Story
The story of Tsarevets
From 1185 to 1393 this hill was the heart of Bulgaria. Tsarevets was the Second Bulgarian Empire's main fortress and strongest bulwark, home to both the royal and the patriarchal palaces, and it was often compared with Rome and Constantinople in magnificence. Walls up to 3.6 metres thick girdled the hill, and the main gate had a drawbridge.
On the flat centre stood the palace, with a throne room and a palace church, while the patriarchate crowned the summit. Look for the Cathedral of the Ascension up there: its frescoes, painted in 1985 in a striking modernist style, show glorious and tragic moments of the Second Bulgarian Empire. In the southeast stands Baldwin's Tower, a 1930 reconstruction on the spot where Latin Emperor Baldwin I died as a prisoner of Kaloyan.
Above the Yantra is Execution Rock, from which traitors were pushed to their deaths. The end came in 1393: after a three-month siege, Ottoman forces conquered the fortress and burnt it on 17 July.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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More highlights in Veliko Tarnovo
- Nicopolis ad IstrumNicopolis ad Istrum or Nicopolis ad Iatrum was a Roman and Early Byzantine town. Its ruins are located at the village of Nikyup, 20 km north of Veliko Tarnovo in northern Bulgaria.
- Mother Bulgaria, Veliko TarnovoMonument in the centre of Veliko Tarnovo, on the park square of the same name, dedicated to those who died in five wars, including the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and the Balkan Wars.
- Church of the Nativity of Christ in ArbanasiChurch museum in Arbanasi, Bulgaria, the centre of a church complex that includes the chapel of St John the Baptist; it also serves as a residence of the Veliko Tarnovo Metropolis.
- Holy Forty Martyrs ChurchThe Holy Forty Martyrs Church is a medieval Eastern Orthodox church constructed in 1230 in the town of Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria, the former capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire.
- Samovodska CharshiaArchitectural and ethnographic complex with National Revival architecture in Veliko Tarnovo, along Georgi Rakovski and Kapitan Georgi Mamarchev streets.
- The House with the MonkeyNational Revival house in the centre of Veliko Tarnovo, built in 1849 by Usta Kolyo Ficheto; it is named after the monkey sculpture above the ground floor.