Castle spotlight, Tsarevets Fortress, Bulgaria
From the late 12th century until the end of the 14th century the Second Bulgarian Kingdom was the largest and the most powerful state in Southeastern Europe. Tsarevets Fortress is on a hill bearing the same name in Veliko Tarnovo. The castle was the primary fortress of the Second Bulgarian Empire from 1185 to 1393, housing the royal and the patriarchal palaces. The Tsarevets Hill was the main fortress of the medieval Bulgarian capital Veliko Tarnovo. The hill itself was inhabited as early as the 2nd millennium B.C. The ancient settlement existed even during the Iron Age, but was abandoned in the first centuries of the Roman rule. In the 4th century it was populated again, and at the end...