Replyana is a small village near Belogradchik, in the neighboring municipality of Chuprene. The exact story of its origin is not clear. However, there is a legend about the Middle Ages and battles that took place in the land of today’s village. The historical facts sound reliable, because during the Crusades the battles of the Bulgarian population with the Crusaders are not uncommon.
The text is from the book by Asen Dimitrov Marichev (1913-2000), staurophore butler
Remains of an old fortification can still be seen on the hill on one of the three peaks. The place is called “Gradishte”. In the center of the same there is a carved pit – reservoir. Here the water is brought through connected vessels through clay pipes all the way from the springs from the Stara Planina itself. Traces of the water canal are still visible. Not far from this “Gradishte” is one of the mentioned monasteries – “St. Archangel Michael“. And there is a big pit – a reservoir. These two monasteries and this fortification “Gradishteto” certainly had connections with each other. The legend continues. During the invasion of the Latins, respectively the Crusaders, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages were gathered in a safe place in the fortress. The Latins besieged it and kept it under pressure for a long time.
It was a hot summer. The Latins with their cavalry pushed every day, but in vain. People and horses were exhausted. Great thirst. It is necessary water – but somewhere on that southern slope of hot limestone. Horses dig with their feet and suddenly break through the water pipes. The capture of the fortress is certain. The inflow of water in the reservoir of the “fort” stops. The inhabitants understand their hopeless situation and invent a trick. The weather was windy. They tuned bagpipes and drums to the wind. Music was heard. The besiegers were calm and no longer in a hurry. The besieged are rejoicing now, but their doom is certain tomorrow. Reassured by this thought, the besiegers weakened their vigilance, and the besieged forged horses in the opposite direction of the horseshoes, and quietly retreated west at night into the inaccessible mustaches overgrown with centuries-old forests.
The Latins were waiting. The music did not stop. They became active again. In the last attack they found the door of the fortress open, the bagpipes and drums piled on high stakes whistling in the wind, and the trail of horses showed instead of going out, entering the fortress. They understood that they had been deceived, the Latins rushed to the nearby monasteries. They set fire to and looted everything. Thus ended the epic of the local population at a time when the Latins, instead of going to liberate God’s tomb, spread across the Balkan Peninsula as in their own land.
Until recently, a marble column was rolling in front of the main door of the church in the village of Replyana, battered by patients who took pieces of it for the church – the remains of the monastery “St. Archangel Michael.
The plot of the legend of the village of Replyana is identical to the legend of the village of Kaluger, although the two villages of Belogradchik are about 25 km away from each other. In both villages there is a hill “Gradishte”, where there was once a fortress. There was a monastery in both places nearby. Fierce battles were fought in both places. The differences are in some details – in the legend of the village of Kaluger according to the story of Kiro Panov (1898) the defenders of the fortress are Bulgarians and the attackers – Turks; in the legend about the village of Replyana it is not entirely clear who are the defenders of the fortress in which the local Bulgarian population hid, and the attackers are the “Latins” – the Crusaders.