The Black Rock
The Black Rock (Cherna Skala) is a natural phenomenon in the Rila mountains, about one hour on foot from Borovets, in the direction of Zavrachitsa mountain lodge. The distance from the summit of the rock to its stony base is about 135 metres forming a gorge with a sheer cliff. Dozens of men were killed here after the 9th September, 1944. They were victims of the new “people’s power” from the region of Samokov and the villages of Iskar and Belchin.
The victims were wealthy people – traders, craftsmen and wealthy villagers from the region – killed without trial and sentence.
After the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, Bulgaria began to talk freely of the men from Samokov who disappeared without a trace in the autumn 1944 (see the article by Georgi Manov, only available in Bulgarian – editor’s note).
Important recollections of the relatives of the missing men have been collected. One of them recalls:
