HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT ROSE AND ROSE PRODUCTION

The genus “Rose” originates from the small evergreen dendroid roses widespread in the humid woodland provinces of India, China, East Africa and America. Having good decorative qualities and pleasant fragrance, “Rose” has gained people’s admiration since ancient times. Rose was first introduced as an inseparable part of human way of life thousand of years ago by the well-developed slave-owning countries which flourished in the fertile plains and places with traditional agriculture in the valleys of the rivers Indus, Amurdarya, Nile, Tiger and Euphrates. In Assyria, Babylon, India, China, Persia and Egypt the flowers of the rose were used for production of fragrant oils, wine, tea, medicines and many other products.
Among the oldest cultural monuments with roses depicted on them are the plates from Altai, dating back 4 000 years ago. In the ancient Egyptian literature rose is considered a sacred flower and during the Ramses II reign – 13th century BC rose was grown as a crop species. During the prosperity of the Greek, Thracian and Roman civilizations rose was the most beloved flower used in rituals. Homer in “Iliad” (8th century BC), mentioned the usage of rose-oil in medicine. Hera put rose-oil onto Hector’s wounds and he was healed. He also wrote that Persephone was picking up roses in the Rhodopes Mountain. The Greek poet Sapho glorified rose in her poetry. Rose, probably oil-bearing, could also be seen on the Greek silver coins – tetra drachms, made in Rhodes, from the 5th century BC. Rose flowers production and trade was the main activity of the people living on the Rhodes Island, also called the island of roses.
Herodotus, the Father of History, described sixty-petal rose which was grown in the Macedonian provinces and gave information about the development of the Greek rose-growing industry.
According to Aristotle (384-322 BC) in ancient Greece rose-oil was produced with the help of well-tested and reliable Egyptian methods. The best scents in Greece were created on the island of Cyprus. Their ingredients were similar to these in the modern perfumes which include jasmine, violet, musk, rose-oil and others. Like Greeks, the Romans praised rose as the most admirable flower which was used in decorations and celebrations. During the Roman Festival of Roses, Rosaria, the graves of the dead  were covered up with roses. The flower also decorated the liberated slaves. The last years of the Roman Empire flourishing were characterized with the development of the perfumery whose main centre was the town of Kapoya. The aroma of roses, lavender, camphor and peppermint accompanied the noble Romans everywhere.
The abovementioned nations looked for the divine origin of roses, telling different stories about that. Anacreon reported that the ancient Hellenes associated the background of rose with the descent of Aphrodite – the most beautiful among women, born from the sea waves foam. Along with her body the enraged sea washed ashore some rose shrubs, covered with white blossoms. They filled the air with a gentle fragrance making it more pleasant for the goddess of love and beauty.


Romans believed that the roses were born from the hot kisses with which the goddess of flowers, spring and love Venice strewed her beloved hunter Adonis.
According to another legend, the beautiful vestal Rosalia broke her virginity vow, given in front of Diana’s alter, the goddess of hunt, women-mothers and moon. Rosalia paid her love to the beautiful Semedor at a very high price - her life. At the very moment while the two lovers were taking the oath of allegiance in front of the Hymenaios’ statue, the furious Diana pierced Rosalia’s heart with an arrow and turned her into a thorny bush covered with white fragrant flowers to immortalize the vestal’s name. Later, the running Venice chased by Mars pricked herself onto the little thorns of the bush and her blood coloured the roses in red.
Information about the rose-growing on our lands could be drawn from the Pliny the Elder (24—79 AD.). In his book “The natural history” he mentioned that Thracians in the Thracian Provinces of the Roman Empire grew 12 different types of roses. One of them was called “Thracian Rose” but unfortunately it is not known how many petals it had and whether it was used by Thracians for production of fragrant rose-oil and rose-water.
In the discovered near Hissar tomb, dating back to 4th century BC, frescos of roses as decoration could be seen, which proves the statement of Pliny the Elder.
In the Middle Ages, oil-bearing rose was used by the Arabs to produce a big amounts of rose-water. It is known that the Caliph al-Ma'mun  in 817 received 30 000 flasks of rose water as a tax.
One of the first evidences for rose-oil production through distillation during the Middle Ages could be found in the Harib’s calendar – 961, written in Cordoba Spain. According to some documents, pure rose-oil was produced in 1577 in the town of  Frankfurt on the Main (Germany) and in 1614 in Grasse (France). The idea of introducing the distillation in industry was also born in France in 1630 during the production of wine distillate. To extract a concentrate a second boiling was introduced.
13th century could be considered the beginning of the pervasion of the oil-bearing rose from the Middle and the Far East to Europe. In 1270 during the Crusades, Count Bruie brought the damascene rose (Rose Damascena Mill) from the surroundings of Damascus (Syria) to France. It is where the name Damascus Rose originates from. The same type of rose, brought by the Ottoman Turks found the most favourable environment for growth in the Sub-Balkan valleys of Bulgaria, a region which later was called the Rose Valley. In the course of some centuries, due to the specific climatic and geographical conditions in the area a new sort of oil-bearing rose, Kazanlashka Rose, was cultivated. According to some scientists it significantly differs from the Rose Damascena Mill in some of its qualities. This rose is used for production of the world famous Bulgarian rose-oil, and rose growing became a means of living for about 200 000 people from the rose-growing regions of the country.
It is not known when exactly and in what way the oil-bearing rose was brought to the Bulgarian lands. Some of the researchers accept that it was the beginning of the Ottoman domination – 15th – 16th century, whereas others search its roots in the 18th century.
In 1577, the Odrin ruler (Bustadhzi bashia) received an order from the Turkish Sultan to send roses (giyuls) which had to be taken from Odrin region to the old palace gardens in Tsarigrad (Istanbul).
The English ambassador in Tsarigrad (Istanbul) reported about the rose-oil production in the Rose Valley in 1747. From Tsarigrad it was exported and consumed in England. At the end of 18th century it was sold on the markets in Vienna, Moscow, Odessa, Leipzig, Paris and others.
Later information given by the French Consul in 1849 specifies that “the rose-oil was produced in the regions of Odrin but mostly in Kazanlak, Stara Zagora, Karlovo and Kalofer.”
There are different legends about the appearance of the oil-bearing rose in the Rose Valley. According to one of the oldest, the oil-bearing rose was brought from the Asia Minor at the beginning of the Ottoman domination and it was first planted near the present town of Shipka. Therefore, the name of the town originates from the Old-Bulgarian word for a rose – “shipak”. Another legend told by the old Turks in the town of Kazanlak states that the oil-bearing rose was brought from Tunisia by a Turk judge during the 16th century. As a sign of gratitude he was buried in the yard of the oldest mosque in the town “Solak Djamisi” and the neighbourhood is called “Kadamezar mahlezi” (Judge’s neighbourhood). The third legend tells that the oil-bearing rose was first brought on the land of Tazha village, Kazanlak region by a Turk floriculturist. To his great surprise after a few years the roses gave much more blossoms than in their own country of origin.
From the Rose Valley the oil-bearing rose was taken to the Valley of Zakatala in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Even today a legend is told about a dervish who as a youth visited the Kazanlak region. He felt in love with a young Bulgarian girl but the fate separated them forever. As a sign of their love and not to forget her he took the rose in his home valley.
There is a number of legends about the rose-oil production through rose-water distillation  and debates about its exact beginning. During the Middle Ages in India people started using copper distillers in which through a single distillation method a small quantities of rose-oil at a very high price were produced.
In its several-century-long practices, using the experience gathered at the brandy (rakiya) production, the Bulgarian rose-oil manufacturer invented and used a lot of improvements in the process of rose-oil production through a double distillation. Therefore, not only the amount of the received rose-oil was increased but its fine fragrance and unique qualities were preserved. As a result, the Bulgarian rose-oil and rose-water gradually replaced the Kashmiri and Arabian ones on the market. Bulgaria gained an international popularity becoming a world factor in the rose-growing industry.