Shuman Fortress
Paloma, our faithful motorhome is parked under the cover of trees on the outskirts of the city of Shuman, Bulgria (N43.261352, E26.890024)
The sun was out extra early this morning and despite our best efforts by sticking on the coast the humidity was killing us. Once all up and ready to go, which wasn’t that early in reality we set course for here, typical lonely planet guide single paragraph write up, but it’s on the way across the country and a little bit of googling leaves us amazed that it’s not the top site in the whole country.
Leaving the coast we head inland and are treated to the most amazing music tributes in form of murals on the tower blocks.
The road leads us onto the A2 motorway and across the vast plains of farm land and towards here.
Shumen Fortress is one of the most overlooked landmarks in the country, it has been more by chance that we have ended up here today
A few KM away from center of Shumen. The ancient fortress is said to have been first built by Thracians and later reconstructed by Romans, Byzantines, and Bulgarians.
The Fortress supposedly was conquered and demolished various times and probably one of the oldest fortifications in Bulgaria.
The 1 Lev English leaflets lets us in on the history of this place,
- which was demolished by crusaders back in 1444.
- The Polish-Hungarians had attempted an attack on the Ottomans which has proved to be very costly as many died during the Battle of Varna.
- Following this battle the fortress was looted and the Ottoman eventually abandoned the fortress completely.
In eastern and central parts of Europe there is hardly any one area where a nation’s history as a whole, through over a thousand years, is concentrated to the same extent as here.
Today thanks to financial assistance provided by the EEA a touirst attraction has been created stabilising the walls of the fortress, creating tracks for walking around the fortress, and also building a soon to be finished visitors centre.
After a great afternoon spent checking out the site, a cold beer was in order but sadly for us the local bar was closed, for the next few days, so we resorted to one from the van, Nice but it’s much better to spend a few quid locally as the parking is free and entrance to the fortress 7 Lev.
Paul.