Stand in the village of Mogilitsa and you will see a long stone house that looks more like a small castle than a home. This is Agushevi Konatsi, and for its size and form it has no equal anywhere on the Balkan Peninsula.
Part of its appeal is that it has kept its mystery. Here is a little of its story, and enough to make you want to ask about a visit when you are here.
A lord's estate in the mountains
The konak was built in the first half of the 19th century, roughly between 1820 and 1840, as the winter estate of Agush Aga, a feudal lord of Pomak origin who ruled a large district of the Rhodopes under the Ottomans. He had it raised for himself and his three sons.
One detail says a great deal about this place and time: the estate was built by Bulgarian master craftsmen for an Ottoman lord. The Rhodopes have always been a meeting point of peoples, and the konak is that history set in stone.
A house the size of a village
Agushevi Konatsi is really three connected residences, each with its own courtyard, linked together yet walled off from one another, with quarters for the family, the servants and the seasonal farm workers, and barns and sheds among them. It stands near the banks of the young Arda.
The numbers give the scale better than any description: 221 windows, 86 doors and 24 chimneys. That fortress-like size is why people reach for the word castle, and why it was declared a national monument of culture back in 1964.
Six generations, then a long silence
Six generations of the family lived in the konak until 1949, when they were displaced and the estate passed to the state. For half a century it stood as public property, its rooms quiet.
In 2000 it was returned to the descendants of Salih Aga, a grandson of Agush Aga, so the house that a family built is once again in the hands of that family's line.
Seeing it for yourself
The konak stands in the village of Mogilitsa. We will not walk you through every room here, because a good part of the pleasure is stepping inside without knowing quite what you will find.
If you would like to see it while you are in the valley, ask your local guide about possible visits. It sits easily alongside a day in the mountains, a morning of stone and shadow after an afternoon on the ridges.
Common questions
- What is Agushevi Konatsi?
- A 19th-century konak, a large fortified estate, in the village of Mogilitsa, built for the Ottoman-era lord Agush Aga. It has been a national monument of culture since 1964 and is often called a castle for its size and appearance.
- Can I visit Agushevi Konatsi?
- It stands in the village of Mogilitsa. Ask your local guide about possible visits while you are here, and they can tell you what is possible for your dates.
- Why is it called a castle with no equal in the Balkans?
- Because of its scale and fortress-like form: three linked residences with their own courtyards, 221 windows, 86 doors and 24 chimneys, with nothing quite like it elsewhere on the peninsula.
- Who owns it now?
- It was returned in 2000 to the heirs of Salih Aga, a grandson of the original owner, after decades as state property following 1949.