© Photos and Text by Okay Deprem http://www.northtravel.org/

The Romanian city of Braşov had made its name only as a popular ski resort in Turkey since the early 1990s. While Bulgaria’s reputation in this respect was not yet evident, a considerable number of those who went on a ski holiday from Turkey to the Romanian Carpathian Mountains, which surround one side of Braşov, which is a cute city in the middle of Romania, like a crescent, have already visited. As a matter of fact, Romania was also popular in terms of “entertainment-gambling” holidays in those years. After Romania started to recover more or less from the economic and social destruction it experienced in the 90s, thanks to the support of UNESCO and EU funds; began to restore and overhaul historical monuments and ruins. At the end of this feverish process, Braşov was one of the cities that gave the first fruit and bloomed like a flower. Now BrasovIt was already a candidate to be among the new and favorite cultural cities of not only Romania or Eastern Europe, but all of Europe…

A city in the middle of nature’s visual feast

On a warm autumn day, I am on my way to Braşov, which falls in the southeast of Transylvania, the historical region of Romanian lands. This year, as a result of both the late arrival of autumn and the mild weather for now, the forest cover on the hills that surrounds almost all sides of the city hosts an unusually colorful riot of colors. From red to brown tones, yellow and of course every variety of green, I really don’t see autumn in any country as majestic and impressive as in Romania. Almost all of the major cities in Romania have a population of several hundred thousand, except for the capital city of Bucharest, which has a population of over 2 million. Its population, together with the sum of the suburbs and the provincial area, is only 370.One of the most important features of Braşov, which has a population of 000, was that almost half of its population was composed of Saxon Germans during the “Holy Roman Germanic Empire – German Nation” period. Therefore, it also bears the name “Kronstadt”, which means “Crown-city” in German. The etymological origin of the city in both Turkish and Hungarian languages ​​is the Turkic word “Barasu” meaning “White Water”. In the socialist period between 1950 and 60’s, this time Braşov’s name will be “Stalin City”.In the socialist period between 1950 and 60’s, this time Braşov’s name will be “Stalin City”.In the socialist period between 1950 and 60’s, this time Braşov’s name will be “Stalin City”.

 From Dacia to Romanian name

The name “Romania” means “Roman country”, “Land of the Romans”, as would be expected. The previous archaic name of the country was Dacia. For this reason, the country’s only national automobile brand has been named by this name for a long time. The history of the city of Braşov and its environs, of course, goes back to the Dacians, an archaic civilization. When it comes to the Middle Ages, the face of the region will begin to change with the help of German colonists known as “Transylvanian Saxons”. At the beginning of the second millennium, precisely in the 12th century, a significant part of today’s Romanian lands belonged to the then great and imposing Hungarian Kingdom. Already at that time, the Germans, who were at a more advanced stage of civilization in craft, agriculture and urbanism compared to the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia, were a favorite of eastern kings and princes. With the same motivation, the Hungarian king II.Geza;German masters and craftsmen from the Rhineland , Flanders, Moselle , Thuringia, Bavaria, Wallonia and even France; invites them to build cities, exploit mines, and cultivate land.

The changing fate of the city with the German Saxons

The fashion for employing skilled Germans goes back to the 13th century when King Andrew II gave the Teutonic Knights the mission of guarding the borders of the Hungarian Kingdom. In the place of Braşov, which was only a village at that time, German knights founded Kronstadt. Although the crusaders among them were evacuated over time, the local people they brought with them settled in the region and formed the large German population to be formed in the future. The cores of the German-Austrian building aesthetics, which still constitute the exquisite architectural character of the historical core of the city, started to give Braşov its color in those times. As in all typical medieval cities, Kronstadt is started to be surrounded by big and thick walls and different types of bastions and towers are erected on them at certain distances.Again, according to medieval traditions, another commercial box would undertake the financing of each fortification tower or tower. In the historical city, where the “Yekaterina” and “Shei” gates are still standing today, by the mid-1800s, 40% of the population consisted of Romanians, 40% of them Germans, and a considerable part of the remaining 20% ​​was Hungarians. Until World War I, a substantial part of today’s Romanian lands, including Braşov, were German princes subject to the Holy Roman Empire; It was ruled by counts and barons.A substantial part of today’s Romanian lands, including Braşov, until World War II were German princes subject to the Holy Roman Empire; It was ruled by counts and barons.A substantial part of today’s Romanian lands, including Braşov, until World War II were German princes subject to the Holy Roman Empire; It was ruled by counts and barons.

Braşov after the war to the present

As the establishment process of the modern Romanian nation-state began in the post-World War I period, Transylvania Province, including Braşov, decided to join Romania with the support of the Saxons. However, after the Second World War, as some ethnic Germans migrated to West Germany and a significant proportion were taken as hostages of war by the Soviet Union, the demographic character and social face of the city would change forever. The number of the Jewish community, whose number was up to 4000 at the beginning of the 20th century, will decrease to 230 as a result of the migration of those who remained after the Nicolae Ceausescu Regime to Israel. The ethnological richness, which gives its color to the cultural richness and intellectual development in Eastern Europe, becomes history in Braşov as it did everywhere after the Second World War.The city will be shaken in 1987 by a wave of right-wing strikes aimed at overthrowing the Ceausescu regime, just as it was staged in Poland.

Nice synthesis of different architectural styles

The architectural and urban transition between the historical urban core, where the medieval architectural texture of European cities has permeated, and the modern urban suburbs is often intricate. In many large and small cities of Germany, the districts where Neu-Stadt (New city) connects to Alt-Stadt (Old city) date from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, and in this respect, they have gained a historical character in the intervening time period. as; Also in Brasso (Hungarian for the city’s name), the distinction is hardly felt when passing from the suburbs of the city to the old city. While the colorfully whitewashed multi-storey neo-classical adjoining buildings from the end of the 19th century are often accompanied by treeless and narrow pavement strips; In between, the extraordinary type of buildings of the Bau-Haus and Art Niveau contemporary architecture school that spread from Germany and France of the 1920s and 30s to Europe stand out.While there are almost no high-rise buildings around and in the city itself, when looking from the city towards the famous Poiana Ski Resort, the exact copy of the famous Hollywood sign in Beverly Hills was written for Braşov.

While touring the historical city step by step

As we come to Eroiler Boulevard and start our historical city tour, on a sunny autumn day, we begin to learn about the interesting features and details of the fundamental buildings, squares and streets of the city, which is extremely quiet and a cultural monument. You can reach the Council Square, which is the main area of ​​the city, via Cumhuriyet Street. As in all historical medieval cities, the German name of this place was once the shops and stalls of the craftsmen’s lodges; “Marktplatz”, that is, the Market Square, because itinerant traders have opened their stands here. In the middle of it stands the historic towered city council building, after which the Romanian square is named. As in most of the medieval squares, criminals were executed en masse here, and witch burning ceremonies were also held in this place. The square is surrounded by the vibrant colors of a birthday cake.It consists of 2-3 storey high, wide and windowed roof houses typical of European architecture in the new and recent eras. Just beyond the area rises the “Black Church”, one of the largest and most important Lutheran temples in Braşov, as well as Romania, and the city’s oldest gothic monument. The cathedral was converted into a Protestant church, as were the numerous Catholic churches that were converted during the Reformation in Europe. The reason why the cathedral, which was partially rebuilt and repaired by the Hungarian Matthias Cornivus, who carried the Renaissance from Italy to the lands of Central Europe for the first time and therefore the “Philosopher King”, was called black, is because the city was called black during the Great Turkish Wars at the end of the 17th century. It was badly damaged in the fire caused by the Habsburg troops. A little further on, the German “Faden gasse”,We arrive in front of the narrow passage known as one of the narrowest streets in Europe, which is called “Strata Sförii” in Romanian. The width of the 80-meter-long authentic street, known to have existed since the 17th century, is only 111 to 135 cm. varies between…

St. Nicholas Church and the first school in Romanian history

Romania is the only country in Eastern Europe whose language is non-Slavic but whose religion is Roman Orthodox. Naturally, a flamboyant Roman-Orthodox church awaits us in Braşov. The structure of the Church of St. Nicholas is very similar to the wooden church architecture that is often seen in Maramureş, the exotic region of the Romanian country in the north close to the Ukrainian border. Indeed, the history of this exquisite structure, resembling a basilica plan, with its roof resembling the pointed and curved towers of Walt Disney’s fairy-tale castle and the upper part of the bell tower, dates back to the end of the 13th century. A very special building greets us right across the Christian temple, which was first built in Gothic style in accordance with the main architectural tradition of the period, but later gained a completely different face with the additions in Baroque form. two storey,This building with a light yellow color and red roof is the first school in Romanian history. As it is known, the first schools and even universities in Europe developed within and around churches and monasteries. This institution, which provided the first regular and formal education in Romania and of course Transylvania, was founded almost at the same time as the church, and a printing house was created to print the first Gospel in Romanian. Being literate and educated in those times was a chance and opportunity for thousands or even tens of thousands of people. For this reason, each village of Transylvania sent a child to the school in Kronstadt (not to be confused with the name of the famous cruiser of the sailors who participated in the October Revolution) to cover the education cost of its own child, and expected them to share what they had learned with the villagers when they returned.The number of students attending the school for centuries was limited to only 1730.

“This article was published in the monthly journal ‘Hayat Dergi’.”

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© Photos and Text by Okay Deprem http://www.northtravel.org/

The name and legend of Dracula has been on our agenda in two ways in the last century. First; As a result of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker’s book “Dracula” written at the end of the 19th century. The second is; One of the legendary directors of the silent cinema era, German director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s unforgettable film, “Nosferatu”, which is also known as the first of countless cult films shot on the myth of Dracula, is the result. Adapted for the big screen in 1922 and the masterpiece of German expressionism, the work was also based on the famous novel by Bram Stoker.

Since then, the first and most familiar images that come to mind when talking about Dracula; sitting in a huge gothic castle full of mystery surrounded by foggy weather and cloudy sky at the time of the full moon; it is a portrait of a psychopath-sadistic murderer, who is covered in blood, who drinks blood, who is a human dealer. “Transylvania” always takes place in the collective memory as the geography that is thought to be home to the person who has almost become a myth with such images. Erdel, as we know it, is a historical and geographical mountainous region in today’s Romania… Although this information is not one hundred percent correct; The person in question is none other than Vlad Tepeş III, who has been feeding the horror and thriller literature, tales and myths all over the world for a century, and who takes his name from his father, who is known around the world. Known as the “Voivode with Impaler” in both the European public and the Ottoman world during his lifetime, III.Vlad Tepeş was the prince of the Wallahya region, or the Wallachian Province as the Ottomans called it, in the middle of the 15th century. His previous story, on the other hand, contains a real veil of secrecy. The reason is hidden in Tepeş’s personal and political relationship with the Ottoman Empire, which started from his childhood.

Feed the crow, let it cut out your eye!

It’s all about Dracula’s father, World War II. It begins with the defeat of Vlad against the Ottomans in the war in the early 1440s. Among the captives taken by the Ottoman forces after the war, Vlad’s son, in other words, III. There is also Vlad. He lived under the auspices of the Ottomans for 6 years in his childhood. The place where Vlad, who was only 12 years old when he was captured by the Ottoman raiders, stayed; Due to the fact that it was destroyed by the Bulgarians in the Balkan Wars, today is the famous Edirne Palace, where the winds blow. Before the capital city of the state was moved to Istanbul, since the center of the administration was Edirne, II. Mehmet (Fatih) used to live here as well. It is known that they attended the lectures given by Molla Gürani together.It is a complete mystery how the character of Vlad III, who will be a fierce Muslim and Turkish enemy in the future, was shaped in this way as a result of what kind of influences and events, before returning to Wallachia after he left the palace and regained his freedom. In short, what was going on in that short historical period of time remained in the dark pages of history and went to a kind of grave with the deceased.

The origin of the name and after the departure from the Ottoman Empire…

His later nickname “Tepeş” was given by the Vlachs, the main ethnic group in Romania at that time, and meant “executioner”. On the other hand, the surname “Drakul”, which he inherited from his father, had the meaning of “devil”. That is, together with “Demon Executioner III. Vlad”!!..

III. Although Vlad tried to lead Wallachia with the push of the Ottomans while the Second Kosovo War was still going on, he could not succeed and the current voivode (prince) of Wallachia, supported by the Kingdom of Hungary, II. He was defeated by Vladislav and subsequently went into exile in Moldavia. He turned the situation of Erdel Bey’s giving a unit to Vlad to undertake the defense of southern Erdel while he was going to Belgrade to defend the city against the Ottomans, to his advantage, and immediately organized an expedition to Wallachia and II. By killing Vladislav, he becomes the new prince of Wallachia.

Sultan II. Shortly after receiving the title of Fatih, Mehmet Fatih made a historical mistake that he could not foresee in any way, with the support he gave to Vlad Tepeş, who made a special effort to establish good tactical relations with him, even if it was a trick at that time, to come to the Principality of Wallachia in this way in 1456. it gets thrown. At first, Dracula, who was appreciated by regularly paying taxes to the Ottomans and defeating the enemies on the border of the empire many times, soon went through an almost psychopathological inner transformation and became the biggest sado-maniac human butcher in history, and it was time for the blood bath for Wallachia and its surroundings.

Vlad Tepes III is Up for Duty as a Late Medieval Terminator!

Tepeş, who first started to ignore the Ottomans about taxes, taking advantage of Mehmet the Conqueror’s involvement in the looting and conquest of other lands in the Black Sea Basin and the Peloponnese, and then massacred the envoys and delegations sent by unimaginable tortures; In time, it will spread its cruelty to all Danube lengths with its south and north. The deeds of the notorious Count Dracula, whose cruelty, cruelty and murderousness spread from language to language, from village to village during his first reign of 6 years, were described at length, especially in German, Central European and Russian sources.

The most well-known technique of Tepeş, which went down in history with the new torture methods it invented; is to get people killed, mostly alive, by putting them on stakes. It was based on the fact that people, who first had their arms and legs broken, put their breeches on sharp stakes, pierced their internal organs step by step, and died in pain and suffering over time, causing internal bleeding and tears in the person. It is described in many sources that he ate a square meal out of pleasure in the ring formed by the people he had impaled. One of the most famous of the tortures that exceeded the limits of imagination, especially against the Ottoman Turks,It was an anecdote confirmed by many sources that one day, after gathering all the beggars of the city and giving them a feast, he set the table on fire and burned them alive. It is known that the Ottoman ambassadors and representatives, who did not want to take off their turbans and turbans, had their heads directly on their skulls.

Vlad Tepeş, who gradually loses himself and gets out of his mind, has his job; It goes as far as the blood-curdling methods of cutting off women’s breasts and having their children’s heads sewn instead. Again, he adds savagery to his savagery with torture techniques such as having his children cut and boiled in their mothers and their mothers in cauldrons, this time forcing their children to eat them. Incidents such as tearing the belly of her lover who says she is pregnant, and impaling a priest with his donkey are now ordinary and ordinary moves for Dracula.

Bran Castle identical to Dracula      

As part of our long-term cultural tour to Romania, we also visit the castles identical to Vlad Tepeş III Dracula and see the house where he was born. The fact that the brother of a Canadian citizen in our group is also the author of the last book written on Dracula adds a different atmosphere to the subject: “Vlad – The Last Confession / CC Humphreys” In the early 13th century, in a part of Wallachia, which was then called “Burzenland”, in the Carpathian Mountains. Bran Castle, which was founded by Teutonic knights of Germanic origin in order to hold the deep valley where it started, is only 45 minutes away from the famous culture and tourism city Braşov today. The famous gothic castle Bran, located right on the border of the Erdel and Wallachian Principalities of the time, is among the national monuments of Romania today. Although known as the main castle in Bram Stoker’s Dracula,in fact, Vlad Tepes only passed through here a few times and probably stayed for short periods. Today, works of art and furniture from Queen Maria can be seen inside. On the other hand, with the arrangements made between 2006 and 2009, the ownership of the world-famous castle was given to the grandchildren of its former heirs, and then the management of the castle and museum was handed over to the archduke family in the same way.

The house where Vlad Tepeş was born in Sighişoara

The house where the bloodiest name in Romanian history was born and which is now a museum, is ironically located in one of the most beautiful cities of the country. Sighişoara, which was included in the “World Heritage List” by UNESCO and declared “the best preserved medieval city in Europe”, is also called Schaesburg in German, aside from the strangeness of its name. As you descend from the central square, Piata Cetatii, the following is written at the entrance of the 3-storey, slightly curved and high-roofed yellow building standing in the corner on the right facade: “14-15. It was built between centuries. Between 1431 and 1436 it was the residence of Vlad Dracu (Dracula’s father). Vlad Tepes Dracula was born in this house in 1431”. Today, the second and third floors of the house, which is a gift shop before the main entrance, and a Dracula-themed and cool cafe-restaurant on the ground floor, is a museum. Those who expect a lot of personal clothes and jewelry about Dracula may dream of silence, but still, this memorial-museum is beautifully designed from the bottom up as an ambiance. After seeing the guns, portraits and pictures left by him, one goes upstairs to the main floor, accompanied by New Age music with the theme of horror and tension. Here, busts of Vlad Tepeş, a dining table, eccentric candlesticks, curtains, etc., accompanied by a show performed by a man in a vampire costume in the entrance hall. visible at first glance.

The real Dracula Castle in the Carpathians: Poenari

III. There is a castle where Vlad Tepeş lived for a long time, but which is more or less in ruins today. The entrance of the famous castle can be reached in half an hour with exactly 1500 stairs and an average climb from the river valley passing below in the Argeş region. The castle, which sits on a huge rocky mass, is covered with natural and ancient forests and dominates all around. The castle, which was built by the rulers of the Bessarabia region, which would later be named Moldova, in the 13th century, has been one of the residences of the Wallachian princes since the 14th century. Realizing the strategic value of the location of the castle, Vlad the Impaler, who had it repaired and strengthened, used this place for many years. n.During the Ceausescu period, in the 70s and 80s, believing that this was the castle that Bram Stoker described in his famous novel, countless foreign tourists tried to spend the night inside the castle and opened exceptional pages in the history of the building. However, after a Dutch researcher named Hans Corneel de Roos, based on Stoker’s manuscripts, the castle, which the Irish novelist meant and described at length, is exactly 200 km from Poenari Castle. It turned out to be another castle located at an altitude of 2000 meters in the Carpathian Mountains, on the northeastern side of Transylvania. Indeed, Stoker had neither seen nor heard of this castle in his life. In the TV series “Da Vinci’s Codes”, which recently played on a Romanian television channel, Leonardo Da Vinci brought Vlad Tepes III here,that is, it was shown on the way to visit Count Dracula…

“This article was published in the monthly journal ‘Hayat Dergi’.”

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Istanbul Travel Guide 2026: Your All-in-One Resource: Explore Must-See Attractions, Curated Itineraries, Budget-Friendly and Accessible Stays, Up-to-Date Essentials, and Sustainable Travel Tips

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Lonely Planet Istanbul (Travel Guide)

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To The City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul

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DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Turkey (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

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DK Top 10 Istanbul (Pocket Travel Guide)

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Conversational Turkish Dialogues: Over 100 Turkish Conversations and Short Stories (Conversational Turkish Dual Language Books)

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A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey

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Bake Sale

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Lonely Planet Pocket Istanbul (Pocket Guide)

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LYCIAN WAY HIKING GUIDE 2026 – 2027: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Turkey’s Legendary Mediterranean Long-Distance Route (The Explorer’s Footpath Series)

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The Mini Rough Guide to Istanbul and the Aegean Coast: Travel Guide with eBook

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Turkey Travel and Exploration Guide - 2025: The Ultimate Traveler's Guide to Turkey from the Experiences of a Local Guide

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Fodor's Essential Turkey (Full-color Travel Guide)

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© Photos and Text by Okay Deprem http://www.northtravel.org/

Months later, I am back in Bulgaria, the land of forests and mountains. This time with the group of a tourism agency, to see many more cities, settlements and discover the hidden paradises and hidden oases of the country. While Turkey is starting to scorch with the summer heat, in Bulgaria, the neighboring country in the northwest, it is sometimes quite cool and even rainy; In short, the weather conditions are observed in the last week of June. After leaving the historical city of Kazanlak, which is almost in the middle of the country, after passing through the village of Shipka and its famous passage and of course seeing its huge monument, after leaving behind the cities and towns named Etara, Gabrovo and Drianovo, in the first place, Arbanassi, a historical village of Veliko Tarnovo Municipality. We’re standing too.

Arbanassi Village and Albanian origin

Arbanassi is full of valuable churches from the 17th and 18th centuries and examples of civil architectural structures built around the period when the Bulgarians called it “National Awakening”, “National Revival”, or “Rebirth” and were built around the time they became independent from the Ottoman Empire.

As in many other parts of the country, this place has undergone a very masterful total restoration – renovation and reconstruction work, and it must be admitted that Bulgarians are much more successful, serious and stable than Turkey in this respect. Only 4 km from Veliko Tarnovo. Arbanassi, located on a large plateau in the middle of a large town called Gorna Oryahovitsa, sheds light on an interesting historical information, above all, in terms of its etymological roots.

The name of the village is derived from an Albanian word called “Arbanas” meaning “agricultural worker”, “agricultural worker”. And again, the word Albanian in Turkish was formed by deriving from this word root.

Although its population is only a few hundred thousand, Arbanassi Village has become an important touristic destination and frequented place in recent years. According to some historians, Bulgarian settlement started in the village after the victory of the famous Bulgarian Boyar Ivan Arsen II, near Klokotnitsa in 1280, against the Byzantine forces, with whom they were in constant struggle during the Classical Middle Ages. Since there were mostly Albanians in the settlement at that time, its current name was formed.

The first written document on the history of Arbanassi is seen in an edict issued by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I (Kanuni). The edict in which he declared that he had gifted the Grand Vizier Azam, the large land and settlements in the vicinity, to Rüstem Pasha. As we learn from the chronicles, the first settlers were Greeks as well as Albanians, but also in Arbanassi.

As a matter of fact, we see that the Bulgarian tribes, who had just spread to these lands in ancient times and were not mixed with the proto-Slovs living in this region at that time, wrote in the old Greek alphabet when they did not have their own alphabet. It is known that the people of Arbanassi have spoken Greek for centuries as well as the official language of all churches.

Just like everywhere else in the Bulgarian lands, we encounter a very strong craft tradition and an ambiance in which all kinds of handicrafts and manufactures are still kept alive. Almost all of them are on display in their restored, Ottoman-Turkish mansions, reminiscent of 2-storey wooden houses, and are offered to tourists by the women in local clothes on the street.

The City Linking the Medieval and the Present: Veliko Tarnovo  

It would not be an exaggeration to say that Veliko Tarnovo means the same thing for the historical lands of Bulgaria as Toledo, the former capital of the Kingdom of Castile, means for Spain. Tarnovo, the capital of the province of the same name, is spread over the geography on the hills called Tsarevets, Trapezitsa and Sveta, formed by the legendary Yantra River and deep valleys split by its tributaries.

Veliko Tarnovo, which was the capital city of the 2nd of the 3 Bulgarian Kingdoms in history, is often called the “City of the Tsars”. Legendary with its unique and rare architecture, extraordinary virgin and green nature, Tarnovo attracts a considerable number of tourists every year, both from within the country and from many different parts of the world.

Veliko Tarnovo, which was seen as one of the cultural cities of Europe in the Middle Ages, is named after; at the same time, it gives its fame to the “Tarnovo Art School”, which has gone far beyond its borders, especially for the art of icon and fresco painting, and its magnificent architecture.

Veliko Tarnovo, which was a very important economic, educational and cultural center until the Ottoman Empire conquered these lands, until the end of the 14th century, is derived from the Slavic words “Velikiy” meaning big and “Tranov” meaning thorny. It can be thought that before the first settlements were established in the area by the proto-Thracian tribes, this place had a wild flora covered with thorny wild plants. Long before it was settled by the Bulgars, who first broke away from Central Asia as a union of proto-Turkic clans, then crossed the Danube tribes by crossing the Bessarabia regions after splitting into 5 branches in the North Caspian hinterland in front Asia. Tarnovo and its surroundings have a civilization history dating back to 3000 years.

Tsarevets Hill

Tsarevets is the name of the highest, largest and central hill of Tarnovo on which the medieval castle of the same name is located. The 2 Bulgarian Kingdoms, which ruled between 1185 and 1393, are surrounded by very thick and high walls, with royal and patriarchal palaces, the mansions and residences of the aristocrats of the Middle Ages, that is, the large landowners, and the houses of the bourgeois class that will gradually form. Tsarevets is a castle. As one of the best surviving Middle Age castles in Europe, especially in terms of defensive walls; yet from afar, the magnificent castle gives the feeling of being on a historical movie set. Especially, after walking one of the historical bridges passing through the deep valley split by the river, on the left, the symbol of the city and the castle;The giant stone lion statue holding the shield with the city’s emblem in its claws, and the historical stony entrance road extending beyond it, and the castle bastions that are gradually growing towards the hills, the defense towers and the historical patriarchal palace, cathedral and tower located at the top, stand out in all their majesty.

A Bulgarian castle would later be built around the castle, where a Byzantine city was founded in the 4th century, will be used by famous Bulgarian kings such as II. Asen, Petar,  Koloyan, Ivan until the end of the 14th century. Castle was opened to touristic visits in 1981, in memory of the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the first Bulgarian state in history, after a half-century renovation process that started in 1930.

Today, more of the foundations and ruins of the royal palace can be seen inside the castle complex, which was heavily damaged during the conflicts and wars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Castle church with post-modern frescoes

The walls of the castle, which includes the Throne Hall, the early Christian-Orthodox church called “God’s Ascension to the Holy Sky”, the king’s other rooms and halls, the residence buildings and residences located on a 5000 square meter plot, and the patriarchate complex spread over a total area of ​​3000 square meters. They can reach up to 3.5 meters in thickness and 8-10 meters in height. The post-modern lines of the repainted frescoes of the church, which was restored in 1981, of the medieval castle, which is understood to have been built on a very large massive rocky mass; his extraordinary and striking compositions are enough to arouse astonishment and surprise in those who see them. The murals here briefly show that the 2nd Bulgarian Kingdom was full of glory. It is covered with paintings depicting its tragic end when it was destroyed by the Ottoman raids.

One of the biggest bastions within the castle draws attention with its historical story as well as its name: Baldwin Tower. At that time, the Khan of the Bulgarians, Kaloyan, who was in a great struggle with Byzantium, imprisoned Baldwin, one of the Latin Emperors, whom he had taken prisoner during a campaign in Constantinople, in the dungeon of the castle in Veliko Tarnovo, where he brought as a prisoner.

Thus, Baldwin I, descendant of the Crusaders, who was the architect of the greatest looting and massacres in history, found the end he deserved by dying here. A total of 400 structures, including the foundations and walls of the houses and residences of the shops of the rich tradesmen and craftsmen of the Classical Middle Ages, 4 monasteries and the remains of more than 22 churches were discovered in the vast land where the castle is spread.

As we are accustomed to typical medieval stories, the method in which criminals were executed by being thrown from the cliff of the castle towards the river was also valid here. In 1300, for example, the Bulgarian Tsar Theodore Svetoslav had the then Patriarch Joachim executed in this way.

“This article was published in the monthly journal ‘Hayat Dergi’.”

Istanbul Travel Guide 2026: Your All-in-One Resource: Explore Must-See Attractions, Curated Itineraries, Budget-Friendly and Accessible Stays, Up-to-Date Essentials, and Sustainable Travel Tips

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The Rough Guide to Turkey (Travel Guide with eBook) (Rough Guide Main Series)

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Istanbul Travel Guide 2025: Discover Istanbul’s Top Attractions, Hidden Gems, Cultural Highlights, Timely Itineraries, and Budget-Friendly Hacks for Every Traveler

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On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul

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Rick Steves Istanbul: With Ephesus & Cappadocia

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Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds

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Wonders of Istanbul: A Photo Collection of the City’s Most Beautiful Places to See – A Stunning Coffee Table Travel Photobook

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The Turkish Cookbook

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Istanbul For First Timers: A Local's Travel Guide To Turkiye's Hidden Gems and Culture

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The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax (Mrs. Pollifax Series Book 2)

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Turkish Cookbook: Exploring the Food of a Timeless Cuisine

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Istanbul Travel Guide 2025: Discover Istanbul’s Top Attractions, Hidden Gems, Cultural Highlights, Timely Itineraries, and Budget-Friendly Hacks for Every Traveler

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Lonely Planet Turkiye (Travel Guide)

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The Christian Traveler's Guide to the Holy Land

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LYCIAN WAY HIKING GUIDE 2026 – 2027: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Turkey’s Legendary Mediterranean Long-Distance Route (The Explorer’s Footpath Series)

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DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Turkey (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

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Fodor's Essential Turkey (Full-color Travel Guide)

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DK Top 10 Istanbul (Pocket Travel Guide)

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The Mini Rough Guide to Istanbul and the Aegean Coast: Travel Guide with eBook

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