- Petko Voyvoda
Petko Kiryakov Kaloyanov ( _bg. Петко Киряков Калоянов), better known as Captain Petko Voyvoda (Капитан Петко Войвода) (
6 December 1844 –7 February 1900 ) was a 19th-centuryBulgaria nhajduk leader and revolutionary who dedicated his life to theliberation of Bulgaria (and particularly the region ofThrace ).Born in the Bulgarian village of Dogan Hisar, today Esimi in
Aegean Thrace , todayEvros Prefecture ,Greece , Petko took part in an uprising onCrete in 1866–1869 and visitedItaly in 1866, meetingGiuseppe Garibaldi and staying in his home. The two organized the well-known Garibaldi Battalion, consisting of 220Italians and 67Bulgarians , which fought the Ottomans on Crete.Petko Voyvoda's detachment, established in 1869, took part in the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 . His detachment took part in the liberation of theRhodopes together with that ofKraycho Voyvoda . Petko lived inVarna after 1880, dying in the city in 1900.His revolutionary work has been commemorated with numerous monuments all around Bulgaria, as well as in his native village in modern Greece and on the hill of
Gianicolo inRome , where a monument of Garibaldi also stands. TheTV series "Kapitan Petko Voyvoda" written byNikolay Haytov and first aired in 1974 also popularized him as a national hero.Petko Voyvoda Peak onLivingston Island in theSouth Shetland Islands ,Antarctica was also named in his honour.References
*
*
*
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
