Veliko Tarnovo

The city's name comes from the Old Bulgarian word for "thorny", and the first traces of people here, from the 3rd millennium BC, were found on Trapezitsa hill. Tarnovo was a stronghold with a military garrison under the First Bulgarian Empire, but its great age began on 26 October 1185, when the brothers Asen and Peter announced their revolt against Byzantium in the Church of St Demetrius. The uprising founded the Second Bulgarian Empire, and Tarnovgrad became its capital. On Tsarevets stood the palaces of the tsars and the patriarch; Trapezitsa held the residences of the nobility; and the city gave its name to the Tarnovo schools of architecture, painting and literature. In the 14th century, with Byzantium weakening, Tarnovo claimed to be the Third Rome, and it had Armenian, Jewish and Catholic merchant quarters.

The Ottomans took the city on 17 July 1393 after a three-month siege in which Patriarch Evtimiy led the defence. Tarnovo remained the centre of Bulgarian resistance until the end of the 17th century, with uprisings in 1598 and 1686, and in the 19th century it was a focus of the struggle for an independent Bulgarian church and state.

General Gurko's forces entered the city on 7 July 1877. In April 1879 the first National Assembly met here and adopted the Tarnovo Constitution, though the capital then moved to Sofia, and on 5 October 1908 Tsar Ferdinand declared Bulgaria's full independence in the Holy Forty Martyrs Church. Under communism the city expanded westwards, its university opened in 1963, and in 1965 Tarnovo became Veliko Tarnovo, "Great Tarnovo", in honour of its past.

Veliko Tarnovo is often called the City of the Tsars, and it treats its medieval past as the core of its identity. Its anthem is Shishman's song, dedicated to the last tsar of the Second Bulgarian Empire; its flag is purple, after the purple robes of rulers found in the Forty Martyrs Church; and the reconstructed Patriarchal Cathedral on Tsarevets is decorated with modern frescoes. Independence Day is celebrated here each 22 September, and on 7 July cadets of the National Military University form an honour guard for General Gurko while a historical society re-enacts the liberation.

The city has a busy cultural life for its size: the Konstantin Kisimov music and drama theatre, the Boris Denev art gallery, the Petko Slaveykov regional library and the Nadezhda 1869 community centre. Writers' house-museums commemorate Petko Slaveykov and Emilian Stanev. Craft traditions survive in the workshops of Samovodska Charshiya, and churches by the Revival master builder Kolyu Ficheto, among them St Nicholas and Saints Constantine and Helena, still stand in the old town.

Two universities shape the atmosphere. Veliko Tarnovo University has around 18,000 students, and the Vasil Levski National Military University is one of the oldest military schools in the country. Football is played by Etar at the Ivaylo Stadium, rebuilt with seats for 18,000, and the evening Sound and Light show over Tsarevets, telling the story of the city's fall in 1393, has become part of its modern image.

About 58,500 people lived in Veliko Tarnovo at the 2021 census, and the urban area that takes in Gorna Oryahovitsa, Lyaskovets and nearby villages has nearly 129,000. Most residents live not in the old town but in the districts built under communism and since: Buzludzha and Kolyo Ficheto, known as Triagalnika, are the largest, and Akatsia and Kartala were added as industry grew in the 1970s. The old quarters of Varusha and Asenova now hold only about 1,200 and 800 people respectively.

The economy combines education, administration, tourism and industry. The city is the largest producer of plastic bags in Bulgaria, the Bolyarka brewery and a Pepsi soft-drinks plant work in its central industrial zone, alongside the universities, the hospital and the provincial administration. Tourism has grown steadily; about 450,000 tourists visited in 2013.

Daily life has a student rhythm during term, with cafés and bars full in the centre, and slows in summer, when the old town fills instead with visitors. The area around the city is also home to the largest British community in Bulgaria.

Veliko Tarnovo's mehanas serve Bulgarian cooking, including stews baked in clay pots. Gyuvech, a vegetable stew traditionally cooked in an earthenware pot, often without meat though some versions include it, is a Balkan dish closely associated with Bulgaria. Other staples include shopska salad with white sirene cheese, grilled kebapche and kyufte, banitsa, and yoghurt, which Bulgarians eat in large quantities.

The foothills to the south supply specialities that appear on many tables in the city. Elenski but is a dry-cured ham from the town of Elena, a delicacy throughout Bulgaria whose taste comes from its special preparation and the climate of the Balkan range. Troyan is famous for its plum rakia, and nearby Lyaskovets has a museum devoted to vegetable growing and gardening.

Beer is the local pride. Brewing began in Tarnovo in 1887, and the Bolyarka company, founded in 1892 by the Hadji Slavchevi brothers, makes light, dark, wheat and live beers named, since 2000, after the medieval bolyars. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Red Café and the Tabashko Café were the most famous in the city, and pubs were where the city's political life was shared.