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---
title: 'Vratsa Is a Picturesque Thracian City'
date: Mon, 16 May 2016 07:56:02 +0000
draft: false
categories: ['Bulgaria']
tags: ['Stara Planina', 'Thrace', 'Vratsa']
---
The picturesque little city of Vratsa (Враца) sits at the foothills of the [Balkan Mountains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkan_Mountains) in Northwest Bulgaria. On a recent road trip I was amazed when I saw the city sitting under the craggy cliffs of the "old mountain" (_Стара Планина_/Stara Planina in Bulgarian). What with the water and all it's kind of like a poor man's [Cape Town](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town)!
{{< figure src="DSC_0002.jpg" caption="The city of Vratsa below the Balkan mountain" >}}
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I've never actually _been_ to Vratsa, but after reading Wikipedia for a few hours I am fascinated by the history of the region.
The area would have been inhabited by loosely organized Thracian tribes during the first millennium before Christ. From around 550 [BCE] Thrace was subjugated by the [Persian Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Empire) until Persia's defeat in the [GrecoPersian Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Persian_Wars) in 449 BCE. After that, there was likely a more organized [Thracian kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odrysian_kingdom) for a few centuries until Rome finally turned Thrace into a province in the first century CE. Over the next millennium the Byzantines, Bulgarians, and Ottomans would all take turns dominating this region of the Balkan peninsula.
I'm excited to put more of the puzzle pieces together as I explore the country.