Shumen

Halfway between Pliska and Preslav is the city of Shumen, where nearly 100,000 residents live. The word “Shumen” means a grove, and indeed the city is in the heart of wooded hills north of the Balkan Mountains.

In the heart of the city there is a citadel whose foundations date back to the Thracian period. It was rebuilt by the Romans, destroyed during the barbarian invasions, and rebuilt by the kings of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires. Simeon I turned Shumen into an important religious and cultural center, which remained so even during the Second Bulgarian Empire, when it replaced Preslav in importance.

In the 15th century, the Ottomans destroyed the city and rebuilt it in its current location. In the 19th century, it became an important Ottoman fortress and governmental center. Shumen played an important role in the Bulgarian revival movement, and after the liberation the city was integrated into modern Bulgaria. It is also important to note that it had a large, influential, and significant Jewish community.

The main site in Shumen is the huge communist monument in honor of 1,300 years of Bulgarian history on the hill overlooking the city (Museum of the Founders of the Nation). There are also remains of the ancient walled citadel.

Twenty minutes’ drive from Shumen, on an impressive rock cliff in the heart of a beautiful forest, is the rock relief “The Rider from Madara,” one of the most famous sites in Bulgaria. This is a 40-square-meter rock relief located on the cliffs and visible from a distance. You see in it a rider on a horse subduing a lion, an eagle flying in front of him, and a dog running after him. The relief is from the time of the First Bulgarian Empire, and some interpret it as a symbol of the arrival of the Bulgarian mounted warriors led by Khan Asparuh to Bulgaria. Others speculate that the relief dates back to Thracian times and symbolizes the god Sabazios, suggesting that at the foot of the rocky cliff stood an ancient temple.

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