From "Once upon a time - manners and worldview of the Bulgarians"
Many legends tell of embedded people or shadows in the foundations of construction. People thought that this way the construction would be strong and would last a long time. One of the most famous is sung in the folk song for the installation of master Manolo's wife Nevyana. The song tells how three master brothers were building a bridge. The construction continued for a long time because the middle vault kept collapsing. They finally realized that the construction required a sacrifice. They decided that it would be one of their wives, but they also decided not to tell them anything. Whoever came to them the next day first, let them build her into the bridge.
Manolo's wife Nevyana
The brothers returned home and only the youngest, Manol, did not say anything to his wife. The next day his wife, after vainly inviting her eterians to go together to bring food to their men, went alone. When he saw his young bride from afar, Master Manol wept secretly. When she arrived, he asked her to look for his ring, which had fallen to the vault. She went to look for him, and the other masters knocked her down and started taunting her. Nevyana wept and begged to be set free, but realizing that it was in vain, she begged them to leave her breasts and eyes uncovered so that she could look after and nurse her swaddled child. The masters finally relented and granted her request, and for a long time she nursed her child and cried.
Myth or truth
During the construction, the masters left an unfinished place. This was done on purpose. Someone always passed through there - inadvertently and out of ignorance or by deception. Then the masters pushed him inside and walled him up. It was believed that this way the construction would remain strong forever. Somewhere they didn't act so cruelly. Instead of walling up a living person, they walled up only his shadow. In order to embed the shadow of the person, the masters took a measure of his shadow with a stick, reed or rope, of course, without the knowledge of the doomed. After that, it was embedded in the foundations or in another part of the construction. Soon after this act, the victim began to molt, fell ill and died, or turned into a goblin.
This harsh pagan custom has been going on for a very long time. It is believed that some bridges such as Pavlekyupryusi on the Erkene River (a tributary of the Maritsa River) or the Kadin Bridge on the Struma River or the Marinov Bridge near Peruštitsa have stood the test of time only because the masters built in a woman or the shadow of a person. During the demolition of the mosque in the village of Madara, an entire human skeleton was found at its base. Either a person was raised or, more likely, the foundations fell over a grave.
© 2023 Iliana Dechkova
for VI GROUP BG