Territorial Structure of the town of Tarnovo through the Ottoman period

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Abstract:

This paper is an attempt to outline the territorial structure of the town of Tarnovo through the Ottoman period. Based on the results of archaeological surveys and written sources the changes that occurred in territorial terms after the establishment of the Ottomans are traced. Originally, Ottomans occupied the fortress of Tsarevets where the first Muslim neighborhoods arose. Data shows that it is not inhabited at one time, but gradually from the late fourteenth to the eighteenth – nineteenth centuries. Moreover, it is not closely settled. Based on these observations and the nature of public architecture erected there are supposed that the fortress was no longer central urban core, and became part of the Muslim residential area. The new urban center, the pazaar, was shifted in front of the fortress where the area is more equal and convenient. Its formation is possibly the fifteenth century, as well as suggests the Muslim mahallas located in the near area, mentioned for the first time in the early sixteenth century. A new element of the image of Tarnovo are depopulated urban areas – the fortress of Trapezitsa, the western foot of the Momina krepost hill, as well as the northwestern foot of Trapezitsa. In some urban areas there are confessional changes – in the southwestern and southeastern foot of Tsarevets. Christians remain in the area at the foot of the two hills Tsarevets and Trapezitsa, which formed the Christian area around the medieval churches located there. Muslim area occupies over time the southern foot of the hill Tsarevets and the area located to the west of the fortress. With the construction of the bridge of Firuz Bey in the southwestern foothills the town is grew on the opposite bank of the river. Based on these changes, the spatial structure of Tarnovo through the Ottoman period is vastly different from the previous one.

Keywords:

ottoman period, Turnovo, territorial structure, changes, residential area, central area.

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