Missionis Fortress (Krumovo kale)

En un regard

Le château en bref

Seven kilometres south-west of Targovishte, on a height of the Preslav Balkan overlooking the Vrana gorge, the ruins of Missionis — Krumovo kale, the "Fortress of Krum" — bear witness to a thousand years of trade between Byzantium and Bulgaria. Founded in the 5th–6th centuries, reoccupied under the First Bulgarian Empire, then flourishing in the 12th–14th centuries, the town controlled the Dervent Pass and the road leading to Tarnovo. Ceramics and lamps from Tunisia attest to the reach of its commerce. The town was looted and burned by the Ottomans between 1388 and 1393, as the skeleton of a Turkish soldier found with his purse reminds us. Excavations carried out since 2004 have revealed a double enclosure wall, a basilica, residential quarters and a Roman temple. The site may be visited with a guide during the season.