Dynastic History | Trapezitsa, Veliko Tarnovo — The Second Hill and Who Paid to Rebuild It

Across the Yantra from the royal fortress, Trapezitsa carried the medieval capital's second walled town: the households of the boyars, the noble families of Tarnovo, and — as excavation since the 1990s has shown — artisans and ordinary residents as well, the civilian quarter growing densest in the 13th century under Ivan Asen II, after peace was made with Byzantium. Relics were part of a capital's standing. The remains of Ivan Rilski were brought to a church on this hill in the reign of Ivan Asen I; the largest of the excavated churches, numbered 8, carries his dedication and shows five building phases.

Digging began in 1879, under the newly formed Tarnovo Archaeological Society, and the campaigns down to 1900 uncovered the foundations of seventeen churches. Work resumed in 2006, and the count now stands at twenty-one, with a monastery and military and domestic buildings besides. Several of the churches held boyar burials. Reported figures for the plateau's area and the height of its walls differ between sources, so they are best left unquoted.

Since 2012 the hill has been rebuilt for visitors. The specialist outlet Archaeology in Bulgaria, reporting the opening, put the total at about €3.35 million, of which roughly €1.2 million came from the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, a body of the Azerbaijani state, and the remainder from Bulgarian government and EU funds; the same report describes criticism from Bulgarian journalists directed not at the quality of the work but at the funding government's record on press freedom. Some two hundred metres of wall and three churches were restored, an archaeological station became an exhibition centre, and paths were laid from the south tower to the upper station of the funicular. The site opened on 23 September 2016, Bulgaria's independence day.

📸 Cover: Area view of the Trapezitsa plateau with its restored south tower at right, Izvora, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons