The stronghold of Cherven (, "red") was one of the

Second Bulgarian Empire The Second Bulgarian Empire (; ) was a medieval Bulgarians, Bulgarian state that existed between 1185 and 1422. A successor to the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Tsars Kaloyan of Bulgaria, Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II ...

's primary military, administrative, economic and cultural centres between the 12th and the 14th century. The ruins of the fortress are located near the village of the same name south of

Rousse Ruse (also transliterated as Rousse, Russe; ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, fifth-largest city in Bulgaria. Ruse is in the northeastern part of the country, on the right bank of the Danube, opposite the Romanian city of Giurgiu, ...

, northeastern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

History

The town was a successor to an earlier

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

fortress of the 6th century, but the area has been inhabited since the arrival of the

Thracians The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared betwee ...

. Cherven was first mentioned in the 11th century in an Old Bulgarian

apocryphal Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

chronicle. It gained importance after 1235, when it became the seat of the medieval Bulgarian Orthodox Bishopric of Cherven. It was affected by the

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as ''Ulug Ulus'' ( in Turkic) was originally a Mongols, Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the division of ...

raids in 1242 and was briefly conquered by Byzantine troops during the reign of Tsar Ivailo (1278–1280). During the second half of the 14th century, the stronghold's area exceeded and had intensive urban development, including a fortified

inner city The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

on vast rock ground in one of the Cherni Lom river's bends, and an outer city at the foot of the rocks and on the neighbouring hills. The town had a complex fortification system and was completely built up. Cherven grew to become a centre of craftsmanship in the 14th century, with iron extraction, ironworking, goldsmithing, construction and arts being well developed. The town was an important junction of roads from the

Danube The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...

to the country's interior, which also made the town a key centre of trade. Cherven was conquered by the

Ottoman Turks The Ottoman Turks () were a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group in Anatolia. Originally from Central Asia, they migrated to Anatolia in the 13th century and founded the Ottoman Empire, in which they remained socio-politically dominant for the e ...

in 1388 during the Bulgarian-Ottoman Wars, initially retaining its administrative functions but later declining in importance. The modern village of Cherven located close to the ruins of the fortress has, , 302 inhabitants.

Archaeological site

The remains of the medieval town of Cherven are an archaeological site of great importance to the research of Bulgarian culture of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The first excavations were carried out in 1910–1911 under professor Vasil Zlatarski, while regular research on the site began in 1961. Currently, archaeological work is being conducted by Stoyan Yordanov of the Rousse Regional Museum of History. Yordanov has over 30 years of experience working at Cherven, and leads excavations atop the Cherven old town site every summer. A large feudal palace with fortified walls reaching up to wide, two well-preserved underground water supply passages, 13 churches, administrative and residential buildings, workshops and streets have been excavated. The three-storey

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

, high, from the 14th century has also been fully preserved and was even used as a model for the reconstruction of Baldwin's Tower in Tsarevets,

Veliko Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo (, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is the historical and spiritual capital of Bulgaria. Often referred to as the "''City of the Tsars''", Velik ...

, in 1930. The site has been a national archaeological reserve since 1965 and is a popular tourist attraction. A 14th-century church was discovered in Cherven with murals of "warrior saints".

Legacy

Cherven Peak on Rugged Island in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

is named after Cherven.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cherven (Fortress) Castles in Bulgaria Buildings and structures in Ruse Province