Стара Загора

The city with eight names

Stara Zagora is the sixth largest city in Bulgaria, located in the Upper Thracian lowland at the foot of Sredna Gora. The area has been inhabited since the 8th millennium BC. — here are some of the oldest Neolithic dwellings in Europe, dating from the middle of the 6th millennium BC. and discovered in 1968. These are the best-preserved and richest Neolithic dwellings in the entire continent. The largest mining center from the 5th millennium BC was also discovered nearby. — copper mines about 7,600 years old, the oldest in Europe. The city is known by eight historical names: Beroe (Thracian), Augusta Traiana (Roman), Irinopolis (Byzantine), Borui (early Bulgarian), Vereia (late medieval), Eski Zagra (Ottoman), Zheleznik and Stara Zagora. The Thracian settlement of Beroe was founded around the V-IV century BC. In 106 AD Emperor Trajan founded the Roman city of Ulpia Augusta Traiana as a self-governing municipality. Under the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161–180), the city reached its heyday, with paved streets, a forum, water supply and sewerage, ornate temples and residential buildings. The city gets the right to mint its own coins. It is known for its extraordinary mosaics — over 20 have been discovered, including the remarkable Procession of Dionysus mosaic (discovered 2011). In 812, Irinopolis was again Bulgarian and bore the name Borui, after the victorious war of Khan Krum. In the Middle Ages, the city was an important center, but when it fell under Ottoman rule (1370) it was destroyed, and gradually it was rebuilt as Eski Zagra (Old Zagora). The most tragic page in history was the burning of Stara Zagora on July 31, 1877 during the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation. General Gurko initially liberated the city, but during Suleiman Pasha's counterattack, the city was burned to the ground, thousands of residents died. Stara Zagora literally ceases to exist. After the Liberation, it was rebuilt according to a modern town planning plan by the Austro-Hungarian architect Lubor Bayer (1878) with a rectangular checkerboard street network — one of the first planned cities in Bulgaria. On October 5, 1879, the chief governor of Eastern Rumelia, Aleko Bogoridi, laid the symbolic first stone for the restoration. Today, Stara Zagora is known for its rich cultural life. The second opera institution in Bulgaria is located here - the Stara Zagora State Opera (founded in 1925, second only to the Sofia Opera), the Geo Milev Drama Theater - the oldest theater in Thrace, and the Ayazmoto Park - a natural landmark and green oasis, created in 1895 as the first European-type urban park in Bulgaria. The archaeological complex "Augusta Traiana" presents the remains of the Roman city in the center of the modern.