Mezek Fortress

En un regard

Le château en bref

A few kilometres south-west of Svilengrad, just one kilometre from the Greek border, Mezek Fortress is considered the best preserved in the Eastern Rhodopes. Identified with the Neoutzikon of the Byzantine chroniclers, it was built around 1100, probably under Alexios I Komnenos, to hold this contested frontier march between Byzantium and Bulgaria, before falling to the Ottomans in the 14th century. Its circuit wall, roughly 110 metres by 60, with walls streaked with brick bonding courses, is punctuated by nine powerful round towers more than ten metres high; the south-west tower retains three storeys from which defenders could fire. Restored several times, the fortress is among Bulgaria's 100 national tourist sites and is visited together with the Thracian Tomb of Mezek, the largest domed tomb in Bulgaria, located nearby.