Veliki Preslav

Preslav replaced Pliska as capital in 893 and was built as a deliberate statement: a walled inner city with a palace, workshops and churches, surrounded by an outer town, and its most celebrated building was the Round Church, also called the Golden Church, a rotunda with a circular nave ringed by columns, an atrium and a narthex, decorated with marble, mosaic and gilding, of which the plan and lower walls survive. The site is also known for its ceramics: a workshop here produced painted glazed ceramic tiles and icons of a quality found nowhere else at the date, and the museum holds a substantial collection of them, including a reassembled icon of Saint Theodore. The Preslav treasure of gold and silver jewellery is also displayed.

History

The name is Slavic, and Preslav seems to have begun as a Slavic settlement, fortified at the start of the 9th century and growing fast under the khans Krum and Omurtag thanks to the nearby capital, Pliska. By 852 it was an important military centre, and churches were built after the Bulgarians converted to Christianity in 864. After the pagan revolt of 892, the Council of Preslav in 893 put Simeon the Great on the throne and moved the capital here from Pliska; over the next 80 years the city became a centre of politics, diplomacy and Slavic culture, home of the Preslav Literary School, where writers such as John Exarch and Constantine of Preslav worked and around which the Cyrillic script probably developed in the 10th century, and of workshops making glazed tiles and ceramic icons. Its fortunes turned at the end of the 960s, when Prince Sviatoslav of Kiev occupied it and the army of the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimisces then burned and plundered it, carrying off the treasury, the regalia and much of Simeon's library. The present town took the old capital's name in 1878, became a town in 1883 and has been called Veliki Preslav since 1993 (Wikipedia, Veliki Preslav).

What you'll find

• The Round Church plan - the rotunda with its ringed columns and atrium.
• Painted ceramic icons - the tiles produced by the Preslav workshops.
• The Preslav treasure - gold and silver jewellery in the museum.
• Inner city walls and palace - the fabric of the second capital.

When to go

April to October; the museum is open year round. Two to three hours for the site and museum together. There is little shade on the site. Mornings are better in summer.

What to expect

The site is at foundation and low wall level. The Round Church is a plan rather than a building. Interpretation on the ground is limited; the museum carries the visit. Distances between the museum and the site require a short drive or walk.

Nearby

Pliska is north-east; Shumen and its monument lie north.