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Demir Baba Teke is a 16th-century Alevi mausoleum (türbe) near the village of Sveshtari. It is thought to be the resting place of Demir Baba, a 16th-century Alevi saint. The tomb itself is a heptagonal building constructed out of local sandstone. It has a lower rectangular antechamber and is covered by a hemispherical dome 11 metres (36 ft) in height. Demir Baba's grave lies in the middle of the heptagonal inner premises. Constructed out of bricks and wood, the sarcophagus is 3.74 metres in length and is positioned with the saint's head pointing southwest. The sarcophagus is usually entirely covered by gifts and is only rarely displayed to Alevi pilgrims.
The mausoleum is thought to have been constructed in the 16th century on what was probably an ancient Thracian holy site from the 4th century BC. A cult complex (tekke) gradually emerged around the türbe. This included a holy spring, a mosque that was mentioned by travellers in the 18th and 19th centuries but was then destroyed, and a wooden public kitchen (imaret) which was pulled down in 1976 due to its deteriorating condition. The tekke features that have survived until today are the mausoleum, the holy spring, a residential building and a low stone fence surrounding the complex. A small exhibition in the residential building explains the story of the Alevis and Demir Baba himself.
Demir Baba Teke was proclaimed a monument of culture of local importance in 1970 by the government of the then-People's Republic of Bulgaria. The mausoleum was renovated in 1991–1994: the decaying wooden floor was replaced with a new one and the building's interior decorative elements (including the 19th-century murals) were reconstructed.
References:The Château du Lude is one of the many great châteaux of the Loire Valley in France. Le Lude is the most northerly château of the Loire Valley and one of the last important historic castles in France, still inhabited by the same family for the last 260 years. The château is testimony to four centuries of French architecture, as a stronghold transformed into an elegant house during the Renaissance and the 18th century. The monument is located in the valley of Le Loir. Its gardens have evolved throughout the centuries.
