Shumen Fortress

A fortified site on the limestone plateau above the town, settled since the beginning of the Iron Age. The Thracians established the first settlement here, the Romans and Byzantines rebuilt it as a fortress, and under the First and Second Bulgarian Empires it became one of the key defensive strongholds of the country's north-east. The Ottomans took Shumen in 1388 and soon abandoned the fortress, after which it stood derelict for almost five hundred years. Excavations have been running since 1957: the foundations of residential quarters, craft workshops, four churches and water cisterns have been uncovered, along with a section of the curtain wall and its gate, rebuilt to its full height. The site is large, the paths run right between the excavated house foundations, and the layout of the medieval town can be read in full. From the edge of the plateau there is a view over the valley and modern Shumen below, and in the other direction the monument to the Founders of the Bulgarian State, which stands on the same plateau.

On the map