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Cutting across ul. Rakovski is ul. Graf Ignatiev , a partially pedestrianized thoroughfare lined with shops, and named after the Russian count (and grandfather of Canadian novelist, Michael Ignatiev) who served as Russian ambassador to Constantinople in the 1870s, and persuaded Tsar Aleksandar to support Bulgarian liberation. The western half of Graf Ignatiev runs through pl. Slaveikov, a vast open-air book market where Bulgarian translations of the latest Western best-sellers are eagerly snapped up by local readers. Running southeast from the junction with ul. Rakovski, the street runs past the city centre's main fruit and veg market. Near here, in the small garden beside the intersection with ul. Tsar Shishman stands the Church of Sveti Sedmochislentsi , literally the "Holy Seven", referring to Cyril, Methodius and their followers, the seven saints who brought Christianity to the Slavs. It was built on the site of the so-called "Black Mosque", an edifice which served as Sofia's main prison immediately after the Liberation. Prisoners used to sell hand-made trinkets to passing city folk in order to pay for their food. British barrister James A. Samuelson bought a belt made of beads from a prisoner on death row in 1887, "for which" he wrote, "I, of course, gave him a trifle".
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