Department for External Church Relations
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The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church conducts memorial service at Shipka Pass
Communications Service of the DECR, 23.08.2022.
On 21st August the rector of the metochion of the Russian Orthodox Church in Sophia archimandrite Vassian (Zmeyev) conducted a memorial service at the memorial to the heroes of Shipka who participated in the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation from 1877 to 1878.
On day of commemoration of the defense of the Shipka Pass, Russian diplomats, compatriots and representatives of Bulgarian public organizations went up to the peak of Shipka in the mountains of Stara Planina in Bulgaria in order to venerate the memory of the fallen heroes.
In his address to those gathered, the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria Eleonora Mitrofanova thanked all those present at the site who had come to venerate those who had given their lives for Bulgaria’s freedom and for the Bulgarian people.
The website of the metochion reports that archimandrite Vassian conducted a short memorial service in memory of those Russian and Bulgarian soldiers who had fallen at Shipka.
The Russian ambassador, diplomats, compatriots and representatives of Bulgarian public organizations laid wreaths and flowers at the monument to Freedom.
The Shipka monument – the monument to Freedom – was erected on the peak of mount Stoletov, named in honour of one of the heroes of the defense of Shipka General Nikolai Stoletov. The monument was built on public subscriptions and opened on 26th August 1934.
The Battle of Shipka between the defenders of the pass and the Turkish army lasted from 21st to 26th August 1877 (according to the new-style calendar). Stoletov headed a detachment of six thousand Russian soldiers and seven and a half thousand Bulgarian volunteers. They resisted the troops of Suleiman, who numbered some thirty-seven thousand. The defenders of Shipka, however, repelled all attacks and retained the strategically important position.
Around eleven thousand people died at the Battles of Shipka, to whom the monument to Freedom was erected.
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