Secrets of the ancient town of Urdovisa

published on 11/14/12 1:28 PM

Photo: Архив

Archaeologists working at a site in the Black Sea town of Kiten organised a day of open doors on November 10th to show the locals and the guests of the town their discoveries during the past season. Archaeologists have revealed the walls of the ancient city of Urdovisa, which existed on the peninsula bearing the same name. According to linguists, the name Urdovisa has Thracian roots and means “the upper fortress.” It is also known that the ancient city itself is much older than the fortress walls.

“We are currently studying the western fortress wall, which was built in the 6th century AD,” Associate professor Krastina Panayotova told Radio Bulgaria. “In the Middle Ages there were at least three reconstructions of the wall, which was made thicker. It seems that the wall served for the protection of a big, well-developed and rich town.”

The Urdovisa wall was built during the time of Emperor Anastasius /491-518/. During that time Goths, Avars, and Slavs often attacked the Byzantine Empire. The fortification is well-preserved these days. It is 5-6 meters high and there are three defense towers.
The town is marked on a number of Italian maps dating back to the 12th-14th century. Data shows that in 1352 in a war with Genoa the city paid 10,000 golden ‘perpers’ in order not to be attacked by the arriving ships.

There is an interesting legend about the fall of the city under Ottoman rule in 1453. The defense of Urdovisa was led by a very beautiful woman called Byala Stana (White Stana). Under her command the defenders stopped several attacks inflicting heavy losses upon the Ottomans. That was when the sultan asked Stana to become his wife and the city to be her dowry. She agreed under the condition that the territory around the city remains a free zone. The sultan said that a territory in Strandzha and the region that a horseman could circle for a day would remain free. Stana hid several horses in the mountain, which the rider changed and thus managed to fool the sultan, circling a vast area. The last horse fell dead from exhaustion near the bay of Atliman (“Horse Bay”). This was how 17 villages remained part of the free territory, which survived until 1834. The coastal town, however, was abandoned in the 17th century as just like other Black Sea towns it often suffered from the pirate attacks of Cossacks.

What artifacts did archaeologists discover this season?
“We have a number of artifacts showing that people have lived on this peninsula since the 6th century BC,” Associate professor Panayotova says. “We have discovered pottery, coins, and a very interesting bronze arrow, which is a coin at the same time. All this shows that an emporium or a ‘marketplace’ existed here.”

Archaeologists have also discovered glaze kilns for the production of pottery, while the big number of discovered coins helps them say more about the lives of the people and their trade relations. It is known that merchants from Northern Africa, Constantinople and Tessaloniki often visited the ancient town of Urdovisa.

English version: Alexander Markov

По публикацията работи: Veneta Pavlova

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Secrets of the ancient town of Urdovisa

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