Shumen

In modern Bulgarian, shumen means literally "noisy". Another possible etymology comes from the Slavic root shuma, which in modern Bulgarian refers to the (fallen) foliage of trees, but it still means "wood, forest" in Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian. The preferred transliteration of the name has varied throughout the years (Shoumen, Šumen, etc); 19th century English-language texts usually call it Shumla. Shumen is also one of the Bulgarian cities that used to have a "Communist name" - it was officially renamed to Kolarovgrad between 1950 and 1965, after Vasil Kolarov (1877-1950), a major figure in the Bulgarian Communist Party and the Communist International who was born in the city.

Shumen lies at the base of the Shumen Plateau, a wood-covered limestone height that rises over the Bulgarian Danubian Plain without being connected to any mountain range. The Plateau has roughly the shape of a horseshoe or the letter C, and the city "spills out" from the gap into the fields to the east and south-east. A small river, Poroyna ("flood [river]"), drains from the Plateau and runs through the city in an ugly, utilitarian channel before flowing into the larger Kamchia nearby.

Shumen originated as a fortified settlement on the top of the Plateau, 4 km (2.5 mi) west of the modern city centre. Its earliest traces date back at least to the 11th century BCE, but the first serious stone fortifications were built by the Romans after they conquered the area in the early decades of the 1st century CE. Afterwards, the fortress was destroyed and rebuilt several times in different eras. The peak of its importance and development as a city was during the Second Bulgarian Empire, and the earliest recorded use of the name "Shumen" is in a stone inscription dating to that era. Together with the rest of the region, Shumen was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1388. In 1444, the fortress was besieged and taken over in a bloody battle during the failed Varna Crusade, an attempt to liberate the Balkans from Ottoman rule by combined Polish, Hungarian and Burgundian forces. Afterwards, the crusaders advanced east towards Varna where they fought and lost a decisive battle.

It is unclear if the city was destroyed during the battle or abandoned afterwards, but by the 16th century it was already in its modern place, at the base of the plateau. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a system of fortifications was built and expanded around the city, as it formed one corner of the "quadrilateral of fortresses" (Ruse, Silistra, Varna, Shumen) that guarded the northern border of the Ottoman Empire. The city played an important part in several of the Russo-Turkish wars, including the Crimean War, but notably not the Liberation War of 1877-1878 - the main thrust of the Russian forces bypassed the "quadrilateral" and Shumen was surrendered only after the end of the war. Despite that, little remains of the Ottoman fortifications today, as they consisted mostly of earthworks, and the remnants haven't been improved to be tourist-friendly.

Shumen is a major station on the main line Sofia-Varna that runs along the length of Northern Bulgaria. This means that there are multiple daily direct trains from Sofia (6 hours), Pleven (3 hours), Targovishte (30-40 min) and Varna (100-140 min). Veliko Tarnovo requires changing trains at Gorna Oryahovitsa (close to Tarnovo; about 2½ hr to Shumen); Vratsa, Montana and Vidin require changing trains at Mezdra; Ruse requires changing at Gorna Oryahovitsa or Kaspichan. Kaspichan, the junction station where the Ruse-Varna line merges into the Sofia-Varna line, is just 20 km (12 mi) east of Shumen.

• 🌍 Train Station (Zheh Peh Gara, ЖП гара) (10 min walk east of the main street). A large, grim building with a stone facade that was built during WW2 - its cavernous waiting hall was designed to shelter two companies (battalions? regiments?) of soldiers. The interior hasn't undergone any major renovation since the end of the 1980s, so you can still see some Communism-era wall art about Shumen Region's glorious medieval past. Even the traditional schedule board is out of order, the schedule is on printouts posted on the wall next to the information desk. The pedestrian underpass to the platforms also crosses the whole width of the rails, in case you need a shortcut north to the Praktiker and Kaufland stores or the Thracian Quarter. No public WC, but there's one in the nearby Bus Station (see below). The building with a large shining golden dome that can be seen from the platform is not a place of worship or any other kind of tourist sight, but the residence of a local, er, rich person. (updated Oct 2023)

The train station is right opposite the back side of the Bus Station (Avtogara) - 50 m/yd across a large parking lot. The back side of the city park (Gradskata gradina) forms the west side of the square - you can go up a staircase and follow the alleys west to Bulgaria Square roundabout, the east end of the main street.

Hiking is a popular activity in Shumen due to the proximity of the Plateu. A map of the marked trails and their colours can be found on BGMountains.org (zoomed-in map online; downloadable maps for Garmin with Latin place names). There's also a paper map (1:25,000 scale) in passable English - you can buy it from the small shop at the Monument's parking lot, and perhaps other locations.

The local landscape makes the Shumen Plateau a good spot for paragliding. There are three established take-off spots within walking distance (1 km) of the parking lot of the Monument. While it remains a popular activity, the local paragliding club seems to be defunct and as of 2023, the only available contact info is for a local commercial operation:

• BenFly Tandem Flights. Organized tandem paragliding flights (i.e. pilot + "passenger") over the Shumen Plateau, by arrangement/reservation. They claim to work in all seasons, if the weather is favourable. Between 100 and 200 лв for a 10-15 min flight. (updated Oct 2023)