In 1858 Hristo Stambolski, having finished his education in Kazanlak, went to Istanbul, where he learned Greek and Turkish. After a successful examination he enrolled as a student in the Imperial Medical School preparing army surgeons for the Turkish troops. As a student there Stambolski demonstrated exceptional selflessness during the cholera epidemics of 1885 and in 1867 he took part in the treatment of typhus patients, for which he was awarded the Turkish “Mecidie” order. He coped brilliantly with the study of old Arab medical terminology and adapted it for use in Turkish in the Laic Higher Medical School, at which he was a regular professor in anatomy and histology. He also translated an anatomy atlas and an anatomy manual from French to Turkish. The free access to the top levels of the Ottoman administration made Hristo Stambolski especially useful in the struggle for religious and national independence led by Alexander Exarch, Neofit Bozveli, Ilarion Makariopolski and Petko R. Slaveykov. He was a member of the Provisional Council of the Bulgarian exarchate and president of the Bulgarian House of Culture in Istanbul. He met Vasil Levski and helped him collect money for the national liberation movement. For his participation in the liberation struggles he was sent into exile in the town of Sana (in the territory of present day Yemen). After the Liberation, Stambolski was Deputy and Chairman of the Regional Assembly of Eastern Rumelia. He worked as a Prefect of Sliven, as a physician in Gabrovo, Kazanlak (where he opened a hospital and a pharmacy), as well as in Sofia, where he was one of the founders of the Bulgarian Medicine Union. Professor Dr. Stambolski was one of the founders of the Bulgarian Health System and author of numerous medical publications, in particular, the three-volume work “Autobiography, Diaries and Memories”. The town hospital in Kazanlak bears his name