Pliska

Ruins o the early medieval ceety of Pliska, the first Bulgarie caipital

Pliska (Bulgarie: Плиска, Auld Kirk Slavonic: Пльсковъ) is the name o baith the first caipital o Danubian Bulgarie (the First Bulgarian Empire) an a sma toun (a umwhile veelage kent as Aboba) which wis renamed efter the historical Pliska efter its steid wis determined an excavations began. It is locatit in the Kaspichan Municipality.

Historical Pliska

Pliska wis the caipital o Bulgarie atween 681 an 893 AD. Accordin tae a Bulgarie chronicle, it wis foondit bi Khan Asparukh. It is cried Pliskusa bi Georgios Kedrenos an Anna Comnena. It haed an aurie o 23 km² an wis surroondit bi a moat an earthwirk ramparts. The waws o the inner fortress wur 2.6 meters thick an aboot 12 meters heich.

Pliska wis sacked bi the Byzantine airmy in 811, but the invaders wur suin driven oot bi Khan Krum (see Battle o Pliska). In 886, Boris I foondit the Pliska Literary Schuil (efter 893 Preslav Literary Schuil), which wis heidit bi Naum o Preslav.

In 892, the ceety became the scene o a pagan revolt led bi Keeng Vladimir. Efter the crushin o the revolt, Vladimir wis dethroned an the third son o Boris I, Simeon, wis instawed intae pouer durin the Cooncil o Preslav. Ane o the first steps o the new ruler wis tae muive the caipital tae Preslav, a fortifee'd toun in the vicinity o Pliska, probably acause o the steadily strang pagan influence in the auld caipital.

The importance o Pliska gradually waned throughoot the 10t century wi the concentration o pouer an resources in Preslav. The ceety wis destroyed durin the assaults o the Kievan Rus' an the Byzantine Empire atween 969 an 972 an wis no rebuilt again.

The ruins o the ceety o Pliska lie 3 km north o the modren veelage o Pliska. The steid o the ceety is currently a Naitional Airchaeological Reserve. Ruins o the Great an the Sma Palace, the strang stane fortifications an the Great Basilica (c. 875), ane o the lairgest Christian places o worship o its time, uised baith as a ryal kirk an as a naitional patriarchal cathedral, can be seen in the reserve.

Pliska Ridge on Livingston Island in the Sooth Shetland Islands, Antarcticae is named efter Pliska.

Modren Pliska

Under Ottoman rule, the veelage kent as Pliska syne 1947, wis instead cried Aboba, a name which it kept till 1925, when the name wis chyngit tae Pliskov, a variant o its current name. The settlement haes a population o 1124 an is locatit 146 m abuin sea level in Shumen Province at the sooth end o the Ludogorie plateau. It is approximately 400 km northeast o Sofia, at 43°22′N 27°7′E.

Gallery

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  The Great Basilica
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  Ruins o the ryal palace
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  Gate tae the castle
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  The Great Basilica
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  Monument tae Boris I
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  Pliska, plan of palace complex
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Literatur

• Materials from the first archaeological excavations in Pliska: Материалы для болгарских древностей. Абоба-Плиска. - Известия Русского археологического института в Константинополе. Т. Х (1905)