Veliko Tarnovo attractions

The Patriarchate on Tsarevets hill in February

Veliko Tarnovo

Population: 71.251

Elevation: 325 m (1066 ft)
Located: Central-Bulgaria

Short opinion: An extraordinary pearl in the Balkans, in our opinion the greatest place to visit in Bulgaria ... To visit the town attractions and museums, at least 2 days staying is recommended.

Veliko Tarnovo maps: http://www.trapezitca1902.com/Maps.htm

Wall-paintings of the Patriarchate

Reading guide books, looking for Veliko Tarnovo on Google, you can not find almost nothing. After a circumstantial search on Wikipedia, under the article Tsarevets which is a hill of Tarnovo. We can read there the following sentence:
On the top of the hill is the patriarchate, a complex with an area of about 3000 m², whose church, built on the grounds of an Early Christian one, was reconstructed in 1981 and painted in 1985. The frescoes inside, painted in a striking modernist style rather than in the style of traditional Orthodox frescoes, depict conventional Christian subjects as well as glorious and tragic moments of the Second Bulgarian Empire.

Not even the name of the painter, no picture and no praiseful words. Getting more information about the wall-paintings is possible only in Bulgarian language. From the text we get to know about the "Veliko Tarnovo 1300" restoration program that initiated in 1981 and finished in 1994. Projects were made by Боян Кузупов (Boyan Kuzupov), Илия Левтеров (Pliya Levterov) and Теофил Теофилов (Teofil Teofilov). On internet there's almost nothing about these artists in Bulgarian, and nothing in English language. The best summary (in Bulgarian language) about the Patriarchate and the source of the following pictures among others is here.

Instead of cross (entering the church)

Our recommendation: Climb the Tsarevets Hill, and on the top don't hesitate to go inside the Patriarchate and feel one of the greatest experiences a European church can give.

Monument of the Asen dynasty

The modern sculpture complex with the 4 knights is Крум Дамянов's work (Krum Damjanov, 1937-), it was made (in Bulgaria) in 1985.
It symbolizes 4 Bulgarian rebels (or were they freedom fighters?) who started their war against the Byzantine Empire in the end of the 12th century and founded the ruler Asen dynasty. Their kingdom, the often referred Second Bulgarian Empire lasted 93 years under the reign of 11 rulers.
For me watching this extraordinary piece of art that reminds me to the facade sculptures of the Sagrada Familia (Barcelona) has no connection with Bulgarian leaders died 7-8 centuries ago but maybe it's not such a big problem... Or I hope so :)

  Tsarevets and the medieval fortress of the town

 

Do not sit, do not dance! :)

Царевец (Tsarevets) is the name of the most famous hill of Veliko Tarnovo. Supposedly people were living here 4 thousand years ago. The castle of which ruins you can visit today was the Second Bulgarian Empire's (12-14 century) main fortress.
Besides the great atmosphere of a little hiking on the hill and looking down to the town the Patriarchate is located on the top of the hill where we can find the less-known wall-paintings (see above). Whether the Patriarchate is a church or not? There are different opinions: on postcards it's written "Patriarchate church" but there are no messes or celebrities and according to many Veliko Tarnovo habitants it's a "cultural house" with more or less religious paintings.

Our recommendation: Do not think much about the church-or-no question. I myself wasted minutes of my life for it...

Panorama

View with Asen monument and Yanta river

The picture was taken from a 15 euro double room [7,5 euro/person/night] in the one star Trapezitsa Ho(s)tel which is impossible to find for average western tourists because the youth hostel sign is written by Cyrillic letters. The hotel is located in the center. It's address: Stefan Stambolov street 79 {ул. "Стефан Стамболов" 79}, tel.: +359 62 635823, +359 62 622061, website: http://www.trapezitca1902.com/HELP/TrapezitcaHotel.htm]

City Art Gallery

The City Art Gallery is located near the Asen monument. To make it easier: it's located in the only building near the Asen monument.
I was thinking a little how could I express my feelings that this little gallery is somehow really similar to a Hungarian town's gallery? Well, I didn't find any solutions. But believe me, it's similar. But probably not (just) because of paintings but because a little Veliko Tarnovo gallery in Veliko Tarnovo town can remind many people to their home. There's just one similar feeling I can explain: some works could have been world-famous if would have been made by western artists.

Laser show, Archeological Museum

Unfortunately no experiences so far... We haven't seen them and the "probably great", or "I think gorgeous" is in my opinion worse than a "no-opinion" sentence.
As soon as we watched the show, or received opinions about it (comments allowed:)), we won't hesitate to write about them.