Architecture of The Tarnovo Artistic School - Military Architecture

Military Architecture

During the Second Empire the fortresses were usually built on locations which were difficult to access (hills or plateaus) and thus they sharply differed from the monumental construction in the north-east of the country from the period of the First Bulgarian Empire. The walls of the fortresses were built from stones welded together with plaster; they had two faces and the space between them was filled with a mixture of gravel and plaster (blockage). A wooden scaffolding was built from the inside which protected the walls from collapse until the blockage dried up. The height and thickness of the walls varied depending on the terrain and in the different parts of one castle complex they could vary. The top of the walls and the towers had pinnacles. Counterforts were used as additional protection from landslip.

The tower varied in shape: square, rectangular (the tower in Cherven), circular, oval, triangular, horseshoe-shaped or with irregular shape. Depending on their position and functions they were: entrance, defense, edge or water towers. The later were towers-wells, located in the immediate vicinity of a river in such a way that their foundations soaked up water. The immense fortress Tsarevets in Tarnovo had such water towers. They could be reached by vertical walls from the main stronghold with secret galleries. They were extremely useful during long sieges. In the most difficult place to access in the fortress stood the citadel: a separate rampart in case the outer areas were overrun by the enemy. Examples of such citadels can be found in the castles of Shumen, Lovech, Cherven, Ohrid, Devol and others. As an additional defense some castles had water-filled moats. A fine example of this is Baba Vida in Vidin. In many cases such moat were of no need due to the fine positioning of the fortress. The Yantra river makes double curve around the two main fortresses in the capital Tarnovo, Tsarevets and Trapezitsa and served as a natural water obstacle. Many other castles were protected in a similar way such as Cherven or Prosek. Some seaside strongholds (Kaliakra, Nessebar) also had a natural water barrier. Sometimes the steep rocks were enough defense and walls were built only in vulnerable places. An example of such type of fortress is the Belogradchik Fortress. Often these ramparts looked like ordinary plateaus or hills and hence they were called "hidden fortresses". Many strongholds if that type guarded the mountain passes of Stara Planina between Moesia and Thrace.

A peculiar type of defensive facility was the pirgos (a single tower) called in Western Europe dungeon. It was built inside the fortress without any links to the other edifices. It served as a last refuge for the defenders in case the other parts of the fortress had fallen. Examples for pirgos in the country are the ruins in Matochina (near the Tundzha river), the tower in the Sadovo monastery and the Tower of Hrelyo in the Rila monastery built in 1335 which is completely preserved. It is 23,60 meters high and has five storeys. A cellar is located in its foundations. There was also a well which supplied the defenders with fresh water during sieges. Reinforced counterforts supported the tower. They merge with brick arches and serve as a base for the Transfiguration of God Chapel located at the top of the tower. Most of the pirgos usually had four or five storeys. In the monastery pirgos the most valuable objects (the treasury and the donations) were kept as well as the library.

Military architecture had purely functional purpose. The builder did not follow aesthetic criteria and rarely constructed decorative elements on the fortifications. In fact many castles were part of large defensive systems which covered the frontier regions or ran along the middle of the country. The most important fortification systems were along the Danube to the north, Stara Planina in the Middle, Black Sea to the east, the Rhodopes to the south and Macedonia to the south-west. Apart from the capital Tarnovo, the major Bulgarian fortresses included Vidin, Silistra, Shumen, Cherven, Lovech, Sofia, Plovdiv, Lyutitsa, Ustra, Ohrid, Skopie, Bitola and many others.