On 26 September 2023, Mariana Ekimova-Melnishka, journalist, translator and teacher, presented two books, ‘The Houses Speak’ (2017) and ‘The Houses Are Still Speaking’ (2019), which she co-authored with Assoc. Prof. Dr Alexander Gerov, a mathematician and amateur photographer at the NEF ‘13 Centuries Bulgaria’ regional centre, the Sarafs’ House in Samokov. Both volumes are published by the New Bulgarian University.
In these books, the authors not only show the houses as architectural examples of our Bulgarian past, but also tell of their owners and the people who inhabited them. They recall the names and stories of personalities—intellectuals, artists, and politicians—connected with our national heritage and European history.
The publications include Dr Alexander Gerov’s photographs of more than 360 sites in 18 cities of Bulgaria, including Sofia, Burgas, Vidin, Lom, Pleven, Lovech, Dryanovo, Troyan, Plovdiv, Stara Zagora, Chepelare, and Hisarya. In addition to the rich information gathered about these remarkable architectural sites, the authors raise a number of questions about their future.