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| Why Veliko Tarnovo was made capital of second Bulgarian Empire | ||
| Saturday, Oct 24, 2015 | ||
| The Early Byzantine basilica which was discovered recently in the city of Veliko Tarnovo in Northern Bulgaria may prove the key to the exploration of what was an unknown but major Byzantine city, and to answering the question why Veliko Tarnovo, then known as Tarnovgrad, was made the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396 AD). This hypothesis has been presented by Prof. Hitko Vachev from the Veliko Tarnovo Regional Museum of History who discovered the Early Byzantine basilica southeast of the fortress wall of the Tsarevets Hill Fortress, in the so called Frenkhisar, or the “Frankish Quarter”, of the medieval Tarnovgrad. Speaking at a news conference in Sofia, Vachev has pointed out that the 6th century Byzantine basilica that he found was impressive in size meaning that most probably it was the seat of a bishop, a completely unknown fact until now, reports BTA. In a nutshell, the archaeologist’s hypothesis is that the presence of a bishopric in the Early Byzantine period in what later became the medieval Bulgarian city of Tarnovgrad (Veliko Tarnovo), with its two citadels, the Tsarevets Hill Fortress and the Trapesitsa Hill Fortress, means that in the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, the Tsarevets Hill was the site of “one of the most fortified Byzantine cities”. The existence of such an Early Byzantine city on Tsarevets would explain why Tarnovgrad was picked as the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire enabling it to emerge as a power center rivaling Constantinople for much of the High and Late Middle Ages, the reasoning goes. While the period of the Second Bulgarian Empire, the 12th-14th century AD, has been more thoroughly researched in the archaeological sites in Veliko Tarnovo, this has not been the case with the period of the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. This is the reason Bulgaria’s archaeologists keep making notable discoveries there such as Vachev’s 2014 discovery of an unknown monastery, and the recent discoveries in the Trapesitsa Hill Fortress, and in the nearby fortress Rahovets where Tarnovgrad’s garrison was stationed in the 13th-14th century AD. The Early Byzantine basilica, which has given Vachev grounds for his new hypothesis that before Tarnovgrad became the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire it was the site of a bishopric and a major heavily fortified Byzantine city, has been found during the continuing excavations of the ruins of the Bulgarian monastery from the 13th century that the archaeologist found in 2014. Upon excavating further the ruins of the Early Byzantine temple, the archaeologist and his team have found that it was 40 meters long and 20 meters wide. The imposing size, among its other features, indicates the importance of the church and the possibility that it may have been the seat of a bishop. It was on top of these Early Byzantine ruins that the church of what was the Monastery of the Mother of God (Virgin Mary) was built in the 13th century AD by the Bulgarians. “If the hypothesis [that the basilica was a bishop’s temple] is proven, and the further excavations show that one of the most fortified Byzantine cities was built on top of Tsarevets as a the center of a bishopric, this will provide clarity as to why of all cities [Veliko] Tarnovo was chosen to be the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire,” Vachev explains. The choice of Tarnovgrad as the Bulgarian capital after Bulgaria was liberated from Byzantium in 1185 AD has been thought to have to do with the fact that the first Tsars of the Second Bulgarian Empire, the boyars Asen and Teodor (Petar), were natives of the region located in today’s Central Northern Bulgaria. The capitals of the First Bulgarian Empire (632/680 – 1018 AD) had been Pliska (680-893 AD) and Veliki Preslav (893-970 AD) in today’s Northeast Bulgaria, and Ohrid (from the end of the 10th century until 1018 AD) in today’s Republic of Macedonia. “Last year, when we started the excavations we knew that Tarnovgrad had three monasteries dedicated to the Holy Mother of God. We didn’t know where they were located. The Virgin Mary was the patron of the city, and the cult for her was very strong there. We have found the church of this monastery complex, and we have enough data to suggest that this probably is the Dormition of the Mother of God Monastery mentioned by Grigoriy (Gregory) Tsamblak (ca. 1365-1420, Bulgarian cleric and metropolitan of Kiev – editor’s note),” explains the archaeologist. |
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| Source: archaeologyinbulgaria.com | ||
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