The western fortress wall of the medieval castle Rusokastro has been completely excavated

The archaeological excavations of the western fortress wall of the Rusokastro castle has been completed. Further 48 m from the monumental fortification facility, which is the largest of the medieval city's founding system so far, has been fully explored, so its total length reaches 68 m.

The western fortress wall of the medieval castle Rusokastro

The width of the wall ranges from 2.80 m at the entrance of the fortress to 4.2 m in the northernmost end, where it rests on the natural rocky peak. Such a width of a medieval fortress wall is known only at the Tsarevets and Trapezitsa royal citadels in the medieval Bulgarian capital of Turnovo. This fact is still under consideration by the Burgas archaeologists, who lead the studies of the Rusokastro fortress.

The fortress wall is traced over the rock wreath of the volcanic hill, and in some cases the rock pockets were filled with stones, mortar and soil. It is on this substrate that the base of the fortifications was laid in the steepest sections. The early Byzantine fortress wall from the 6th c. passed here. From the excavations it became clear that during the first half of the 13th century, under the reign of Tsar Ivan Assen II, this early wall was dismantled almost to the base, widened to 2.5 m and already as a whole wall the facility was raised in height. Archaeologists suggest that it was at least 12 m high considering thewidth of the base.


The newly discovered rectangular tower

On the outer face of the fortress wall the archaeologists discovered a dense tower with a rectangular plan (4.8 m wide and 5.4 m long).

A gold coin of the Emperor Andronik III Paleologus was discovered during the study of the fortress wall.
The studies of the Rusokastro fortress are conducted by the Regional historical museum Burgas and are funded by the Municipality of Kameno and the Ministry of Culture.

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Tags:rusokastro, excavations