Antiquity and the Middle Ages The first records of Shumen date back to the
Chalcolithic. Excavations by
Raphael Popov in 1907 founded the settlement mound Kodzadermen, inhabited in the Middle and Late Chalcolithic (approximately 4500-4000 BC). It has a diameter of 60 m and a height of 5 m and, located 6 km north of the town. Earliest reports for
Shumen fortress date back to the early
Iron Age. From the 12th century BC is the first fort, surrounding accessible parts of the area. Archaeological surveys, conducted in 1957, 1961 to 1987, determined the chronological periods, the lifestyle and the livelihood of the inhabitants of the fortress. It had a wall thickness of about two meters, built of rough stones. In the 5th century BC a second wall was built in front of the former. In the 2nd century the
Romans built a military fortress on the ruins of the
Thracian fortifications. The construction of the wall is already bonded to
mortar; a tower was constructed above the gate; square tower was built to the west and semicircular to the south. In the 4-5th centuries the entire hill was fortified with a new wall with nine towers. Between the 8th and the 10th century the fort was renovated, for the purpose the Roman wall and towers were used and to the northeast was built a new wall with two towers.
Middle Ages In 681 khan
Asparukh incorporated the territory into the
First Bulgarian Empire. In 811 Shumen was burned by the
Byzantine emperor
Nicephorus. He was killed at the
Battle of Pliska. Khan
Krum of Bulgaria encased Nicephorus's skull in silver and used it as a cup for wine drinking. The Bulgarian fortification of the 7-10th centuries developed into a feudal city with a castle with surrounding inner and outer defensive zones, in which can be counted 28 towers and bastions, three gates and five small porticoes, and many churches and workshops (12th to 14th century). During the golden age of Bulgarian culture under
Simeon the Great (893–927), Shumen was a centre of cultural and religious activity, and may have borne the name
Simeonis. During the
Second Bulgarian Empire, Shumen was a significant military, administrative and economic center, displacing the old Bulgarian capital
Preslav and developing outside the fortress. In the medieval city of Shumen the main religion was the
Orthodox Christianity, evidence of which were the found in the outline of the walls, seven churches, commemorative coins with the image of crosses, angels, and numerous findings of Orthodox crosses separately, as well as their image on rings and on other artefacts, found in the graves and the homes. Change occurs only after the Ottoman conquest of the city in the 15th century, when
Islam was introduced.
Ottoman Empire In 1388 the sultan
Murad I forced it to surrender to the
Ottoman Empire. In the 18th century it was enlarged and fortified. Immediately after the
1944 Bulgarian coup d'état, a serious shootout took place in the city when communists tried to take over one of the police stations.
People's Republic of Bulgaria In the period 1950–1965 the city was called
Kolarovgrad, after the name of the communist leader
Vasil Kolarov. One of the largest monumental memorials in Bulgaria - "
Monument to 1300 Years of Bulgaria" - was built in Shumen Plateau Nature Park in 1981. In the 1980s, large-scale construction was underway in view of the upcoming visit of the diplomatic corps, but changes in the late 1980s halted the process. The largest hotel-restaurant complex in the city was built. Construction of a trolleybus line began, which was later abandoned.
Republic of Bulgaria After 1989 a mall was built in Shumen (GUM). The town's iconic restaurants with a hotel part, the "Kyoshkovete" and the "Stekloto" were rebuilt and restored. A number of new restaurants and hotels have been built in a contemporary style. Following Bulgaria's accession to the European Union, the main boulevards, streets and roads were asphalted. The pedestrian zone from the centre through the town garden to the railway station has been renovated and modernised. ==Geography==