Shushmanets Necropolis

In 1996 three Thracian tombs from the Shushmanets Necropolis were discovered near the town of Shipka thanks to the sponsorship of the Helvetia foundation, Switzerland. The tomb from the Griffins’ hill is the most preserved stone beehive tomb, used in V-IV century B.C. as a mausoleum. The two-leaved door has been broken during the plundering of the mold. The tomb was named Helvetia in honor of the Swiss foundation. The floor and the walls are plastered with a thick layer of nail float – boiled milk mixed with marble dust. It is constructed from big stone blocks held together through iron clutches. It includes a long corridor, a rectangular antechamber and a burial chamber. The antechamber and the chamber are covered by a two-slope roof and are plastered in fine whitewash coat, decoratively segmented into rectangular, imitating marble blocks. The two sacrifice furrows and the two buried horses of the Thracian ruler have been preserved at the entrance of the tomb. The Thracian vault Shushmanets consists of a burial chamber and an antechamber with half-cylindrical vault arch, propped up by a Dorian pillar. It is also plastered with nail float in red and white. The central part of the tomb is propped up by an Ionian pillar, serving as a construction element with seven semi-pillars in the vault arch part.