Archeological Reserve Abritus

The archeological reserve Abritus is located not far from the town of Razgrad, occupying an area of around 1000 decares. It includes a Roman military settlement, created sometime in the middle of the 1st century. In 251, during the battles with the Gothes, the Roman emperor Desius was killed on the territory of the settlement. Abritus developed rapidly during the ruling of Constantine the Great (306-377) and Justinian the Great (527-565). It was destroyed by the Avars in the end of VI century, but was restored by the Slavs and the Bulgarians over the period VIII-IX. The reserve offers a rich variety of Roman, Thracian and Medieval Bulgarian cultural monuments. The most interesting part of the reserve is the ancient town of Abritus, located on an area of 150 decares. It was found in 1954. Abritus is built in the style of the Roman towns – it has straight streets, and many public buildings, built in the centre around the town’s square. During the excavations, a lot of interesting exponents were found, the most famous being the Golden Pegas, and the biggest late-antique treasure found so far, consisting of 835 golden Roman coins from the V century.