Missionis Fortress

The town of Missionis is an archaeological site representing the predecessor of modern Targovishte. It dates from Early Byzantine and medieval Bulgarian history, encompassing the fourth–sixth, ninth–tenth and twelfth–fourteenth centuries.
The town lies in the Parka locality, seven kilometres southwest of Targovishte and a one-kilometre walk from the main Sofia–Varna road, in the Dervent Pass on a height of the Preslav Balkan Mountains. The ruins of a fortress covering nineteen decares have been uncovered, associated in local tradition with Khan Krum's victory over the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros. The complex includes defensive walls with towers, two basilicas of the fifth–seventh century, an early Bulgarian settlement of the ninth–tenth century and a gate of the late medieval fortress of the twelfth–fourteenth century.
Renewed archaeological investigations of the fortress and its surroundings over the last decade have transformed perceptions of its antiquity. Instead of being regarded as an ordinary guard fortress, the site has been identified as a medieval town. It is characterised as a large, flourishing commercial and Christian spiritual centre that existed from the early fourth to the late fourteenth century.
The fortifications enclose 120 decares, and in the fourteenth century the town extended over 700 decares. It played a key role in the trade of Early Byzantium and the medieval Bulgarian state and was important to the defence of the Bulgarian capitals Veliki Preslav and Veliko Tarnovo. The prosperous town was plundered, destroyed and burnt by Ottoman conquerors in the late fourteenth century. Historical memory of it then faded. In the late twentieth century, however, knowledge of Missionis was revived in public consciousness. Objects found during investigations are displayed in the permanent archaeological exhibition of the Regional Museum of History in Targovishte.