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USTINA - A SUCCESSOR OF THE BESSI
The village of Ustina is situated 26km away from Plovdiv at the foot of the North Rodopi Mountain near the deeply connected with our history settlements like Perushtitsa and Krichim, Bratsigovo and Peshtera.... Although being at the foot of the Rodopi Mountain, the altitude at which the village is situated is only 495 m. The climate here is mild and pleasant and this is why the life continues for millennia. One of the oldest written evidences of this village dates as far back as the time of tsar Ivan Aleksandar, who in year 1344 managed to gain back from the Byzantines a whole number of fortresses at the north slopes of the Rodopi Mountain - „Plovdiv, Stanimaka, Tsepina, Krichim, Perushtitsa, Sveta Ustina (at the today's villages of Ustina, Beadnos and Kosnik". But most often the name of Ustina, as well as many other settlements of this region, is connected with the Thracian tribe of Bessi and their capital Besapara.
The past millennia haven't spared over the ground almost anything from the material culture of the proud Thracian tribe of Satri and their priestly-caste - the Bessi. Herodotus describes them as an aggressive tribe with a spirit of independence, who declined to participate in the march of king Xerxes against Hellas and assumed the hard mission of guarding Dionisus' sanctuary.
Where exactly was Besapara? Petko Slaveykov, the great Bulgarian writer and social figure, loved to travel around the antique places looking for sings of our past. In 1882 he started writing an article from which he published only the beginning - "Something about Vissapara". In it he denies the hypothesis of Tsukala, a Greek from Plovdiv, that the Thracian town of Besapara was situated west from Pazadzhik, as well as the opinion of St. Zahariev, that it was situated by the village of Batkun. Petko Slaveykov expresses the opinion that Besapara laid by the village of Pastusha (bellow the villages of Ustina and Perushtitsa). Most of the reasons for this assumption he left to be stated later, but he couldn't finish his article, because all his notes were burned during a fire. Slaveykov explains the famous phrase "Beshafara", which was identified with "Besapara", stating that it was used not only in the region of the village of Batkun, but also in many other places in Bulgaria. It could be heard also as "besh i afara", therefore has to be treated as a derisive collocation of the Bulgarian word "bezh" (pronounced "besh", meaning "quickly") and the Wallachian word "afara" (out).
There is no proof for the reasons of those speculations of Slaveykov, but it is a fact that the name of Besapara is met on a map of Ortelius from the 16th century together with towns of the rank of Serdika, Philipopol, Adrianople etc. This suggests that it wasn't just a small village. In these maps, that Ortelius prepares using old Roman guide-books, Besapara is mentioned along with other road stations like Lissas, Bagaraca, Cillae, Opizum and Burdipta, the names of which sound Roman.
On every step around today's Ustina you can feel the spirit of its ancient ancestors. It is situated near the Roman road connecting Philipopol and the Aegean, remains from which are preserved in many places. It is the third transcontinental road, which was finally completed at the reign of Emperor Trayan (98-117). It was beginning from Pannonia (Hungary) and Dacia (Southwest Romania) and was crossing the Danube at Oescus (southwest from the village of Gigen, the county of Pleven). From there, by the villages of Riben and Plene, it headed to Hemus at the Troyan Pass to Thrace and Philipopol. It continued across the Rodopi Mountain and headed to the Aegean to the major road of Via Egnatia.
In the village of Ustina are discovered pillars with a great diameter and a few tombs, our inheritance from the glorious past of the Bessi. There have been discovered the remains of the foundations of ancient buildings that have remained under the ground, a lot of coins and earthen jars, which are now kept at the Archaeological Museum in Plovdiv.
The Hisarlaka Fortress. Near the village of Ustina are the remains of the main Fortress of Hisarlaka. The fortress was used as a refuge at the naturally fortified mountain places and peaks with difficult access. The walls are built from rough broken stones without soldering and follow the terrain's outlines. The fortress was guarding the strategic roads and passes. The Thracian word for fortress is "kula" or "bria" - a residence, protected by guards and garrison.
In the village of Ustina have been discovered pillars with a great diameter and a few tombs, our inheritance from the glorious past of the Bessi. In the '90s of the 20th century in this region about 32 Thracian tumuli have been plundered and destroyed and their valuable finds of high historical and archaeological worth have been vandallistically scattered
There have been discovered the remains of the foundations of ancient buildings that have remained under the ground, a lot of coins and earthen jars, which are now kept at the Archaeological Museum in Plovdiv.
 The Byzantine Fortress of Yustina was one of the most important for the protection of the north slopes of the Rodopi Mountain. It was often mentioned in the chronicles of the Byzantine historians. On its place before there has been a fortification of the Bessi. Later on this place Emperor Justininan built the new more powerful fortress for control of the area. Yustina is situated in the immediate vicinity of the ancient town of Dragovets and certainly has played an important role in its protection. The fortress includes one of the biggest and the most beautiful rock towers in the Rodopi Mountain. The top of this tower can be climbed only from the side of the inner court of the fortress. A part of the mortared walls are preserved at the down side of Yustina.
An interesting site to visit is the Heron in the area of Babata. This installation is situated on a hill with an excellent view of the Besapara Hills and the places of massive tumili, the biggest of which is 10 meters high. The Heron is a ring with 30 meters diameter with 85cm wide walls built from stones. Near the very installation can be seen the foundations of a building, the walls of which are soldered with mortar. Few hewn into the rock rectangular holes still could be seen in the very foot of the Heron.
 The Red Church. The Red Church is one of the most impressive architectural sites from the epoch of the Ecumenical council of the Reconciliation in 343 A. D. Today its ruins rise in the field at about 15 km southwest from Plovdiv, close to Perushtitsa. Some of the church's ruins are quite high, so exact reconstruction of what it used to be like could be easily done. The central and highest part of the church is the four-semi-domed hall, whose huge dome is highly erected and could be seen from afar. The symmetry of the building is cut by the two additional sections on the south and north. The north section had a pool covered with pink marble. This where the christening took place, before the newly baptized Christian could walk into the inside section of the church. The very place at which the Red Church was built wasn't picked up by chance. It was deliberately and strategically built close to an existing pagan sanctuary, located in the vicinity of such a huge and rich city as Philippopolis, very near the key roads leading from Thrace to the White Sea and from Constantinople to Western Europe. Most probably its place had been connected to the popular at that time Christian cult to the martyrs - here were kept the relics of some eminent martyr, died for the establishment of Christianity in these lands. Later on the initial building was reorganized into a church, while its martyral functions were transferred to the large chapel situated south of the big doorway. It is obvious that once it used to be an imposing in its size church, having elaborately decorated walls and beautiful mosaic floors - an especially beautiful church, estimated today as one of the masterpieces of early-Christian architecture in Europe. What is most impressive to all the specialists in Ancient and Byzantine Art and Architecture is the beauty of the wall paintings. They place the Red Church side by side with the best samples of the early-Christian paining kept in the Ravena Basilicas (6th-7th century), the Sinai Monasteries (6th-7th century), the St.Dimiter (St.James) Church in Thessaloniki (7th-8th century), and the unique St.Sofia in Istanbul (6th century).
The Red Church is among the oldest Christian temples in Bulgaria. Here are preserved the oldest wall paintings in Bulgaria. On its arches are preserved unique figures and portraits of saints and captions in Greek. About the Red Church there was an ancient settlement which was inhabited from 6-7 millennia ago until the Middle Ages. Ceramic pieces of pottery, millstones, coins and flint tools from the early epochs can still be found now.
St. Georgi Chapel is situated at an altitude of 420 m and is 60 minutes far from the village of Ustina and the flowing by it Vacha River. Kulata Peak, impressive with its monolithic figure, rises 20 minutes on the south from the chapel. In these places each visitor can enjoy the splendid view - the Thracian field is on the north and on the south - the limits of the Varhovrashki Hill, which is a part of the Rhodipi Mountain ridge of Chernatitsa. From Kulata Peak can be seen Kaleto area where the cave of the same name is situated. The legends say that in the past the any barren woman who could pass through the hole became able to have children.
THE THRACIANS AND THE WINE
 What is the place of Bulgaria in the world history of wine? To be more precise - when did vine-growing and wine-production start in our lands? Our inheritance is such that we cannot underestimate the importance of the vineyards. As far back as 5000 years ago on the territory of today's Bulgaria wine was produced. The beginning of wine production, as well as many other activities in these lands, was laid by the Thracians. They are considered to be one of the best wine-producers of the Antiquity. Many of the suppositions of who laid the beginning of the wine-production are connected exactly with them. The first vines were brought by the Thracians from the Near and the Middle East to the territory of today's South Bulgaria. At first the wine was produced along the Valley of Maritsa River and around the sea wharfs.
In his book „Ancient Wine" Patric McGovern supports his theses with mythology. Semele is a Thracian goddess, mother of Dionisus. Her name is associated with the Phrigian goddess Zemelo "mother-earth" and the Old Bulgaria - Землia (Zemlya). In one of the versions of the legend of Semele, the goddess got pregnant from Zeus. Hera called representatives of the Thracian tribe to extract the baby from her womb and to burn it. Vines grew from the ashes.
There are other myths and legends which lead to the Thracians. According to Homer, the most famous wine was the aromatic heavy wine from Maronea, a town in Trace. Odysseus used exactly this wine to get the Cyclops drunk before sticking a spear into Ogreto's eye.
Another Tracian legend tells of Orestes and his dog Sirius. According to it, the dog in mysterious way bore a piece of wood, which Orestes buried in the ground and the next spring the first vine sprouted out of it. This Orestes is a son of Deucalion, a kind of Ancient Greek version of Noah. According to the Bible Noah planted the fist vine after the Deluge. There are a lot of coincidences which aiming to show us that the wine was a constant part of the human history and an integral part of the history of the Bulgarian lands.
The Thracians made a cult of the wine and the most eminent example of this is Dionysus. They had a well-developed wine-production and the Slavs and proto-Bulgarians carried on this strong tradition after their arrival at the Balkan Peninsular. Naturally after the establishment of the Christianity, the cult of Dionysus died. The holiday has been Christianized and Saint Trifon and the ritual practices of "Trifon Zarezan" carry a lot of the specifics of the cult of Dionysus - the pouring of wine and the election of a king. Even the dates of fete of the both holidays' almost coincide. At the Middle Ages, as in whole Europe, the Church took the wine-production under its patronage.
THE THRACIAN GODS
The main deities of the Bessi were Dionysus, honored in Thrace with the name of Zagreus , and the goddess Bendis. The feasts (Dionysian Mysteries), devoted to Dionysus, in Greece are called Dionisya, in Rome - Bacchanalia and in Thrace - Rosalia.
The character of Zagreus becomes a part of the Orphic theogonies, where a whole system of philosophy-mythology ideas is bound up with his name. Zagreus is initiated into Orphic sacraments. Zagreus is a Thracian protogod, who later on becomes known as Dionysus, the god of festivity, wine and extasy in the Greek mythology and Bacchus - in the Roman.
Only initiated unmarried men participated in the Orphic mysteries, carried out in the honor of Dionysus-Zagreus. They were only unmarried men and were called "a-bii" for the unusual lives they led. The sacraments were carried out among closed societies in hidden places, inaccessible for the eyes of the common people rocks and caves. They were accompanied by choric songs and pantomimic games. The culmination was the symbolic death of the king-priest, identified with Zagreus being torn to pieces by the Titans and the symbolic conception of the Goddess mother which gave the beginning of life. The first scene was realized by the blood sacrifice of a bull, a horse, a goat or sometimes even people. The conception was realized by a mass sexual act of men and women. Later on the Orphic Sacraments were represented by the Bacchanalias in the honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and festivity.
The wine and fire are fundamental for the cult of Dionysus. The very process of wine-making is perceived as a symbolic story of the life and the suffering of the deity in its Thracian prototype. The fruit picking and its smashing brings the association of the Thracian god Dionysus-Zagreus being torn to pieces by the Titans. It is no chance that the grape processing is a sacrament during which sad and monotonous grievance-like songs were sung.
Bendis is a Thracian goddess honored in the Southwest Thrace. In most of her images on rock relieves, applications, pitchers or coins she is portrayed as a hunter, wrapped in animal skin and wearing boots and a fox-skin cap. She is holding a spear, a bow or even a net and is often accompanied by a hunting dog. In the Ancient Greek Mythology her boots symbolized speed. This is why they are a part of her image, but in contrast to her Greek analogies, here she wears only a fox-skin cap. In the myths and legends the fox is regarded as the sliest hunter of all and the sliest animal which can escape from all traps and nets.
The vine and the Orpheus flower (Haberlea Rhodopensis) were cult plants of the Bessi. The wine leads to a divine intoxication and fire at the fire-wine rituals, evidences of which are the sacrificial pits. The Bessi were pouring wine over the altar in order to receive the prophecy and were predicting the future by the height of the blazing up fire. Suetonius Tranquillus and Herodotus give descriptions of the ritual performed by the Bessi in the temples of Dionysus. They were making sacrifices and over the altar a huge fire flame was rising. If the year was going to be fertile, the fire would rise high, if not - the fire wouldn't appear at all.
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History
