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Hidden gem1st – 6th c. ADFree

Storgosia

Сторгозия

fort · Pleven Province, Bulgaria

What it is
Storgosia is a late Roman fortress in Kaylaka Park, in the south of Pleven, whose restored walls and gates stand among the trees of a public park (bg.wikipedia; the Regional Historical Museum Pleven; de.wikipedia).
What you’ll see
Excavation has uncovered the fortress wall with its gates and towers, houses, a public granary and an early Christian basilica (the museum; bg.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
If you are in Pleven, yes, as a walk in the park: the ruins are open, the setting is green and a marked hiking trail starts about 400 m away (OpenStreetMap).
Getting there & cost
The fortress is in Kaylaka Park, in the gorge of the Tuchenitsa river on the south side of Pleven (bg.wikipedia; de.wikipedia). Car parks are mapped about 270 m and 415 m away, and no bus stop is mapped within 800 m (OpenStreetMap).FreeHours, tickets and parking
A narrow paved passage between a high wall of roughly squared stone and a lower wall, leading to a short flight of stone steps.
A passage between the walls. · Photo: Todor Bozhinov / Тодор Божинов · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Restored walls of grey rubble stone enclose a paved rectangular space reached by a short flight of steps, with an information board in front, column shafts standing to the right and woods behind.
Restored walls inside the fortress. · Photo: Todor Bozhinov / Тодор Божинов · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A gravel path climbs a grassy slope through a gap between two tall blocks of stone wall, with trees on either side and a blue sky.
The path into the fortress through a gap in the wall. · Photo: Todor Bozhinov / Тодор Божинов · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

What is there today

Excavation has uncovered the fortress wall with its gates and towers, houses, a public granary and an early Christian basilica (the museum; bg.wikipedia). The basilica was a large church, 45.20 m long and 22.20 m wide, with three aisles and three apses; a second church of the 4th–5th century was found at the foot of the hill (bg.wikipedia; de.wikipedia). The walls were reconstructed in 2005 with European Union funds, so much of what you see is restored masonry (de.wikipedia).

Is it worth the trip?

If you are in Pleven, yes, as a walk in the park: the ruins are open, the setting is green and a marked hiking trail starts about 400 m away (OpenStreetMap). It is a modest site, and the restoration is heavy, so it is not worth a journey on its own.

Getting there

The fortress is in Kaylaka Park, in the gorge of the Tuchenitsa river on the south side of Pleven (bg.wikipedia; de.wikipedia). Car parks are mapped about 270 m and 415 m away, and no bus stop is mapped within 800 m (OpenStreetMap). No operator publishes opening hours or a fee; the ruins lie in a public park and are mapped as open, with no fee (OpenStreetMap).

Visiting details

Tickets
Free
Parking
Car parks are mapped about 270 m and 415 m away (OSM node/7782691953 and way/987684850).
On foot
About 4 min from the parking

Before you go

  • No operator publishes opening hours or a fee; the ruins lie in a public park and OpenStreetMap maps them as open, with no fee.
  • No bus stop is mapped within 800 m.

History

Storgosia began as a Roman road station in the middle of the 1st century, taking the name of a Thracian settlement (the museum). It stood on ground in what is now the centre of Pleven, and a garrison drawn from the legion I Italica at Novae was based there (bg.wikipedia). After the Gothic raids that began in 238, the people moved south to the naturally protected gorge, and early in the 4th century 3.1 ha there were enclosed by a wall 2.20 m thick, of rubble set in white mortar (bg.wikipedia).

The basilica was built between the 4th and the first half of the 5th century and rebuilt in the 6th; in the Middle Ages a new church, houses and a cemetery were built over it (bg.wikipedia). Pottery, weapons and coins show that the fortress lasted until the end of the 6th century, when the Slavs settled the region (bg.wikipedia; de.wikipedia). Under Ottoman rule, probably in the 16th century, its stones were taken to build a wall round the Turkish barracks in Pleven (en.wikipedia).

Nearby

  • A wide view of a grassy excavation with low walls of rough stone, fallen column drums and squared blocks lying in heaps, poppies in the grass and a line of trees behind.

    Photo: Anton Lefterov · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    39 km · city · Pleven Province

    Oescus

    Excavation, begun in 1904, has uncovered the centre of the colony: the forum and the temples, public and private buildings, public baths and shops around it, with parts of the streets and the town walls (the Regional Historical Museum Pleven; en.wikipedia).

  • A re-erected round arch of white stone blocks set in a restored wall of rough stone banded with red brick, with a squat tower of the same masonry behind it and green wooded hills under a blue sky.

    Photo: Elena Chochkova · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Commons

    44 km · fort · Lovech Province

    Sostra

    The fort was rebuilt more than once, and both versions show: the first fort of about 147 had walls rounded at the corners and no towers, while the fort rebuilt from 254 stood inside the old walls and had many towers, as later Roman forts did (en.wikipedia).

  • A plank walkway leading to a gap between two stretches of stone wall, with two information boards standing in front of the wall under a blue sky.

    Photo: MSClaudiu · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    45 km · fort · Olt County

    Sucidava

    On the upper terrace of the Danube stand the defensive walls of the late Roman town (4th–6th centuries) with eight fully exposed towers; the Roman baths, a palaeochristian basilica of the 5th–6th centuries and paved streets have also been found (ro.wikipedia).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 216992CC BY
Wikidata Q743271CC0
OpenStreetMap way/117948219ODbL
Wikipedia (bg) — СторгозияCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (de) — StorgosiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — StorgosiaCC BY-SA 4.0
Regional Historical Museum Pleven — archaeological siteslicence not recorded