Bulgarian Troy lies near the town of Kardzhali
In the holy town of Perperikon, remained sacred even during Christianity, you can meet antiquity. From the 21st century you can move back to the year 8 000 BC, and you will see one of the world wonders, long sought by the specialists and finally found near the town of Kardzhali – the sanctuary of Dionysus, described by Herodotus. This is the scientists’ hypothesis, as each uncovered centimeter from Perperikon shows. Here the residence of the Thracian Kings used to be and this year’s excavations firmly support that.
The palace was a massive L-shaped building with heavy walls. Part of the walls is cut directly into the rocks and there you can see the niches for the axes of at least three-story palace rising at 15 m height. The building is of stone blocks, quite typical for the megalith construction manner. In harmony with the monumental building is the entry to the royal section. 200 m of stone steps, 3 m wide, lead to the official doorway with a well-preserved threshold. Such a unique entry is seen in Asia Minor.
Near the today’s town of Kardzhali used to be one of the capital cities of the Thracian Kingdom. In that distant past there used to be several capitals – residences. Wherever the King is at the moment, there is the Royal capital city and, respectively, the army and the treasure. The king was the first priest as well, so his residence was also a temple. This explains the huge number of sacrificial altars around the castle – probably over 1000 altogether. Supposedly, each family clan had its own sacrificial altar on some of the steep rocks around.
During the latest excavations a large sacrificial altar, typical for large animals and human sacrificial rituals done at that time. According to the specialists, the castle was constructed in the period 5th-6th century BC. Based on the niches that can be seen in the rocks as well as the rocky thresholds it is possible to create a computer model of the building. In the lowest floor of the palace the archaeologists found five sarcophagi robbed by treasure-hunters. They are dug into the rocky floor, and next to them there are niches for gifts. According to the specialists, important members of the Thracian royal family had been buried there.
Judging by a well-preserved stone pedestal, the archaeologists believe that there used to be an altar in the west section. A crypt of 15 vaults – stone sarcophagi, was found in the northwest part. The name of the castle is definitely of Thracian origin – it is called Perperikon after Per, the god of the stone.
Based on ceramics found there, the scientists presume that the place used to be a center even back into the 12th-11th century BC. Its importance was essential during the Hellenism (3rd-2nd c. BC) and during the Roman period (1st-3rd c. AD). Traces were found from the proto-Bulgarians as well – some paintings in the sacrificial altars that can be interpreted as Umaj, the proto-Bulgarian goddess of fertility. During the 13th-14th c. the castle known as Hiperperokion used to be a regional center and also a bishop’s center in Byzantine.
This fact was documented in an old manuscript at the Oecumenical Patriarchate. The Bulgarian Tsar Ivan Alexander, captured the castle during an army campaign in 1343, and appointed an archon, but very soon the Byzantines took back their castle. Exactly here, in the 20th c., the gold stamp of Tsar Ivan Alexander was found in excavations. Unfortunately that priceless item was stolen from Plovdiv and all the investigations of its whereabouts lead to a private American collection.
Perperikon is the only historical monument chosen by the Ministry of Culture to be the representative in the PHAR programs. The project was developed by the Kardzhali Municipality and it expects to get a funding of 350 000 EURO. Then Perperikon can become a popular spot for the culture tourism in Bulgaria, with the construction of a new road, parking space and a big presentation hall. Then, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of tourist will be able to come and see themselves that unique monument of immense importance, comparable only to places like Delphi, Mycenae and Troy. Until then – you could do that on the Internet, on the following address: www.perperikon.bg