ANTIQUE AND MEDIEVAL FORTRESS “KALYATA”

Late Antiquity and Medieval Fortress “Kalyata” is a fortification built at the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th century in the Western Rhodopes.

The fortress walls are made of white mortar on strongly unleveled terrain. During the Slavic and Avar invasions in the sixth century was built a second outer fortification wall of pink mortar. The fortress served as a fortified settlement. In some sections narrow passageways (streets) between buildings are revealed. The fortress was burned in the second half of the 6th century, probably during the Slav invasion in the 70s of the same century, when the large center of Mesta – Nicopolis ad Nestum, located in the village of Garmen, was also burned. Towards the second half of the 12th century the fortress was again burned down. Five medieval crosses from the 12th – 13th centuries with Greek inscriptions dedicated to St. Vassillius and St. George were found. Perhaps the escape of the population from the fortress is related to a conflict between Bulgaria and Byzantium.