Interview

Conversation started with this weapon maker, member of a group of participants from Varna. Coming from a family of military, his father and him are also passionate by history and take part to a lot of reconstitution initiative, as well as weapon making. He described more like a family passion than a family business. Their production a great deal of different weapons, but also some leather armor and crests. Most of the weapons presented during the festival were based upon the weaponry of the Golden Century of Bulgaria and designed from archeological findings, including Preslav Museum but also from Varna’s and Sofia’s. The weapon maker himself was specialized in bow and arrow making. The discussion then shifts to military history, especially how the army was organized under Simeon the Great, who ruled Bulgaria from 893 to 927: The King was the leader of the whole Bulgarian army and could conscribed almost every man for the war effort. Then, they were sent to either infantry or cavalry, depending of the landscape they came from. The people from the hills were mostly sent to the infantry, while people from the planes formed most of the cavalry. North East of Bulgaria where we stand was known, even in the Byzantine Empire for producing very capable riders. army unlike the feudal system, who relies on local lord personal armies bound by duty to a king and was more common in western Europe. We conclude our exchange on the word “technitar”, which in medieval times, was one of the words used to describe craftsmen from various activities, which is, for him, a fitting term for the work he and his association are doing.