bezoek de website van
het archeologisch museum van Preslav:

Preslav (Bulgarian: Преслав) was the capital of the first Bulgarian Empire from 893 to 972 and one of the main cities of medieval Southeastern Europe. The ruins of the city are at about 20 kilometers southwest of Shumen, and are currently a national archaeological reserve. The name of Preslav is clearly of Slavic origin, apparently it was originally founded as a Slavic settlement until its fortification at the beginning of the 9th century. The proximity of the former Bulgarian capital Pliska has led to the rapid development and expansion of Preslav during the reign of khans Krum and Omurtag. At the coronation of Khan Boris I in 852, Preslav was an important strategic military center. A number of churches were built in the city after the conversion of Bulgarians to Christianity in 864.  The pagan Pliska revolt in 892 was decisive for the future fate of the city. In 893 Vladimir was dethroned and the new ruler, Simeon the Great, decided to move the capital of the state from the still somewhat pagan Pliska to Preslav. In the next 80 years the city develops rapidly and becomes a center not only of Bulgarian politics and diplomacy, but also of culture, literature and fine arts. After Simeon the city continued to develop between 930 and 940 and reached its peak during the reign of Tsar Peter I of Bulgaria. The Preslav Literary School, which was founded in 886 in Pliska and was moved to Preslav  along with the rest of the court in 893, was an important cultural center. The biggest Bulgarian writers of the Old Bulgarian period worked in Preslav: among them John Exarch, Constantine of Preslav, Chernorizets Hrabar. It was probably around the Preslav Literary School that the Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the mid 9th century. The city also had large ceramic workshops, art ceramics, vitrified tiles, ceramic and icons. The prosperity of the city ended in the years 960, when it was occupied by Prince Sviatoslav. In the ensuing war between Byzantine and Ruthenian the city was left devastated by the armies of the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces. The conquerors took off with the treasury, the regalia of the Bulgarian tsars and a large part of the library of Simeon. Although the city didn't loose its interest during the next three hundred years, the outskirts and the great monasteries were desolate, and the economy lost its vitality and meaning.  Preslav partially regained its interest in Bulgarian politics during the early years of the Second Bulgarian Empire under Peter IV of Bulgaria and Ivan Asen I. Apparently Ivan Asen ruled from the center of the emerging Tarnovgrad, while his brother and co-ruler Theodore Peter lived in Preslav as a symbol for the new state of Bulgaria. The strategic benefits of Tarnovgrad were ultimately decisive and the significance of Preslav diminished during the 13th century. The Tatar invasions in the late 1270 forced the last citizens out of Preslav, together with the bishop of the city. Some surviving refugees built a village with the same name two kilometers north of the old fortresses, where the present town of Veliki Preslav still is.