Archaeologists Intend to Recreate Repilica of Veliki Preslav Palace in Bulgaria
BalkanTravellers.com
The model, in a scale 1:10, would reconstruct the palace of Tsar Simeon the Great in his capital.
“My father and I have dreamed of making Veliki Preslav as popular for tourists as the Valley of Thracian Kings and Perperikon. The great destruction of the medieval Bulgarian capital has prevented us from realizing the actual magnificence of the medieval Bulgarian Empire,” Ovcharov said.
The replica palace, according to national media, will be located on an area of 700 square metres, with 3.5-metre-high walls. It will feature historical performances with the latest light and cinema technology.
In addition to the smaller replica palace of Tsar Simeon, Ovcharov’s projects provides for continuing restoration and preservation works of the remains of the real palace and the Royal Basilica.
“I don’t think we need to make up legends to attract tourists because Tsar Simeon is legendary but is not just a legend,” Professor Ovcharov claimed, adding that the site could attract some 200,000 to 300,000 per year, instead of just 21,000 as their number is currently.
The project would cost 6 million leva (around 3 million euro) to be realized, and – according to media, the Veliki Preslav Municipality has already tabled its application to the Ministry of Regional Development for EU funding under the Regional Development Operational Program.
Veliki Preslav served as the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire from 893 to 972 and was one of the most important cities of medieval south-eastern Europe. Simeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. His successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever. Simeon’s reign is known as a period of cultural prosperity and enlightenment, and it is frequently called the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture. Upon coming to the throne, Simeon decided to move the state’s capital from the still somewhat pagan Pliska to Preslav. According to some chronicles, it took the ruler 28 years to establish and build up his new capital.
Parts of his palace and other medieval buildings in Veliki Preslav are thought to have survived until the nineteenth century when the Ottoman Turkish authorities destroyed much of what was left in order to use the stone and gravel from the site for the construction of parts of the first railroad in the Ottoman Empire between Varna and Ruse, which was built between 1863 and 1866.
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