Constantia

Constantia stood above the Maritsa in northern Thrace, on a hill with steep slopes overlooking the river. Fortified in late antiquity, it developed into a substantial medieval town whose defences were repaired in successive periods of Byzantine and Bulgarian rule. Across the river another fortified settlement grew on the low ground. The walls of the older fortress were destroyed in the early thirteenth century, but its position on the Maritsa preserved the memory of a town that had guarded this part of the Thracian plain for centuries.