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Veliko Tarnovo to restore Medieval Tsar’s Public Bath with Norwegian funding

Monday, Feb 01, 2016

The city of Veliko Tarnovo in Central North Bulgaria, which is the successor of the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396) Tarnovgrad, is going to restore the building of medieval public baths (thermae), which is known as Tsar Shishman’s Bath, and may have been associated with one of the last medieval Bulgarian Tsars.

Veliko Tarnovo is famous first and foremost for the fortified citadels of late medieval Tarnovgrad, the Tsarevets Hill Fortress and the Trapesitsa Hill Fortress (read more about these top archaeological landmarks in the Background Infonotes below).

However, Veliko Tarnovo Municipality has been looking to expand the number of archaeological, historical, and cultural sites that can be restored and made accessible for tourists.

It has now won funding from the EEA Grants / Norway Grants for the restoration of the only surviving thermae (public baths) from the period of the Second Bulgarian Empire named Tsar Shishman’s Bath, after the last Tsar of Tarnovgrand, Tsar Ivan Shishman (r. 1371-1395) before the capital was conquered by the invading Ottoman Turks after a three-month siege in 1393 AD.

The funding from the Norwegian government for the restoration of Tsar Shishman’s Bath in Bulgaria’s Veliko Tarnovo amounts to BGN 750,000 (app. EUR 325,000), reports local daily Yantra Dnes.

The restoration project has been developed by architects Ivan Cholakov and Rumyana Braynova.

The project is entitled “The Cultural Heritage of the City of Veliko Tarnovo in the Focus of European Cultural Diversity", and is supposed to be completed by April 2017. In addition to completing the archaeological restoration, it is also expected to provide employment for unemployed members of the local Roma community.

The ruins of Tsar Shishman’s Bath are presently in a bad condition because they have been left unprotected in the open for decades. Part of the walls and hypocaust (underfloor heating) of the medieval thermae have survived to this day.

Tsar Shishman’s Bath has been granted the status of a “monument of culture of national importance"; it is located in Veliko Tarnovo’s Asen’s Quarter, between two churches, the Dormition of the Mother of God (Virgin Mary) Church, and the St. Apostles Peter and Paul Church, which dates back to the 13th century.

Because of its size and location, it is the only known medieval thermae building of its kind in Bulgaria; other ruins of medieval baths have been found in the Bulgarian imperial palace on the Tsarevets Hill and in the homes of the boyars (medieval Bulgarian nobles) but there are substantially smaller, explains Nelina Tsarova, head of the Culture and Tourism Directorate of Veliko Tarnovo Municipality, who is the coordinator of the restoration project.

There is no specific historical or archaeological data as to why the thermae were named after Tsar Ivan Shishman so some historians believe that the building may have been erected during his reign. Another hypothesis is that his name was adopted simple because he was the last medieval Bulgarian Tsar to reign in Tarnovgrad.

Tsar Shishman’s Bath was first explored by Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist Karel Skorpil (1859-1944), the father of modern-day Bulgarian archaeology, back in 1893, who also explored the Tsarevets Hill Fortress, the Trapesitsa Hill Fortress, and Asen’s Quarter.

The thermae ruins were later explored by architect Georgi Kozarov (1872-1953) who described the location of two bathing rooms and a warm water tank located to the east of them.

The site of the thermae was expropriated by Veliko Tarnovo Municipality in the 1980s, and the first archaeological excavations there were started in 1983 by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yordan Alexiev.

The digs revealed coins and ceramics from the 15th and 16th century taken as evidence that the public bath was in operation during that period after Tarnovgrad was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, and Bulgaria was made part of the Ottoman Empire. However, the excavations failed to find out the exact period when the building was constructed. They did the reveal the ventilation system of the thermae, and the original flooring made of marble slabs.

The first project for the restoration of the building was developed in 1984 by architect Milka Kusheva.

Tsar Shishman’s Bath will be restored as part of the ensemble of medieval buildings in Veliko Tarnovo’s Asen’s Quarter which include the St. Apostles Peter and Paul Church, the St. Ivan Rilski Church, the St. George Church, and the St. Dimitar Solunski (St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki) Church.

The report of the Yantra daily points out that the ruins of three more medieval public baths can be found nearby even though these buildings, or whatever is left of them, have not been granted the status of culture monuments.

One of them was destroyed in an earthquake in 1913. Another one, which features Ottoman architectural decoration motifs, was in use until about 50 years ago. After 1989 (i.e. the end of the communist period), the building became municipal property, and was sold to a private firm which used is for the production of sweets and pastry.

Source: archaeologyinbulgaria.com