eventually, when the roads get better
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Fotograaf: Maarten Boswijk Ontwerp: Studio HellingTRANSCRIPT
Maarten Boswijk1/10
Eventually, when the roads get better.
1/10 - Kariya
Maarten Boswijk
Eventually, when the roads get better.
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Kavarna
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Kavarna7
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Kavarna9
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Kavarna11
12 Kavarna13
Kavarna13
14
Kavarna15
16 17
Shabla
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Shabla
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19
Reporter: Why are you here in Shabla?-
Girl: I live in Kavarna and I'm visiting my grandmother.-
Reporter: You're from Shabla?-
Grandmother: Not exactly, but I've been living here since '54.-
Reporter: Quite a long time.-
Grandmother: I went to Sofia but then I returned.-
Reporter: What attracted you to come here? The sea?-
Grandmother: Not the sea.-
Reporter: Love?-
Grandmother: Not love. I was attracted by Yordan Yovkov's The Farm on the Border. It was a village back then, a very nice village at that.-
Girl: It's peaceful here. It's quiet, unlike Sofia. That's the reason. Otherwise I went to Kavarna last year, because I wanted to run away from the hustle and bustle. There are great places along the seaside, there are archeological and natural reserves. Yailata, the swamp, the Durankulak Lake, there are great places.The monument, these are places where there is peace and quiet. They must be preserved.-
Reporter:Is the northern Black sea coast the place where a person can run away?-
Girl: From the hustle and bustle? Yes.-
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21 Shabla
22 23 Shabla
23 Shabla
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25 Shabla
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27 Shabla
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29 Shabla
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31 Shabla
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33 Shabla
34 35 Shabla
35 Shabla
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37 Shabla
38 39 Shabla
39 Shabla
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41 Shabla
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43 Shabla
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45 Shabla
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47 Shabla
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49 Shabla beach
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51 Shabla beach
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53 Shabla beach
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55 Shabla beach
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57 Shabla beach
58 59
Durankulak
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Durankulak
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61 Durankulak
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63 Durankulak
64 65 Durankulak
65 Durankulak
66 67 Durankulak
67 Durankulak
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69 Durankulak
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71 Durankulak
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73
Kariya
74
75 Kariya
76 77 Kariya
77 Kariya
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79 Kariya
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81 Kariya
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83 Kariya
84 85 Kariya
85 Kariya
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87 Kariya
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89 Kariya
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91 Kariya
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93 Kariya
94 95 Kariya
95 Kariya
96 97 Kariya
97 Kariya
98 99 Kariya
99 Kariya
100
101 Kariya
102
103
Ezerets
104 105 Ezerets
105 Ezerets
106
107 Ezerets
108
108 109 Ezerets
110
111 Ezerets
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113
Tyulenovo
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115 Tyulenovo
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117 Tyulenovo
118 119 Tyulenovo
119 Tyulenovo
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121 Tyulenovo
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123 Kariya
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Additional
MuseuMs of depopulation
Large-scale areas in Bulgaria are depopulating due to migration to cities, and in the process, creating plethora of ghost villages. Although the names of these towns and communities still remain on maps, this is nothing more than a bureaucratic formality. According to demographic research, this phenomenon is reaching epidemic proportions. Data shows that in 2010, the total population of Bulgarian villages was little more than 2 million people. If the trend of depopulation in these villages continues at its current rate, and the low-birth and high-mortality rates continue to ravage these communities, there may be no rural population left in Bulgaria by 2060.
Rural depopulation issues began their ascent after 1946, when Bulgaria became a Communist nation. The natural process of urbanization in the world, and the change from a Market to a Planned economy started the migration process. Thousands of rural residents were stripped of their land and lively-hoods to further the goal of Socialist industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture. Even after democratic government changes in 1989 returned the land to their original owners, the trend of urbanization did not stop. Travel to the rural areas of the country was difficult or impossible for most.
Now, deserted farmland can be seen in many rural areas. The country’s urban population is 72 percent, while the agricultural population is only 28 percent. The rapid migration of people led to the declination of social infrastructure. Schools and medical stations were closed, bus lines were reduced, and the roads became beaten and cratered. The number of ghost villages is growing every day. They are, in a way, museums of depopulation; villages in which you see nothing but obituaries and the remaining elderly whom live difficult or even tormented lives in the service of their land. With their last strength they are holding on to it in their remaining years, to try and save it from the weeds. These people have long ceased to notice the colossal misery in which they live and take for granted their depressing poverty, relinquishing their dignity. In the years of so-called transition, no government made the preservation and development of rural areas a priority. Some argue that the depopulation of certain regions in Bulgaria is a natural process; a consequence of urbanization, globalization, Internet, free movement of human mass, or a global conspiracy. They may be right. Processes are ongoing and continuous, but the neglect and destruction of entire regions in Bulgaria is abhorrent and an ugly, cynical mockery. This is especially so for the generation of my grandparents; the people from a simpler time who gave immense care to this land. How do I tell them what seems to the truth? That their efforts were all in vain.
Vesselina Nikolaeva-
page 6-7
The Mayor’s view over the city
of Kavarna. The city totals
about 15.000 inhabitants, and
seems to be slowly expanding.
However, about 5km outwards, the
patched up roads start getting
more and more frequent. Even
though Kavarna has a decent
amount of tourist facilies, the
traces of the economic crisis
are visible even here. Along the
winding road that leads from the
city center to the sea are
numerous hotels for sale, which
were never fully constructed.
Some have been left untouched
for as long as 10 years.
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page 8-9
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page 20-21
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page 22-23
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page 25
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page 11
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page 12-13
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page 15
Jan.
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page 27 >
page 28-29
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page 30
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page 41
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page 44-45
Featuring a large garden the
size of a football field, the
Green House is a showpiece of
the European Union’s investment
in Bulgaria. The Green House was
build as a tourist information
center and a place for locals
to convene. While the Green
House is bustling with it’s own
occupants and workers, visitors
are rarely seen and it seems to
serve very little useful pur-
pose. Many in Shabla share the
opinion that the money should
have been better invested.
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page 36-37
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page 47
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page 48-49
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page 55
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page 39
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page 53
Tedi.
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page 32-33
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Reneta.
Nine years ago, young Reneta
married a boy from Shabla and
moved to a coast town from her
birthplace in the Southern Bul-
garia. Her family-in-law owns a
3-store house with guestroom for
rent in the summer season and a
small grocery shop in front of
it where she works.
‘The shop is very empty because
we cannot manage to reinvest in
new goods from what we sell.
Romanian cars on the way to the
southern coastline pass by and
never stop for even a coffee’
said Reneta. According to her,
Shabla’s population has been
decreasing dramatically in the
past few years fears that soon
the place will come to be
completely abandoned.
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page 35
Zafirka.
Specialists from the hospital in
Kavarna visit once a week for a
few hours to see patients who
require special care. During
the summer when tourists visit,
communication is nearly impos-
sible due to the fact that none
of the medical personnel speaks
English.
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page 42
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page 50-51
Up to two decades ago, any self-
respecting enterprise, factory,
office, or union had a rest
house- both in the Black Sea
and mountain resorts. Indivi-
dual municipalities also used
to support camps where parents
could send their children for
two weeks during the summer
holidays. After the land res-
titution, many of these holiday
bases were returned to their
original owners or their heirs.
Most of the camp-structures were
easily demolished due to their
light construction, while the
rest remained abandoned. What
followed was a massive sale of
land, and most of these affor-
dable holiday resorts ceased to
exist. The rest have been frozen
in the era of socialism.
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page 56-57
- >
page 85
Krassi.
Between the months of March
and December, Krassi makes his
living as a fisherman. Earning
about 3000 euros, it’s just
enough to cover expenses for his
family in Dobrich. His visits
him on the weekends at his small
house which he built himself.
Along with about 25 fellow
fishermen, he’s living on land
which is not regulated to built
on. About 500m north there’s
a small village named Kariya,
which is the only officially
registered fisherman’s village of
Bulgaria.
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page 83
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page 86-87
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page 78-79
This cabin is the former house
of Bai Pesho, when he was
still acting out his job as a
fisherman. When he and his wife
started a restaurant in 1998,
the cabin had been transformed
in a small table section. After
adding two additional floors of
hotel rooms, they are trying to
sell their business. No buyers
have shown any interest. People
from surrounding villages used
to visit frequently to enjoy
the panoramic view of the sea
from the restaurant tables. Now,
even customers on weekends are
scarce.
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page 77
Bai Pesho.
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page 74-75
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page 65
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page 66
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page 69
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page 71
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Besides her own restaurant,
Kornelia manages the Lake Hut,
which is very popular with
fishermen during their working
season. The Hut’s accommoda-
tions are very basic, it’s not
known for its luxury says Korne-
lia. The appeal is it’s sense of
homeliness and simplicity.
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page 80
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page 62-63
Typical Bulgarian mentality:
‘I am going to eat all the
apples, but will not give you
even one’ says Kornelia, the ow-
ner of a new restaurant just few
meters away from the shore of
Durankulak Lake. She shares the
opinion of many that most of the
European Union funds for road
development and tourism are not
being used effectively, and are
often returned due to conflicts
of political interests at the
municipality of Shabla.
>
page 61
-
In the year 2000 according to
the nota (law) ‘Natura 2000’
many areas in Bulgaria came to
be protected where new building
projects were restricted. Such
area is the beach line of the
Shabla city with the nearby
swampy lake.
Nothing much has really changed
on this beach since the fall
of Communism twenty years ago.
Some small bungalows remain
for rent and the old (formally
government owned) hotel is get-
ting some patch up work. The new
manager is a 52 years old Plamen
Stavrev, who works at the Varna
harbour and who has no previous
experience in catering Plamen
is renting the restaurant from
a rich bulgarian businessman
who recently bought respectful
amount of land on the first and
second beach line and who is
probably awaiting the building
restrictions to be overruled so
he demolish the old restaurant
and build on it’s place a new
luxurious hotel.
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page 88-89
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page 98-99
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page 119
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page 120-121
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page 123
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page 114-115
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page 100-101
The EU invested money for wind-
mills in the whole area.
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page 104-105
Kutsi.
Years ago, Kutsi used to live
in Sofia, where he had a job in
a parliamentarian campaign of-
fice. As if often the case with
a change in power structure in
governments, many lost their
jobs and had difficulty finding
new ones. Now Kutsi lives in
Ezerets, and earns a living from
a part-time job as a social wor-
ker, selling eggs to the local
supermarket, and renting his
three spare bedrooms to tourists
during the summer season.
Shortly after the start of the
renovation of Ezerets roofless
church, budget miscalculations
halted construction, and the
workers abandoned the project.
They told Kutsi as they left
that ‘the church will get its
roof when your beard grows to
touch the ground’.
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page 108-109
Ezerets is advertized as one of
the few places near the Black
Sea coast which has preserved
its unique atmosphere of
serenity and peacefulness.
It would almost fool you if
not for the huge wooden pirate
ship of the Wild Duck Resort,
standing as the only big and new
building at the very center of
the village. The hotel complex
is built to attract and satisfy
the tastes of tourists who will
not settle for the modesty of a
local restaurant. The seating
area is adorned by small bridges
which span over narrow channels
of water. There is a playground
for children, and a small pool
inhabited by black swans. The
fenced-off ostrich pen is a
popular spot for goers to snap
photos.
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page 92-93
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page 95
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page 91
Dessislava.
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page 97
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page 107
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page 116-117
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page 110-111
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‘Had you come 20 years ago, you would have been a small boy, but there would have been a lot to see.’
‘Now, for example the empty beach, with no lifeguards, but at least there’s peace and quiet.’-
Colofon
Photography:Maarten Boswijk
Text:Maarten Boswijk/ Vesselina Nikolaeva
Production/Translation:Vesselina Nikolaeva
Design:Léon Wijnhoud
Thanks to: Galya, Krassi, Denka, The Green House, and all of Shabla’s local inhabitants who made me feel most welcome during my stay.-
Maarten Boswijk1/10
Eventually, when the roads get better.
1/10 - Kariya