this is rather important information, since documental evidence for patronage in this period is not very frequent. From this point of view, the builder’s inscription made on the order of Stoyan from Gabrovo in a rock in the so-called Elenski pass, a busy communication in the 18th – 19th c. in the hinterland of Tarnovo, is important as a historical source not only for the region, but also for everyday life in the Bulgarian lands in the last centuries of the Ottoman domination