Talking War, “Seeing” Peace: Approaching the Pilgrimage of Krastova Gora (Bulgaria)

摘要

The paper is dedicated to the pilgrimage of Krastova Gora, in the Rhodopes mountains, which is by far the most popular Christian Orthodox pilgrimage in post-communist Bulgaria. It delineates how a contested area, where Muslims and Orthodox Christians have lived side-by-side for decades, was constructed as the regional holy place and a sort of national “Jerusalem”. We show how this pilgrimage, triggered by the visions of an Orthodox visionary man in the 1930s, developed during the first post-socialist decade to become a hallmark of the religious revival and religious cohabitation. Drawing on fieldwork conducted throughout the 1990s, we however focus on the messages of peace that coincided with the most dramatic time of the Yugoslav crisis, the war in Bosnia 1994-1995. Scrutinizing the multiple imaginings of Krastova Gora as a “haven of peace” and a source of divine grace, we unveil the impact of political events, social change and a certain vision of history in the construction of the pilgrimage site as a place of individual and national salvation.