Preslav

Preslav became the capital of Bulgaria in 893, when Boris I chose his son Simeon to rule and moved the court from Pliska. Palaces, churches and workshops made the city a centre of the Bulgarian Golden Age. The Preslav Literary School nurtured writers such as John Exarch and Constantine of Preslav, while its craftsmen produced glazed tiles and ceramic icons. The Round Church and royal palace reflected the ambitions of a Christian court.

War shattered the old capital in the late tenth century. After occupation by the Rus' prince Sviatoslav, the Byzantine emperor John Tzimiskes took and plundered the city. Preslav regained political importance during the restoration of Bulgarian rule in the late twelfth century, when Peter IV resided there while his brother Ivan Asen ruled from Tarnovo. Its fortunes declined again in the thirteenth century; after Tatar raids in the 1270s, inhabitants established a smaller settlement north of the old fortress.