Shoumen, is a town of 100 000 in the Northeastern part of Bulgaria. It was a natural geographic center of the capitals and cultural centers of the old medieval Bulgarian Kingdoms - Pliska, Preslav and Madara. The town sprang from an old Roman and Byzantine fortress, overlooking a passage from the Danube Plain to the mountain passes of the Balkan mountain. During the years of Ottoman domination over Bulgaria the conducive location of the town predisposed the Sultan to place his biggest garrison here. The most magnificent mosque on the Balkan Peninsula "Tombul Mosque" was built in the city in the 17th century. Shoumen was a thriving economic and cultural center during the period of the Bulgarian National Revival in the 19th century and it became the hometown of the first Bulgarian theater and the first Bulgarian orchestra.
Today Shoumen continues to attract visitors with the "Konstantin Preslavski" University, the fourth largest public library in Bulgaria and the numerous historical sights in the region.
