I will tell you a story of a very interesting people who, measured even with the standards of world history. They are important because they succeeded in organizing in a national the DISORGANIZED AND THE SUBJECT TO BARBARIAN ATTACKS SLAVIC TRIBES IN THE EASTERN AND CENTRAL PARTS OF THE BALKANS. IT CREATED IN THE MIXING POT OF THE BALKAN PENINSULA A STABLE STATE THAT STILL EXISTS. THE ANCIENT BULGARIANS ORGANIZED THE SLAVIC TRIBES INTO A NATION, WHICH THE OLD BULGARIAN SPIRIT HAS REMAINED AS AN INCENTIVE FOREVER…

In 809 Khan Krum conquers Sofia. Not long after that Nish and Belgrade fall into the hands of the Bulgarians.

After the conquest of Sofia - the heart of the Balkan Peninsula, BULGARIA becomes important factor in the life of Europe as well. The most important part of the major trade route the Peninsula, which leads from the East to the West, fell into the hands of the Bulgarians. Started from the Bulgarian-Byzantine boundary, it passes through the towns of Sofia, Nish, Belgrade, and then along the Danube and further on through Bulgarian territory. Byzantine commercial goods the North and the West had to be carried primarily through Bulgarian territory. This made Bulgaria an important factor in world trade. It becomes important territory for transit carriers and got taxes for all Byzantine goods exported to the North. This furnishes Bulgaria with profit unheard till that time. Soon after the conquest of the Macedonian regions the other important route Thessaloniki-Nish - is also in the hands of the Bulgarians.

In addition to acquiring new territories through which passed major trade routes, Bulgarians received also enormous riches which had its effect in world trade.

There is no doubt that in the 9 century they reopened the salt mines at the river Marosh, It can judge about this from the fact that round the salt mines there are many ancient Bulgarian names, described in the works of Melih. The salt mines at Torda were inherited by the Hungarians from the Bulgarians and one can find mentions of these mines from the very beginning of the history of the Magyar State.

We see how in the beginning of the 9 th century Bulgaria is gradually becoming important for Western Europe as well. The major trade route passes through its territory and it holds the rich salt mines in Transilvania. The policy of Bulgarian khans corresponds perfectly to the new situation. Khan KRUM, whom historians like to describe only as a frightful military commander, war from Byzantium nothing else but to accept a commercial agreement beneficent for Bulgaria a, to fix the border between Bulgaria and Byzantium.

Krum’s son - Khan OMURTAG - concludes peace preserving the old status quo the moment the Byzantines are ready to accept the agreement. From that moment on he wants nothing else from Byzantium and concentrates his activity on the West.

The new territorial acquisitions truly deserved the change of policy that OMURTAG undertook in comparison with his predecessors. The new situation required a new type of policy. The Bulgarian ruler is now aspiring not military glory, but a well structured state. Instead of waging wars he sends his emissaries to the Byzantines and the Franks in order to secure and fix it boundaries of his state. Consequently, when the great OMUR TAG feels himself protected from the Byzantines by the treaty, he turns his eyes to the North. Here are the new territories, which he had to organize. Here are the riches, which are so important for Bulgaria. Only in a climate of security and peace one can count on receiving large profits. The colonization of the North begins on large scale. Soon the Franks were to understand that they must be on good terms with the Bulgarians and sign a peace treaty.

The border of BULGARIA here goes along the Danube, reaches beyond the town of Pesht and

then takes in the direction to the northeast. Thus the Bulgarians had common borders with the Franks and the Moravians.

In the 9th century the Bulgarians founded towns in eastern Magyar territory, among the being the town of Pesht, which is the best place to cross the Danube. The town becomes the most important center for trading with the Franks regions west of the Danube.

The state of the Bulgarians crows into a power, with which the Western World has to reckon .This is an empire situated between BYZANTIUM and the FRANKIAN state that holds its powerful position in Europe.

The enormous profits allow Khan OMURTAG to start extensive construction in the country match its new status. The large constructions of the Bulgarians in Pliska. Madara and Preslav are from that period when material prosperity matched the intellectual abilities of Bulgarians.

Nothing speaks eloquently of the culture of Bulgarians then this construction activity of khan OMURTAG. It is not in any way excelled by the building sites the two neighboring countries of that time.

The fact that enormous construction complexes of one and the same period have been found in three old Bulgarian centers shows that they are not the abodes of the chieftains of horde, recently nomadic, as the ancient Bulgarians are often depicted, but fortresses of a static people, who practices agriculture and husbandry. It cannot be accepted, of course, that these monuments do not reflect the cultural level of a people but are simply scattered remnant of the activity of ambitious rulers who erected forcefully constructions that did not answer the ancient Bulgarian conditions.

It is true that we do not have any stone monument from two centuries of Avar rule. But we have so many lefts by the ancient Bulgarians! Had the palaces of OMURTAG been built by foreign craftsmen they would have still demonstrated that the Bulgarian khan at the beginning of the 9-century felt the stone constructions as something usual. It follows then that his people had been at least for several centuries, a settled people.

Can we consider nomadic a people who produce building materials and erect buildings What is more, near those constructions there are water systems with inscriptions, which are also the work of Bulgarians. Is it possible that the Nomads become exquisite craftsmen within a century In the same way the structure and the plan of the ancient Bulgarian fortresses is in all places typically Bulgarian.

This naturally shows that the Bulgarians came from their eastern fatherland with knowledge and skills in architecture. Their sculptures demonstrate once again the high level of their culture.

Characteristic of these constructions is that they are monumental. Monumentality is a feature not only of the palaces of Bulgarian rulers but also of rock relief inscriptions, The Madara Horseman, in which a Bulgarian khan commemorates the memory of his father. This monument mentality is matched by another expression of the historical feeling of ancient Bulgarians which requires that the deeds of the khans, their predecessors and their kin be related in a written form The historical consciousness of the Bulgarians, embodied in the idea that tradition must be kept brought about the construction of those monuments in which the khans of a well establish.

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