Shumen

Shumen lies below a limestone plateau that carries two things. The first is the Shumen fortress, occupied from the Thracian period through the Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman centuries, with walls, towers and gates excavated and partly restored on the plateau edge. The second is the monument to the Founders of the Bulgarian State, put up in 1981 for the thirteen hundredth anniversary, a very large brutalist concrete composition of angular figures of the early khans and rulers, reached by more than a thousand steps or by road, and visible from a long way across the plain. In the city below is the Tombul mosque of 1744, the largest in Bulgaria, with a courtyard, a madrasa and a library.

History

The Kodzadermen mound north of the town was lived on around 4500-4000 BC, the first fort on the plateau dates from the 12th century BC, and the Romans built a fortress on the Thracian ruins in the 2nd century, later ringed with nine towers. Shumen became part of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681, was burned by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros in 811 and grew into a fortified medieval city with 28 towers and bastions and many churches, a centre of culture under Simeon the Great and later of the Second Bulgarian Empire; it surrendered to Sultan Murad I in 1388, and after the failed crusade of 1444 the Ottomans moved it to its present site (Wikipedia, Shumen).

Highlights

• The Founders monument - angular concrete figures from 1981 on the plateau.
• The Shumen fortress - walls and towers on the plateau edge.
• The Tombul mosque - the largest in Bulgaria, from 1744.
• A thousand steps up - the stair from the city to the monument.

When to go

April to October. Half a day. The stair up is a serious climb; a road reaches the monument for those who drive. The monument is floodlit at night and visible from the plain.

What to expect

The monument divides opinion sharply and is deteriorating in places. The stair is a hard climb with no shade. The fortress is at foundation and low wall level. The city itself is plain.

Nearby

Madara Rider is south-east; Pliska and Preslav lie either side.