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.
Read more about Preslav and the surrounding region on BalkanTravellers.com
Read more about Bulgaria on BalkanTravellers.com
Use BalkanTravellers.com's tips to organize your trip to Bulgaria
Epicure
Turkey
Izmir Gourmet: Food is in the Air
Food is literally everywhere in Izmir.
The first stop a traveller would usually make, is Passaport – the vivid promenade along the seaside, which has turned into a landmark with its black and white pavement.
Full Story
Curiosity Chest
Balkans
Stecci to be Nominated as Joint Cultural Heritage by 4 Balkan Countries
5 November 2009 | In a rare move of cooperation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro recently agreed to nominate the medieval tombstones, known as stecci, scattered across the four countries as their shared cultural heritage to the UN World Heritage List. Full Story
Useful Reads
Montenegro
Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro (2007) | By Elizabeth Roberts
Although released just in 2007, Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro comes from a much older school of scholarship. With this much needed work, former diplomat Elizabeth Roberts has produced the newest and best introduction to the full history of a storied and sometimes inscrutable land the identity of which was formed equally by its forbidding mountains and balmy Adriatic coast- still the features most representative of Montenegro today and most enticing to its increasing number of foreign visitors.
Full Story
Music
Macedonia
Macedonia: Esma Redžepova's Passion for Humanity
"A Gypsy from the city of Skopje", as she calls herself, Esma Redžepova has more than 40 years of singing and humanitarian efforts under her belt. Full Story
-
Photogalleries
-
A Perfect Shot
Koprivshtitsa Fair, Bulgara. Photographs by Neva Micheva
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
