Dimitar Trajkovich

Dimitar Trajkovich

Dimitar Trajkow Tschernew , also: Dimitar Traikov Chernev , Bulgarian Димитър Трайков Чернев ; (* around 1817 in Veles , today in North Macedonia ; † June 30, 1880 in Sofia , Bulgaria ) known as Dimitar Trajkowitsch (Bulgarian Димитър Трайкович) was a Bulgarian merchant, freedom fighter, politician and mayor of the Bulgarian capital Sofia from 1879 to 1880.

biography

Trajkowitsch was born around 1817 in the Macedonian city ​​of Veles, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire . However, his parents moved to Sofia. There Trajkowitsch worked first as a servant and later as a trader. He married a sister of Jordanka Filaretowa and became the owner of a caravanserai (Han) near the Sveta Nedelja Cathedral . As his wealth grew, so did his position in the “better society” of Sofia.

Traikovich took an active part in the struggle for an independent Bulgarian church against the “ patriarchists ”. He financed the printing of several books and supported the girls' school, to which he donated a new building in 1860. Then the school was also called The School of Trajkow (Bulgarian Трайковото училище ).

Together with Nikolai Pavlovich , Trajkowitsch founded a revolutionary committee of the Inner Revolutionary Organization (IRO) in Sofia , which was in close contact with the revolutionary committee of Svishtov . In 1867 Traikovich was arrested by the Ottoman police for his revolutionary activities, but released after the intervention of foreign consuls in Sofia. In the following time he was able to win the trust of Wassil Lewski , the founder of the IRO. After the attack on an Ottoman post office on the Arabakonak mountain pass , Traikovich was a member of the investigative commission set up by the Ottoman rulers, whereupon Levski accused him of treason.

After the April uprising of 1876, his caravanserai was burned down. In 1877, during the Russo-Ottoman War of 1877/78 , Trajkowitsch was arrested again by the Ottomans and sentenced to exile in Diyarbakır . Since the Russian troops had already stopped short of Constantinople and the peace of San Stefano had been signed, Traikovich was released according to an amnesty clause in the treaty. He then returned to Sofia.

On September 14, 1879, Trajkowitsch , succeeding Todoraki Peschow , became the fifth mayor of Sofia. During his tenure, the girls' high school was founded, the sewer system and street lighting expanded, and the first urban development plan for Sofia was drawn up.

Dimitar Trajkowitsch died in Sofia on June 30, 1880, before the end of his term of office.

literature

• Енциклопедия България, Т.7, Marin Drinow Verlag, Sofia, 1996.
• П. Динеков, "София през XIX в. до Освобождението на България “, Sofia, 1937, pp. 299-300.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ София и софиянци