Veliko Tarnovo Province

Veliko Tarnovo Province preserves Bulgaria's historical and spiritual capital—the "City of the Tsars" where brothers Asen and Petar declared the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185, ending 167 years of Byzantine domination. The Tsarevets fortress on its dramatic hill remains Bulgaria's most visited tourist site. Among 750 local cultural monuments, 160 hold national or global significance. The Tarnovo Constitution of 1879, adopted in the Ottoman municipal building still standing, was among Europe's most democratic documents of its era.

Modern Veliko Tarnovo leverages this heritage while building educational infrastructure. Two universities anchor the knowledge economy: Veliko Tarnovo University (18,000 students, one of Bulgaria's largest) and Vasil Levski National Military University. Light industry—foodstuffs, beverages, furniture, textiles—persists alongside traditional crafts. The 2024 tourism season showed organized tourist groups up 46% year-on-year.

October 2024's ITF Cultural Tourism forum at Business Center Veliko Tarnovo brought tourism companies, municipalities, and cultural institutes together to discuss technology-enabled experiences and city-as-destination development. Festivals attract visitors: the Medieval Festival on Tsarevets, "Stage of the Ages" (Bulgaria's oldest outdoor opera festival), Arbanassi Summer Music. Daily tourist budgets of €15-35 excluding accommodation indicate accessible cultural tourism. The province demonstrates how historical capital status—once political, now cultural—can anchor regional identity and economic activity centuries after the original empire fell.