Idea #277 – Visit the site of the ancient city of Nikopolis ad Istrum
The ruins of the Roman and Byzantine city of Nicopolis ad Istrum are situated in approximately 20 km in the North of Veliko Tarnovo, on the road of Guile, in 3 km in the southeast of the village of Nikyup, on a little raised plateau on the banks of the river Rositsa. The city was founded during the second century by the Roman emperor Marcus Trajan Ulpius, in honor of its victory on the Dacian in 106. It is the reason why the city is named Nikopolis ad Istrum, whose translation means ” the city of the victory near the Danube “.
We consider that Nikopolis ad Istrum is the cradle of the Germanic literary tradition because it is in the IVth century when the priest missionary Wulfila invents the alphabet Gothic and translates the Bible of Greek into Gothic in the city of Nicopolis ad Istrum. The city is designed according to a hippodamien plan, and does not seem to have been fortified in its origin, but later, in reaction to barbaric threats. The main door, which gave onto the main road, was called Porta Romana. The city was supplied with water by aqueducts, the longest being more than 27 km.
Around the central place of the forum were found the rests of the odéon, the bouleterion, public buildings and for businesses, as well as thermal baths (thermes). The city struck its own coins. It would have been destroyed at the beginning of the seventh century in an attack of Avars. The site is excavated from the beginning of the XXth century, and the researches started again in 2007. The ruins of the city are registered on the UNESCO world heritage list. Go, I take my trowel;)
Some Pictures
Where is it ?
Nikopolis ad Istrum
Larger Map