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The Tsarichina Hole (Bulgaria; 1990s)

Junopsis

Ephemeral Spectre
Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
280
This is a new story to me. Very cinematic, puts me in mind of the film The Keep (and isn't there a historical castle which gets 'hole to hell' stories that are utter bunk? This may be about as relevant). Ring any bells?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsarichina
The hole was dug by the Bulgarian Ministry of Defense, who excavated an area in the center of the village during a project which occurred from December 6, 1990 to November 19, 1992 initially in search of a purported hidden treasure of King Samuil. The project was abandoned after two years due to “financial concerns” and the hole sealed with concrete.[2]

A number of locals and foreign investigators reported the town had since become a hotspot for what they described as paranormal phenomena starting as soon as the digging began. Many have reported seeing strange lights and some UFOlogists claimed to have been hit with a "beam of powerful light." over the course of their investigation. On top of that during the two year dig more than one local claimed to have heard voices from a paranormal entity they associated with the hole. Famed clairvoyant Baba Vanga was even cited as reporting that an unhuman entity existed in the hole during a visit to the village.
 
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Yes it sounds familiar. It's similar to Castle Houska:

http://www.tresbohemes.com/2017/04/houska-castle/

According to folklore, Houska Castle was constructed over a large hole in ground which was known as The Gateway to Hell. It is fabled that the hole was so deep that no one could see the bottom of it. Legend has it that half-animal, half-human creatures used to crawl out from the pit at night, and that black winged creatures used to attack locals and drag them down into the hole.

It is believed that the castle was built to keep the evil in.

The location of the castle was specifically chosen in order to cover this mysterious pit from which the demonic creatures emerged at night. The castle’s chapel was specifically built directly over the bottomless pit in order to seal the evil in and keep the demonic creatures from entering our world. But even today, over seven hundred years after the pit has been sealed, visitors still claim to hear the scratching of creatures from the lower floors at night, trying to claw their way to the surface. Others claim to hear a chorus of screams coming from beneath the heavy floor.
 
This 2016 Facebook posting claims recognition of the Tsarichina (and, eventually, the hole's ... ) paranormal connections were locally known for years prior to the hole's excavation.

MASTER DEUNOV: UFO CRYSTAL IN TSARICHINA VILLAGE PROTECTS BULGARIA FROM CATACLYSMS
THE FOUNDER OF THE WHITE BROTHERHOOD FORBADE THE EXCAVATIONS AS WELL AS VANGA
A crystal with incredible strong energy left by an alien civilization lies in the so-called Tsarichina hole near the same-name Sofia’s village. This was revealed by the followers of Master Peter Deunov who studied his lectures. In numerous writings and sermons of the great philosopher and seer, evidence of the mysterious place are found about which many times the prophetess Vanga of the Rupite mountain had spoken.
As early as in the middle of the last century, Dunov confessed to his students that under Tsarichina, remains of an extraterrestrial civilization lies. He describes it as a laboratory in which models of terrestrial flora and fauna were developed and he pointed out that its location on the territory of Bulgaria is very valuable to our nation. ...

FULL STORY: https://fr-fr.facebook.com/42179045...ects-bulgaria-from-cataclysm/720301094766717/
 
The same 2016 Facebook page includes this photo, which allegedly shows the filled-in Tsarichina hole.

Tsarichina hole.jpg
 

According to this bedtime stories episode (great channel for Fortean interests), there's multitude weirdness in the area.
 
Mels hole in the USA is a similar " bottomless pit" , hell portal type tale.
I'd love to visit the Houska castle too, very strange building with lots of lore.
 
Mels hole in the USA is a similar " bottomless pit" , hell portal type tale.
I'd love to visit the Houska castle too, very strange building with lots of lore.
I have it on my "to do" list to write up stuff on bottomless holes. So if anyone has more resources on these (that are typically connected to hell) please message me. I've found more outright hoaxes so far - Mels Hole is a hoax, the Russian well to hell is also a hoax. This is rather a trope related to human hubris that we can use technology to gain riches or knowledge of the earth but, instead, we open up a hole that transmits evil to the surface.
 
Mels hole in the USA is a similar " bottomless pit" , hell portal type tale.
I'd love to visit the Houska castle too, very strange building with lots of lore.

My understanding is that the Tsarichina hole is not alleged to be particularly deep, much less "bottomless." Some accounts seem to emphasize the notion that the modern excavators either (a) broke through into a cave system or (b) excavated and / or enlarged a series of underground cavities / passages.

Tsarichina is only a few miles distant from the capital (Sofia). The excavations were conducted by the defense authorities and occurred during the chaotic period during which Bulgaria and other countries were abandoning the Soviet bloc and attempting to re-orient to independent status.

I suspect the supposedly official treasure hunting explanation for digging the hole was merely a cover story for some sort of security-related project. One of the most interesting aspects of this case is that no one seems to have followed up on the idea of locating the purported treasure.
 
I watched the Bedtime Stories version linked above and the red flags are all over the place that this was a fairly mundane event that has been blown out of all proportion. All evidence is mysteriously gone and supernatural explanations are at the heart of it. It reminded me of Stranger Things, Quatermass and the Pit, and the Philadelphia Experiment all smashed together.

I looked up the cave locations in Bulgaria and, without a more detailed map that I probably can't readily locate because it would be in Bulgarian, there are karst systems throughout the country including around the Sofia area. So EnolaGaia's suggestion about breaking into a cave system sounds highly plausible. The crazy details about smooth walls, glowing, creatures, guns, etc. are nice flourishes but entirely non-believable.
 
To be sure, exceptional claims require exceptional proof.

On the other hand, if humans ever do discover technological structures built by nonhumans, wouldn't the explorers use existing cultural tropes to make sense of and describe the experience? Considering the sheer number of first-contact scenarios in fiction, surely some of them will bear similarities to the real thing, if that ever occurs.

A thorough and objective investigation surely wouldn't hurt?
 
To be sure, exceptional claims require exceptional proof.

On the other hand, if humans ever do discover technological structures built by nonhumans, wouldn't the explorers use existing cultural tropes to make sense of and describe the experience? Considering the sheer number of first-contact scenarios in fiction, surely some of them will bear similarities to the real thing, if that ever occurs.

A thorough and objective investigation surely wouldn't hurt?
An investigation of this story?
Any claim should have some basis to go off of. We don't have endless resources for wild goose chases. I don't know where one would start since there seems to be nothing that remains to look at. Not even the psychic's journal. At its most basic, the military excavated into the ground here for some reason. That's about all you get. The rest is lost, destroyed, or is only stories upon stories. Some things you can't know because there is nothing left to look for. But, had this been real, why haven't we seen effects in the subsequent time? I have the same argument about the claims for Bigfoot, alien visitation, time travel, psychic power, etc.

I asked my friend who grew up in Bulgaria if she'd ever heard of this. She knew of Baba Vanga but never anything of this hole or treasure.
 
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I've located the most illuminating documentation I've found to date on the Tsarichina hole. That's the good news ...

The bad news is that the documentation is a shaky English translation of contributions and notes from a 1995 conference convened to discuss WTF happened at Tsarichina. It's a fairly long document whose quirky translation and even quirkier presentations make for turgid reading.

The arguably even worse news is that the illumination this conference summary shines on the Tsarichina activity (code-named Project "Glory") is the sort of disorienting onslaught one associates with psychedelic Sixties "happenings."

My initial impression garnered from this kaleidoscopic batch of commentaries is a tale of protracted descent into madness that is custom-made for a Werner Herzog screenplay akin to Aguirre, The Wrath Of God or Heart Of Glass.

This conference proceedings manuscript is archived at the Wayback Machine, where I only found one capture (11 October 2007) the Wayback Machine seemed to be able to serve up:

https://web.archive.org/web/20071011110808/http://ufonews.in:80/supporting_pages_2/support_4.htm

The manuscript is not accessible at its original site:

http://ufonews.in/supporting_pages_2/support_4.htm

(To Be Continued ... )
 
Here are the title tidbits, the Table of Contents, and most of the Introduction to the conference proceedings document ...

TSARICHINA CASE
FACTS AND DOCUMENTS
OPINIONS AND HYPOTHESES


Summarized translation from Bulgarian
First edition 1994 Sofia
Second impression (manuskript) 1995 New York
Third (digital) edition 2005 Sofia

Foundation for Cosmonoetic Investigations
Sofia,2005

C 0 N T E N T
1. K.Kunev. - Introduction to the conference
2. S.Stamenov. - Tsarichina Phenomenon - what it is?
3. D.Ovcharov. - Historical-Archeological Expertise on Tsarichina and connected events.
4. B.Dimitrov. - Treasure hunting - myths and reality.
5. A.Viktorov. - Some results from. complex geological and geophysical works at object Tsarichina.
6. T.Kunev. - Tsarichina,enigma or reality?
7. K.Tomov. - Tsarichina,problems and perspectives through the prism of professional approach.
8. K.Kunev. - Ufological aspects of the Tsarichina phenomenon.
9. V.Sivov. - Space-time continuum and psychotronic occurences at Tsarichina phenomenon.
10. D. Naplatanov. - Complaint to Minister of Defense and to Attorney General.
11. Proceedings No 1
12. Opinion of the geology group on characteristics of theobject, and the conduct of operation in the search andthe discovery.
13. Expert evaluation by the working group on psychotronics.
14. Proceedings of the meeting.
15. Letter to the Minister of Defense.

INTRODUCTION TO THE CONFERENCS.

In a spring of 1992,it became known that a team from the Ministry of Defense was conducting some mysterious activities deeply underground in the village of Tsarichina.This news in itself was sufficient to excite public curiosity.Even when nothing yet was known with certainty, it generated strange opinions,phantasmogoric hypotheses and caustic remarks.This subject arose an interest even at a plenary session of the National Assembly,but at that stage the truth about Tsarichina was veiled in the secrecy.

Significant disturbance was caused by findings of the expert commission created on 12 September 1992,by Ministry of Defense,to assess this case.From then on,many solutions generated more questions and discussions.As result,the interest toward Tsarichina case,gradually increased. ...

This positive process,as any other,contains some risks.Dangers of an uncontrolable development are already apparent.Psychic disorders, disturbances in social and individual relations,acceptance of weird and absurd ideas.

regarding Tsarichina phenomenon this is an illustration: there is a mutual mistrust between traditional science and investigative ambitions. On one side,there is an uncompromising stand against anything uncon-ventionnal,on other side - credulous acceptance of strange notions as truth.

Is there any object in the Tsarichina cavity?One cannot disregard various occurences,psychic effects communications with Cosmos etc. The purpose of this conference is to assemble a variety of opinions so that they could express their position in academic manner. Please,allow me to open the inter-disciplinary conference on Tsarichina phenomenon.
 
Here are some tidbits I gleaned from a first (laborious) reading of the conference proceedings ...

The whole project seemed to originate with a senior military officer (Chief of General Staff Minchev) who was very secretive in soliciting opinions and recruiting participants. Furthermore, it appears Col.-General Minchev was relying upon inputs from one or more psychics in pursuing the project from the beginning.

There were multiple psychics / seers involved (if only peripherally) during the course of Project Glory. One of them committed suicide after allegedly suffering sustained psychic bullying by at least one of the other psychics assigned to the project. This and other sub-plots involving inter-psychic conflicts / "drama" would serve to plague the project.

The first pronouncements from Minchev's psychic(s) directed him to pursue some sort of excavation in Gradetz (aka Gradets; Gradec) - a separate village circa 2-3 miles southwest of Tsarichina. It's not entirely clear why or how they ended up digging at Tsarichina.

The initially revealed objective of the project was a search for Tsar Samuil's alleged treasure. This historical angle seemed to be the basis for bringing archaeologists into the project team.

The objective pursued by the project changed multiple times during the 2 years the excavation work at Tsarichina was in progress. First it was legendary gold treasure. Later it would be an "object" (unspecified) to which one of the psychics' contacts directed attention. Later it would be the "prototype human" - the remains of mankind's original ancestor, a being embodying both genders. This version seemed to shift toward some sort of artifact hidden by extraterrestrials. Somewhere along the line there was an emphasis on something to do with "bio-energy / bio-energetics." I'm not sure whether this was yet another objective phase or some sort of ongoing theme.

None of these distinct objectives or themes persisted throughout the course of the project.

The hole was apparently dug by extending an existing well. The digging created a hole that had many twists and turns. This circuitous course of downward progress was solely motivated by instructions from one of the psychics.

The digging was stopped because the team's geologist(s) warned they were about to break into a layer of water-permeable rock that would result in flooding the hole to an insurmountable degree. The geologist(s) commenting in the conference proceedings were clear on this. They did not refer to any "underground stream" such as many of the subsequent paranormal-styled accounts mention.

Both the geologists and archaeologists stated for the record that nothing unsual or non-natural had been found anywhere / anytime during the excavations. The archaeologist(s) specifically stated no artifacts, remains, or other archaeological evidence of any sort was ever found. They explicitly denied any graphics, writings, glyphs or other symbolic items were found.

At least one archaeology consultant noted Tsar Samuil wasn't living anywhere in the area at the time of his death. In fact, the Tsarichina area was occupied by his enemies at the time - the Byzantines. He seemed incredulous that anyone would think any treasure of Samuil's might be buried there.

Multiple of the conference attendees characterize the whole project as a wild goose chase that mutated from a treasure hunt into multiple versions of some cosmically-significant yet ill-defined goal. If anything, the objective became ever more "cosmic" and ever more vague as the project progressed.

Some conference participants' comments were notably bold (in that context) in terms of describing the project as something of a scandal.

The excavation was terminated as a result of central defense authorities becoming aware a large amount of money was being funneled into a project that nobody could explain or justify.
 
This conference proceedings manuscript is archived at the Wayback Machine, where I only found one capture (11 October 2007) the Wayback Machine seemed to be able to serve up:

https://web.archive.org/web/20071011110808/http://ufonews.in:80/supporting_pages_2/support_4.htm
That psychic bullying:

"My daughter was killed on 8 February 1991,at 9.15,when she was forced to jump from a 10th story balcony.That night,those who scoffed at her dictated a message:"I psychic Dimitri Sirakov have outwitted Colonel professor Naplatanov."

Investigative team listed a death as a suicide.I am convinced that murder was accomplished by means of bio-sensors of psychological influence."
 
Yep ... Cue the theremins ... :bored:
 
Well that report has all sorts of fun Fortean stuff other than the hole itself.

Indeed! It has a little bit of everything - parapsychology, aliens, alternative human history, UFOs, conspiracy ... The only major check-box left unchecked is cryptids (unless you count the "prototype human" as a cryptid).

I'm not sure what to make of it all. When I discovered the conference documentation I thought it might provide some clarification and hopefully a coherent narrative about what had really happened. It turned out to be exactly the opposite ...
 
The psychic's death depresses me the most out of all that-- sounds a bit like the recent spate of doctors falling out of windows in certain parts of the world. I wonder if the military element considered themselves conned.
 
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I'm curious what would be under the concrete, I do find it disconcerting the testimony of minchev, I would suspect there is at least some deception occurring there, a psyops of some sort.
 
Hi there, wanted to post something I've come across in regards to tsarichina, for those unaware of the event, in the 90s the bulgarian government conducted some digging in the tsarichina area, under the initial auspices of seeking treasure, with the aid of supposed psychics, according to the accounts of Col.-General Minchev among others they claimed to find an object/being of unknown origin, whether or not they found said object has yet to be substantiated, I did come across some documentation of the event from a CIA foia request, the request of note can be found on page 15, and corresponds with the timeline given.

https://www.governmentattic.org/4docs/CIA-FOIA-Log_2008.pdf
 
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