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A
town at the southeastern foot of Surnena Gora Mountain, 231 km east of
Sofia. Population of 150 000. A junction of the railway lines
Sofia-Plovdiv-Bourgas and Rouse-Podkova.
1,5 km west of the town there are remains of the Neolithic and
later ages. Copper mines (4th-3rd millennium B.C.), a Thracian villa
(1st-4th centuries) and a mound necropolis with one of the richest finds
from Roman times (burial gifts of gold, silver and glass) have been
uncovered. The Thracian town Beroe is founded in the 5th C. B.C. At the
beginning of the 2nd C. it is reconstructed by the Romans and named after
Emperor Trojan - Augusta Trajana. In the 5th C. it is destroyed by the
Huns. In the 6th C. the medieval town Vereya is demolished again and it is
reconstructed several times under the names of Irinopolis, Boroui, Zagra-i
Eski Hisar and others.
During the Bulgarian National Revival it is an administrative,
agricultural, crafts, trade and educational center. In 1877 during the
Russo-Turkish War the town is burned down and destroyed.
To this day only a few old buildings have been preserved: Eski
Mosque (15th C.), the reconstructed St. Nicholas Church (1896-1909), St.
Demetrius and Sts. Cyril and Methodist Church, the Church of the Holy
Virgin (1881), the Church of the Holy Trinity.
A theatre, an opera theatre, a historical museum, an art gallery.
Stara-Zagora mineral baths - balneological resort 15 km
north-west of Stara Zagora, at an altitude of 370 m.
The mineral water (temperature of 51,5C, hydrocarbonate-calcium-magnesium,
with neutral reaction) is suitable for healing disorders of the locomotory
system, the peripheral nervous system, gynecological,
nephrological-urological and other diseases.
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