Balkan study tour: The Golden Byzantium – Bulgaria and Turkey Tour is part of our Byzantium journeys
Byzantium existed not only in its territorial limits, because the Byzantine culture covered large territory – from the Baltic Sea and Ural to Sahara. These countries did not belong to Byzantium, but the impact of the empire on these countries was too significant. While the political events, victories and defeats left no trace in history the culture marks the past of the civilization.
The proof of the eternal significance of Byzantine culture and their importance for the development of the Christian world are numerous monuments, written sources, manuscripts, collections of coins.
The Preslav Treasure was found in autumn of 1978 at the vineyard in Castana, 3 km to the north – west of the second Bulgarian capital – Veliki Preslav. The excavations that followed revealed more than 170 golden, silver and bronze objects including 15 silver Byzantine coins belonging to Constantine VII, Roman II and other artifacts dating far back to the period between 3 rd and 7 th centuries.
Hagia Sophia is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora in Istanbul is considered to be one of the most beautiful surviving examples of a Byzantine church. The interior of the building is covered with fine mosaics and frescoes. The Basilica Cistern is thelargest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul. The cistern, located 500 feet southwest of the Hagia Sophia on the historical peninsula of Sarayburnu, was built in the 6th century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.
This is a small part of the tourist attractions from the time of the Byzantine Empire, which we are going to visit during this Balkan Study tour through Bulgaria and Turkey.
