Trnovo

Trnovo, or Tirnovo, an episcopal city and the capital of a department of Bulgaria; 124 m. E.N.E. of Sofia, on the river Yantra, and on the Sofia-Varna railway, at the junction of the branch line from Rustchuk. Pop. (1906), 1 2,171. The city consists of two divisions - the Christian quarter, situated chiefly on a high rocky plateau, and the so-called Turkish quarter, on the lower ground; but many of the Turkish inhabitants emigrated after 1878. On the Tsarevetz Hill above the city are the remains of the ancient citadel. The Husarjaini mosque is used as a military powder and dynamite factory. In the Christian quarter there are some interesting churches of the middle ages, notably that of the Forty Martyrs, in which the Bulgarian tsars were crowned. Numerous antiquarian remains have also been discovered. There are a gymnasium and a high-class girls' school. The city possesses large dyeworks, and important manufactures of copper utensils.

Trnovo was the ancient capital of Bulgaria, and from 1186 until its capture by the Turks, 17th of July 1394, the residence of the Bulgarian tsars. From the beginning of the 13th century it was also the seat of the patriarchate of Bulgaria, until the suppression of the patriarchate in 1767. In 1877 it was taken from Turkey by the Russians, and in 1879 Prince Alexander of Battenberg was here elected prince of Bulgaria. On the 5th of October 1908 the independence of Bulgaria was proclaimed here by King Ferdinand, in the church of the Forty Martyrs.