Hotels: Miziya, 1 star, 3 storeys, 140 beds, restaurant, night club and coffee shop. Tel. 25-33. Balkan and Moskva — Gladston St. Balkan tourist Office — tel. 25-33.
Bulgarian Motorists' Union — 1 Kiril and Metodii St., tel. 40-14; car repair shop — tel. 46-03.
From Turgovishte take the road for Shoutnen (pop. 94,500) — large administrative, industrial and cultural centre. The Romans built a strong fortress here on the ruins of a fortified Thracian settlement. In the 6th-7th century it was captured by the Slavs. During the First Bulgarian State the fortress was part of the fortified quadrangle Pliska-Madara-Shou- men fortress — Khan Omourtag's settlement on the River Ticha. It was also an important point during the Second Bulgarian State. In 1388 the town yielded to Ottoman invaders and in 1444 was seized by the troops of Wladyslaw III Yagelo (Var- nenchik). After his defeat at Varna, the Ottomans retrieved the fortress abandoning it later because it was heavily damaged. In the 18th and 19th centunes German, French and Belgian engineers helped turn Shoumen once more into a strong fortress, this time it formed part of the fortified quadrangle Rous- se-Silistra-Shoumen-Varna.
During the National Revival, Shoumen was a centre for Bulgarian national culture, influenced by Austro-Hungary. One of these emigrants was Lajos Kossuth who became a leader of the revolution. The first Bulgarian orchestra was founded in 1851, and the Bulgarian national theatre was founded in 1856,
Today Shoumen is one of the country's biggest industrial centres.
Tourist sights:
District History Museum, 10 d. Blagoev St. The exhibition is arranged in several buildings.
Tombul Mosque — the largest in the country, preserved from Ottoman times, built with material from the old Bulgarian capitals of Pliska and Veliki Preslav, Madara and the Shoumen fortress. The courtyard of the mosque housed a Turkish primary school, a theological school and a library. There is an ethnographic exhibition in the school.
lt 300 Years of Bulgaria Memorial — stands on Ilchov Bair hill.
Vassil Kolarov Museum, 11 T. Ikonomov St.
Lajos Kossuth Museum, where he lived in 1849-1850.
The Common Grave with a monument to those who fell against capitalism and fascism sofia guided tours.
Hotels: Madara — 3 stars, 7 floors, accommodating 140, restaurant, coffee shop, national taverna, information and rent-a-car offices. Tel. 5-75-98.
Sofia — 37 Tsar Osvoboditei St.
Balkantourist office, hotel Madara, tel. 5-75-98
Car-repair shop, 14 Gagarin St., tel. 5-20-84
Shoumen-Razgrad (49 km)
A short detour northwest leads to (pop. 55,000).
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