Historical district Kostina

The historical district Kostina is located some 47 km away from Ribaritsa (Teteven region). Kostina is the place of death of Georgi Benkovski – Bulgarian revolutionary from the National Revival. On May 12, 1876 the leader of the April Uprising was betrayed and killed here. In the falling night he was shot by the waiting Ottoman policemen, while trying to cross the bridge above the Kostina river. He was dead shot and beheaded. The Ottomans washed his head in the Karvavo kladenche (Bloody well), named this way because of the events that happened here, and gave it to the betrayer to carry it. Ten years later Valyo, the betrayer, made a wooden cross, and placed it on where Benkovski was shot. Zachari Stoyanov, another leader of the Uprising and friend of Benkovksi, carved on the beech growing nearby, the initials G.B. The beech was cut down in 1950 when rebuilding the monument of Benkovksi. Each year on May 25 the district becomes a scene of commemorative evens. Actors reproduce the happenings just before Georgi Benkovski died.