After 1814, with an English passport, he worked as a physician on Corfu Island and the rest of the Ionian Islands. Then he became a military doctor in Tunisia and Morocco. He joined the secret Greek liberation organization Filiki Eteria and in 1821 participated in the Greek War of Independence. Through Constantinople he moved to Plovdiv and settled there. He quickly gained fame as a good doctor and started a family. He became the personal doctor of the Pasha of Plovdiv. Together with his patron, he moved to Tarnovo.

Until 1822, the health of Tarnovo residents was taken care of by various types of folk medicine healers, herbal healers and others. All kinds of medicines and potions were boiled, pounded and mixed, most still following the medieval recipes recorded in the damaskins (popular church-liturgical books from 17th-19th century). In the same year, the prominent Tarnovo benefactor Hadji Mincho called from Constantinople another doctor – Dr. Aleko Hristov (Christofidis) who was born in Varna and studied in France. He arranged with him to take care of the poor residents of Tarnovo for free and paid him for treating the patients. In order for the doctor to work peacefully, Hadji Mincho provided him with one of his shops for a pharmacy and a dispensary free of charge. And he immediately wrote to his business partner in Vienna: "Dear friend, I am asking you to send me an apothecary. Let it be the best that can be and don't think about the money! Send me an invoice!".

In order to get ahead of the competition, it seems that Dr. Marko Pavlov also hurried to set up his own modern pharmacy. As early as 1823, he ordered medicines and special storage vessels from France. This year is also considered the the year when the first modern pharmacy in Bulgaria was opened. A special shop called “Lekarnya” was hired for the needs of the profession. There, the doctor simultaneously performed examinations and prepared medicines - in separate rooms with a laboratory and a warehouse. The prepared remedies were displayed in the reception hall in porcelain and glass vessels arranged on shelves, in alphabetical order and weight. There were also special cupboards for storing the powerful medicines.

In the reception room, in addition to a large work table and a desk, the doctor had a movable ladder that helped to reach the upper shelves. In the laboratory there was another table with shelves, a sink with a copper cistern and a stone trough, sieves, mortars, a machine for grinding hard drugs, a knife for cutting roots, and large presses. There was no lack of clientele. People from the entire Danubian Vilayet came to seek a cure there.

Dr. Marko Pavlov died at the age of 80 on January 5, 1864. After the murder of the Tarnovo benefactor Hadji Mincho in 1855, there was no one to pay for the "free examinations" of the poorer residents of Tarnovo and the pharmacy he ordered never arrived. But the first Bulgarian pharmacy was not without competition in Tarnovo. Before the liberation, Yanaki Zlatev also opened a pharmacy – the second one in the town. Then Dr. Vasil Hadjistoyanov Beron also opened a pharmacy.

In addition to the medical field, Dr. Marko Pavlov was also active in the public life of Tarnovo residents. He donated for the church "St. St. Constantine and Helen" and the school attached to it. He was chosen as a juror from the Bulgarian side in the Ottoman court. His three sons: Pavel (1824-1880), Haralampi (1831-1881) and Georgi (1835-1903) graduated from the Military Medical School in Tsarigrad. The first-born Pavel was a doctor in Gorna Oryahovitsa and Tarnovo, like his father he became a military doctor in the Turkish army. In Baghdad he was the manager of a military hospital, his work too him all the way to Yemen and brought him back to Tsarigrad. The second son Haralampi Markov became a doctor in Razgrad.

After the death of Marko Pavlov, the “lekarnya” was taken over by his youngest son Georgi Markov. He was forced to change not only his last name, but also his company name, placing the sign "pharmacy" on the door. This happened after the cruel suppression of the April Uprising in 1876. Then Georgi Markov wrote a statement to the International Commission of Investigation of the Ottoman Violence. He collected 176 signatures from the population in support of the submitted signal. His actions were noticed by the authorities. On the advice of the Russian ambassador Count Nikolai Ignatiev, the Bulgarian took refuge in Tsarigrad. To avoid persecution, he accepted Greek citizenship. After returning to Tarnovo, instead of "Georgi Markov" he wrote "Georg Markisis" on the pharmacy door as was his new name on the passport. That is why the old residents of Tarnovo remember the first pharmacy also as "Markizevata apteka". In 1877, during the Russo-Turkish war that liberated Bulgaria, he treated the Russian military and refugees from southern Bulgaria with free medicines. In 1886, he ceded the pharmacy to his fellow citizen and Minister of Trade, Panayot Slavkov.

The building of the first Bulgarian pharmacy was restored and turned into a working museum in 1981. It is located on Ivan Vazov street, directly opposite the inn built by the Renaissance master builder Kolyo Ficheto. After the changes from the end of the last century, the premises were restituted and the pharmacy stopped working. Today on the facade there is a memorial plaque with the name of the first Bulgarian pharmacist - Dr. Marko Pavlov, Dr. Todorka Nedeva from the Regional History Museum in Veliko Tarnovo specified for Radio Bulgaria.

Photos: Veliko Tarnovo State Archive