RESUME
The article examines the early military monuments (1914–1925) built in honor of those killed in the Wars of National Unification (1912–1913, 1915–1918) in the villages and former villages on the territory of Sofia Municipality. They are of the small pyramidal obelisk type. There are two groups of obelisks. The first belongs to the style of the luxurious tombstones of wealthy townspeople. Professional masters of European-style tombstones created the so-called “Sofia military obelisk style”. These monuments are discussed in detail in the article. An original obelisk style emerged in the former Novoselska District. It was created by local master stonemasons, who are successors to a local stonemasonry tradition from the 19th century. The question of the similarities between the statuary monuments in the village of Stara Vrazhdebna (1924), the town of Panagyurishte (1925) and the village of Bregovo (1927) is considered. It was probably created on the model of a military monument of the Ministry of War. One of the variants of the sculpture “Na nozh/Knives out” (1912) by the sculptor Ivan Lazarov (1889–1952) served as a model for the sculptural figure. Attention is also paid to the authors of the monuments, insofar as more accessible information about them is available.
Ilia Mechkov
