Shipka Freedom Monument-Museum - St. Nicholas Peak

The Freedom Monument on Mount Shipka is part of the Shipka-Buzludzha National Park-Museum. It was erected in connection with the dramatic military events of the Russo-Turkish Liberation War in order to commemorate the feat of the Russian soldiers and Bulgarian fighters who fell for the freedom of Bulgaria. Its construction was completed in 1930. On August 26, 1934, the monument was inaugurated by the head of state Tsar Boris III. The monument is in the form of a truncated pyramid and resembles a medieval Bulgarian fortress. It is 31.5 m high and 890 steps lead up to it. A bronze lion, 8 m long and 4 m high, stands proudly above the central entrance - a symbol of Bulgarian statehood. On the other three sides are inscribed the names of Shipka, Sheinovo and Stara Zagora - the battlefields reminding of the feat of the Bulgarian fighters. In the ground floor of the monument, under a marble sarcophagus placed on the sculptures of four reclining lions, the bones of heroes who died in the defence of Shipka are kept. In front of the sarcophagus, like an eternal guard, tower the stone figures of a Russian soldier and a Bulgarian fighter. The other seven floors of the monument house a museum exposition, which includes a rich collection of photographs and documentary material, weapons, orders and medals, personal belongings of participants in the fighting, as well as a copy of the Samara flag - the first flag of the Bulgarian Volunteers. On November 17, 1978, the museum was declared a historical and architectural reserve.