Tsarevets Fortress

A hill in a bend of the Yantra that was the capital citadel of the Second Bulgarian Empire from 1185 to 1393. The walls run along the edge of the cliff, enclosing an area of about ten hectares; inside, archaeologists have uncovered a palace with a throne hall, the patriarchal complex, four hundred dwelling houses and twenty-two churches. The only entrance is along a narrow isthmus through three successive gates, and that arrangement explains why the fortress held out through three months of siege and fell only through betrayal. On the northern spur stands Execution Rock, from which those condemned to death were thrown. The summit is occupied by the Church of the Ascension, restored in the 1980s and painted by Teofan Sokerov in a harsh, almost graphic manner - the murals are controversial, and many find them too modern for an ancient church. From the fortress walls you can see the whole town descending the slopes in tiers, and the bridge over the Yantra below. On summer evenings a sound and light show is staged here.

On the map