Bulgaria · 12th century
The Shumen Fortress (Bulgarian: Шуменска крепост, Shumenska krepost) is an archaeological site overlooking the city of Shumen in north-eastern Bulgaria.
It is an ancient fortress with historical links to a village nearby traced to early Iron Age and later owned by the Thracians in the 5th century BC. Then, from 2nd to 4th centuries AD, it was controlled by the Romans who built towers and walls, and it was refurbished by the Byzantines as their garrison town. Shumen thrived in the Middle Ages as an important stronghold of the Bulgarian Empire. In 1444 the fort was destroyed by the Ottomans after their victory in the Battle of Varna over a Christian army under Władysław III of Poland. The fortress remained deserted ever since.
Restoration works on the fortress commenced in 2012 under the project titled “Bulgaria Begins Here”, and was completed partially in 2015 with financial assistance provided under the European Economic Area (EEA) and Norway Grants to the Shumen Municipality and the Shumen Regional Museum of History.
Text adapted from “Shumen Fortress” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Shumen Fortress ranks #2,355 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #8 of the 26 mapped in Bulgaria. Founded c. 1125, it is older than 84% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 756 atlas entries founded in the 12th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,316 times in the last 60 days, more than 58% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Bulgaria compares in the castle statistics.
View on the interactive castle map →