Shipka (town)

Shipka ( Bulg Шипка ) is a town in southern Bulgaria in the town of Kazanlak, Stara Zagora Province. The city is located directly at the southern exit of the mountain pass of the same. From the north it is bounded by the Balkan Mountains.

Shipka ( to German hip ) is due to two strategically important roads that unite North and South Bulgaria over the slightly passable pass. The two roads merge here, are: from the Danube on Pleven ( Плевен ), Lovech ( Ловеч ), Sevlievo and Ruse over Veliko Tarnovo and Shumen to Edirne ( Turkey today; Bulg Одрин / Odrin ).

History

The first signs of settlement originate from a Thracian settlement, which was located near the present town.

After the fall of Bulgaria under Ottoman Turkish rule in 1398 a fortified village for Derbendji was by the Ottomans built here, which should protect the nearby pass of Hajduks. International fame learned the former village during the 7th Russian - Ottoman War ( 1877-1878 ).

Near the city the important Battle of Shipka took place during the war. The battle and the region was of Ivan Vazov on the subject of his epic epic of the Forgotten ( Bulg Епопея на забравените ). As a memorial to the fallen Russian soldiers the Shipka Monastery with the Church of the Nativity of Jesus was in place (also called Shipka Memorial Church ) was built. Above the city is also the Schipkadenkmal was built.

In 2004, a team of Bulgarian archaeologists discovered under the leadership of Georgi Kitov at Shipka in a royal grave of the Thracians, among numerous other grave goods, a 500 gram heavy mask of pure gold. It is the first known Thrakermaske of pure gold, as earlier were merely coated with the precious metal. The scientists they arranged according to initial investigations Seutus King III. to, who reigned BC in the region in the fifth century.

The Schipkadenkmal

Shipka (red square ) - Bulgaria - neighboring towns: Gabrovo, Kazanlak, Pleven ( in the north), Stara Zagora (south)