The memorial plaque of the bookseller Georgi Arabadzhia, also known as Abadzhiyat, commemorates the location where he was hanged and is situated on the Lion Bridge in Sofia. Born in 1848 in Gorna Jumaya, Georgi Stoitsev Abadzhiev was a Bulgarian national revolutionary affiliated with the VRO and served as a courier for the Sofia Private Revolutionary Committee. He played a crucial role in organizing the book collection for the “Holy Sunday” church.
Georgi Abadzhia owned a bookstore in Karadimitar Takhov’s inn on Lomsko Shosse in Draz Mahala near the present-day Lion Bridge. As a courier for Vasil Levski’s Sofia Private Revolutionary Committee, he was captured and hanged by the Turks alongside Nikola Cholaka, Kiro Geoshev, and Stoyan Knizhar in Sofia, just a month and a half before the Russian troops liberated the city. Despite his young age, Abadzhia was dedicated to the revolutionary cause.
According to reports by Dick de Lonley, a correspondent for “Le Monde Illustre” and “La Moniteur universel,” it is likely that Georgi Stoichkov, or someone similarly named, sang a Slavic patriotic song in front of the gallows before his execution.
The Lion Bridge, constructed after the Liberation, stands as a grandiose memorial complex in honor of Abadzhiyat and the other revolutionaries. The four lions on the bridge symbolize the four men who were hanged. Today, a commemorative plaque with three flag pylons, a tribute from appreciative posterity, marks the site in honor of Georgi Arabadzhia.
