Graphic rebuilding on ancient city Seuthopolis.

In the course of seven years an extensive research team led by Prof. Dimitar P. Dimitrov conducted rescue excavations of a Thracian town. After the discovery of a large marble inscription it became clear that the name of the town is Seuthopolis. The inscription reflects the contractual relations between Seuthes` heirs and Spartok, dynast of Kabyle (near present day town of Yambol).

The remains of Seuthopolis are located about 8 km west of Kazanlak. The town was built on the ruins of a prior existing fortified royal residence. It was lacated on a small peninsula surrounded to the west and south by Tonzor River (today's Tundzha) and to the east by its tributary, Golyama Varovite (Big Lime River).

The fortress walls outline a irregular pentagon with an area of 50 decares. The urban plan is based on the Hippodamus cinstruction system typical of the Hellenic cities. Streets intersect at right angles, one of them running along the fortress wall. Two of the streets are wider than the rest and lead to the city gates. Neighborhoods lying in-between the interesecting streets are rectangular-shaped, each with 2 or 3 spacious residential houses with large patios. Their soundations are built of stones cemented with mud, the superstructure being rather flimsy. The floors are made of rammed clay, with broken tiles and broken pottery used at places. Almost every house has a clay ground above the floor level serving as an altar associated with various domestic cults.

Southern fortress wall on Seuthopolis.

Important place in the city plan is occupy by the agora (the square), where the two main streets intersect. According to another inscriptions discovered by the excavation works, in the agore there used to be a sanctuary of Dionysus. The Seutopolis citadel, erected in the northern part of the city, served as an inner fortress. At the far and if this neighborhood there is a fortified palace, which is the largest building in the city, featuring a complex structure and rich interior decoration.

Ceremonial Hall in the palace of Seuthes III

Seuthopolis is not only the administrative and religious center of Seuthes' state, but also a city of great economic significance. Besides vessels and objects produced locally, evidencing of the high economic upswing are also the discovered products in import. Coins of Philip II of Macedonia and Alexander the Great used to circulate in the city, but most numerous among the finds are the coins minted by Seuthes - more than 800 pieces. Archaeological and numismatic materials indicate that the city extinguished as a capital in the 60s of the IIIrd century BC.

Foundation

The city, already explored, remains under the waters of Koprinka dam. It can however become a unique museum in the open. A draft plan for the exposition of Seuthopolis provides for recapturing from the dam an area of 60 decares by constructing an internal wall to create a kind of well, on the bottom of which one can see the ruins on the ancient city. Аrchitect Zheko Tilev.