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bulgaria's
old capitals
then & now
Think Sofia says it all?
Think again
by Dimana Trankova; photography by Anthony Georgieff

You know Sofia is now the capital of Bulgaria, but what about the
past? Indeed, Bulgaria's history is rich, glorious and traumatic enough
to have produced about a dozen capital cities.
From the founding of Bulgaria at the end of the 7th Century until
its fall under the Ottomans at the end of the 14th Century, with two
centuries of Byzantine rule in between, the Bulgarian rulers put a lot
of effort into creating capital cities to match their political ambitions.
That meant rivalling the splendour and the economic as well as
political importance of Constantinople, the capital of Bulgaria's archenemy, Byzantium.
In periods of prosperity and political stability for Bulgaria, a
city would remain a capital for generations, growing in size and
accumulating wealth and people. The best examples are Pliska and
Tarnovo, both of whom were capitals for more than 200 years. But
when Bulgaria was crumbling and threatened with invasion, the king
would pack up his men and leave, settling his court in less refined but
more secure places where he would try to regroup.
Between 970 and 1018, when the Bulgaria of (mostly) King Samuil
fought for its life with the Byzantium of Emperors John I Tzimiskes
and Basil II, the Bulgarians changed capitals several times. The exact
number of capital cities in this period is still disputed by historians.

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The place where the very first Bulgarian capital was is also
debatable. When the horse-riding Proto-Bulgarians, led by Khan
Asparuh, came to the Balkans they settled at a place called The
Onglos. Byzantine historians and archaeological research do not
agree on where The Onglos was exactly, but today it is widely
believed that it was somewhere in the vast Danube delta, with
its ever-changing canals, waterways and islets. There, in 680, the
Bulgarians defeated the Byzantines and the peace treaty signed in
681 is the official beginning of the Bulgarian state. The people of
Asparuh then crossed the Danube, settled in what is now north-east
Bulgaria and made an alliance with the Slavs other newcomers who
had arrived a century earlier. In the centuries to follow, their state was
to become a political fixture in the region.
Following is a list of the most important capital cities of Bulgaria
before Sofia, in chronological order.

pliska
when 681893
where Northeastern Bulgaria
then Asparuh achieved his uneasy peace with the Byzantines
whereupon he chose the open plain as the best place for his capital,
Pliska. The city spread over an area of 6,000 acres and saw 20 rulers
in its 212 years as a capital. It was defended by several fortification
walls, providing shelter for the ordinary inhabitants, the nobles and
the ruler's inner circle, who lived in a spacious palace with central
heating and baths. The capital suffered great damage in 811, when
the army of the Byzantine Emperor Nicephoros I pillaged it and
massacred the inhabitants, but the city was soon restored.
now Throughout the centuries, much of the ruins of medieval
Pliska were lost as local people salvaged materials to build homes,
and British engineers used them for the construction of the RuseVarna railway in the 1860s. Pliska was discovered at the end the
19th Century. Its remains, however, were deemed too uninteresting for
modern tourists and in the 1970s1980s parts of the fortifications and
the Grand Basilica were rebuilt with questionable accuracy and results.

Partially restored remains of the

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preslav
when 893971
where Northeastern Bulgaria
then Preslav, at the foot of the Stara Planina, was chosen as a
capital in dramatic circumstances. After proclaiming Bulgaria a
Christian state (864), Prince Boris I withdrew from society, leaving
the power to his eldest son, Vladimir, in 889. Vladimir decided to
bring back paganism. Enraged, Boris left his monastery, dethroned
the apostate and installed in his place another son, Byzantineeducated Simeon. In a symbolic breach with the pagan past, the
capital was moved to Preslav, where the ambitious Simeon turned
it into a gem of a city. Soon, however, the Byzantines started to
prevail in the century-long cat-and-mouse game with the Bulgarians.
Preslav was sacked by the Russians and the Byzantines in 970971
and the north-east was lost. The centre of struggling Bulgaria moved
westwards.
now Preslav's ruins became a museum ground in 1906 and have
since produced a wealth of artefacts, including an impressive ceramic
icon of St Theodore Stratilatos and a gold treasure of about 170
objects. As with Pliska, lack of spectacular ruins led to dubious
reconstructions and in recent years a mutra-esque polished black
marble plaque of King Simeon appeared beside the yellow-painted
concrete walls of the once marvellous Golden Church.

A column remaining from the

skopJe
when 971991
where Former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia
then In the early 970s, the eastern parts of Bulgaria were already under
Byzantine rule. Western Bulgaria, however, was still alive and kicking
and nurturing resistance, which was led by an aristocrat, Samuil. He
chose Skopje to be the capital of the weak King Roman. The city was
protected by its fortress and the mountains, but times were hard. In 992,
the Byzantines captured King Roman and as he had no heir, Samuil
proclaimed himself king and again moved the capital.
now In 1944, Skopje became the capital of the Yugoslav Socialist
Republic of Macedonia and has been the capital of the independent state
The1991.
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understanding
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prespa, ohrid, bitola

The St John Kaneo church

when 9911018
where Greece, former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia and
Albania
then Prespa is not a city, but an area, including the mountainous
Prespa Lakes and the forbidding slopes of several high peaks, now
on the border of Greece, former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia
and Albania. It was the safe heaven which King Samuil wanted as
a capital while trying to save Bulgaria. King Samuil himself died
there, in 1014, and was buried in the basilica of St Achilles island,
in the Small Prespa Lake. By this time, however, he had already
moved his capital even farther from the Byzantines, in Ohrid on
the eponymous lake because of the security that the mountains
provided. After his death the city withstood a mere two years before
his successor moved the capital in Bitola, in the mountains. It didn't
last. In 1018 the city was subjugated by Emperor Basil II together
with the independence of Bulgaria.
now Divided between three states that were no particularly
friendly to each other, Prespa was for long a no-go region. Now,
it is an ideal destination for anyone seeking pristine nature, an
undisturbed pelican colony, beautiful scenery and historical
monuments. Both the Samuil family chapel in the village of Agios
Germanos, and Samuil's grave are on Greek territory.
The gem of Macedonia's tourist industry, Ohrid is arguably the
country's most beautiful city. In it, the remains of the Samuil fortress
and dozens of medieval churches are complemented by houses from
the Ottoman period, the calm waters of the lake and the blue wall of
the mountains. Bitola today is a major economic centre of the former
Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, yet its main tourist attractions are
from the Ottoman period.

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tarnovo
when 1181393
where Northern Bulgaria
then The Byzantine rule ended in
118 with the rebellion of the Asenevtsi
Brothers, Bulgarian aristocrats living
in a mighty fortress on the meanders
of the Yantra River. They turned this
fortress, Tarnovo, into the capital of their
kingdom and, in a fashion already seen
in Pliska and Preslav, tried to make it a
rival to Constantinople. To a point, they
succeeded. Beautiful churches rose in
Tarnovo, and the palace intrigues and the
mystic literature of the local school were
in the best Byzantine tradition. Tarnovo
remained a capital almost as long as
Bulgaria remained independent. Besieged
by the Ottomans, it fell in 1393.
In 1879, Tarnovo was the place where,
after liberation from the Ottomans, the
first Bulgarian parliament met to adopt
the Bulgarian Constitution and here
they chose Sofia as the capital of reborn
Bulgaria.
toDAY The medieval ruins of Tarnovo
are in a state of constant rebuilding. The
trend started in the 1930s, flourished in the
1970s-1980s and was re-established in the
late 2000s, continuing to this day.

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nikopol
when 13931396
where On the Danube
then Nikopol became a capital only because
it was the best place that King Ivan Shishman,
the last Bulgarian ruler, had left after Tarnovo
was lost. In 1396, however, the Ottomans
prevailed against the united European armies
in the messy Battle of Nikopol. The Bulgarian
state was extinguished for the next five
centuries.
now Nikopol remained an administrative
centre until the 17th Century. After that, a
period of decline began and the trend was
barely reversed in the following centuries. A
church and a much-rebuilt fortress are all that
remains of its medieval past.

vidin
when 13711396
where On the Danube
then There was a time when there were two Bulgarias with two
capitals, for the reason that King Ivan Aleksandar did not want to
quarrel with his second wife, Sarah, over which of his sons would
inherit. So he divided his kingdom. He gave the throne of Tarnovo
to Ivan Shishman, his son with Sarah, and presented his eldest son,
Ivan Sratsimir, with the mighty fortress of Vidin and the western
parts of the kingdom. Understandably, the two princes did not like
each other and after their father's death, in 1371, they fell out. This
only made it easier for the invading Ottomans. After Shishman's
death at Nikopol, Sratsimir accepted Ottoman sovereignty but was
captured and disappeared from history.
now Situated at the northwestern corner of modern Bulgaria,
plagued with unemployment, Vidin is one of the most depressed
cities in Bulgaria. Its medieval fortress, however, still stands on the
banks of the Danube.

Constantly built and rebuilt since