The streets in Sinjirli Bunar neighborhood were mired in mud in winter, and in a big pile of dust in summer. There were very few cobblestones. The dumps were the children's playgrounds. They went down them like a slide. At that time there were also many stray dogs.
The neighborhood itself started from the middle of Metropolitan Panaret Street, passed through today's Alexander Malinov Square and reached the pub of Kosta Karaachlia. It is said to have taken its name from a well with a thick chain to which the hook used to draw the water was attached.
In a small street nearby was the building of the former Holy Trinity School. It was an old building, which was bought by the farmer Valko Chalakov and converted into a school where only Bulgarians could study. It also housed the first military school, established immediately after the Liberation. Today it no longer exists and all that is known about it is that it was demolished in 1946.
On the square itself was the pub of Kosta Karaachlia. In the courtyard there was a fountain and a vine trellis, and below them - chairs and tables for visitors. His wedding in 1902 was one of the most talked about under the hills. The celebration was in Ortahan, on the road between Plovdiv and Stanimaka (today's Asenovgrad), and over 80 phaetons were rented for the guests to transport them. It was said that they drank 800 kilos of wine, 100 kilos of rakia and ate an entire small flock of sheep and lambs.
The tavern of Dimitar Diamandiev, ot Boga Mito, known throughout the city, was located on the square, too. Dimitar was the father of the well-known musician and composer Prof. Asen Diamandiev. Writers, journalists, clerks, outgoing workers all gathered there, and it was fun day and night. In the late hours, when the number of visitors decreased, Boga Mito lowered the shutters and no one could go in or out. This is when the revelry started. He set the tone himself, usually with some kuchek. He played like a real gypsy, and his treats were endless.
South of the Bey Medjid megdan (today's Alexander Malinov), curved like an arc to the east was the "gypsy kingdom". In the small houses pressed together, all made of adobe and clay and with only one room, usually lived ten people. Almost all the buildings were painted dark blue. All kinds of rags were hanging on rusty wires and ropes, and the sewage was running nearby. Nowhere in the city were there as many dogs as here. Drunkenness was something normal in the neighborhood, and when there was a wedding, the debauchery knew no bounds.
However, after the outbreak of a smallpox epidemic, the Plovdiv administration decided to move the Roma to a newly created village 2 km east of Plovdiv. About 350 people, mainly from the Bey Medjid neighborhood, were relocated there. It was named the New Village, and later it was called Stolipinovo, after General Stolipin - the deputy of Knyaz Dondukov-Korsakov. We have a text dedicated to him from a few years ago: How was the most colorful Plovdiv neighborhood formed?
The text was created based on information from the book Plovdiv Chronicle by Nikola Alvadzhiev
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