The Preslav Literary School (Pliska Literary School) was the first literary school in the medieval Bulgarian Empire. It was established by Boris I in 885 or 886 in Bulgaria’s capital, Pliska. In 893, Simeon I moved the seat of the school from Pliska to the new capital, Preslav.

The Preslav Literary School was the most important literary and cultural centre of Bulgaria and all Slavs until the capture and burning of Preslav by the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces in 972. A number of prominent Bulgarian writers and scholars worked at the school, including Naum of Preslav (until 893), Constantine of Preslav, John Exarch, Chernorizets Hrabar, etc.

The school was also a centre of translation, mostly of Byzantine authors, as well as of poetry, painting and painted ceramics. The school is likely to have had a key role for the development of the Cyrillic alphabet, as the earliest Cyrillic inscriptions have been found in the area of Preslav (see also Cyrillic alphabet).

Preslav School scriptoria were scattered over much of present-day northeastern Bulgaria, including monasteries at Pliska, Patleina, Khan Krum, Chernoglavtsi (present-day Shumen Province), Ravna, Varna (present-day Varna Province), and Murfatlar in Dobruja (now in Romania).

The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo (Bulgarian: Ивановски скални църкви, Ivanovski skalni tsarkvi) are a group of monolithic churches, chapels and monasteries hewn out of solid rock and completely different from other monastery complexes in Bulgaria, located near the village of Ivanovo, 20 km south of Rousse, on the high rocky banks of the Rusenski Lom, 32 m above the river. The complex is noted for its beautiful and well-preserved medieval frescoes.

The caves in the region had been inhabited by monks from the 1220s, when it was founded by the future Patriarch of Bulgaria Joachim, to the 17th century, where they hewed cells, churches and chapels out of solid rock. At the peak of the monastery complex, the number of churches was about 40, while the other premises were around 300, most of which are not preserved today.

Second Bulgarian Empire rulers such as Ivan Alexander and Ivan Asen II frequently made donations to the complex, as evidenced by donor portraits in some of the churches. Other patrons included nobles from the capital Tarnovo, with which the monastery complex had strong ties in the 13th and 14th century. It was a centre of hesychasm in the Bulgarian lands in the 14th century and continued to exist in the early centuries of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, but gradually decayed.

The monastery complex owes much of its fame to 13th- and 14th-century frescoes, preserved in 5 of the churches, which are thought of as wonderful examples of Bulgarian mediaeval art. The rock premises used by the monks include the St Archangel Michael Chapel (”The Buried Church”), the Baptistery, the Gospodev Dol Chapel, the St Theodore Church (”The Demolished Church”) and the main Holy Mother of God Church, with the 14th-century murals in the latter one being arguably the most famous of all in Ivanovo and noted as some of the most representative examples of Palaeologan art. Many century-old inscriptions have also been preserved in the monastical premises, including the famous indented inscription of the monk Ivo Gramatik from 1308-1309.

The Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.

The town of Topolovgrad lies in southeastern Bulgaria, 27 km to the southwest of the town of Elhovo. The town and the municipality of the same name occupy the northern skirts of the Sakar mountain, while the region has been populated ever since antiquity.

The first written evidence of the existence of Topolovgrad dates to the 16th c. when the town, then named as Kavukli, was dominated by the Turkish Sultan Bayazid II. In the 18th and 19th c. the town and the region around it grew into a large vegetable-growing, animal-breeding, wine-producing and artisan centre. Vegetables produced here (onion, garlic, cabbage, etc) were sold in the markets of Odrin, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Alexandria, Romania and Austria while each week, animal stock from the region was transported to the markets of Odrin and Istanbul.

The biggest tourist landmarks in the area are the so-called Dolmens, spread all over the region. These Thracian monuments are not only one-chambered, but also two and three-chambered, as is the case with the dolmen near the village of Hlebovo. Another historical sight is a Temple of the Sun, found in the Sakar mountain ridge between the town of Topolovgrad and the village of Hlebovo. The temple represents a 1.5km-long rock group in a fan shape, covered with more than 150 manmade circles, most of which are geometrically arranged into ensembles. The circles are all in relief with some of them being convex, and others – concave. A similar cult place of the Thracians in the region is Paleokastro. The Thracian fortress is situated 3km to the west of Topolovgrad and its natural rock walls to the east hold over 150 discs in relief that illustrate the Thracians’ cult to the sun. Finally, close to the Topolovgrad, tourists can visit one of the biggest monasteries in southern Bulgaria, namely the Holy Trinity monastery.

The “St. Nikola” Monastery of Kapinovo lies at the foot of the Elena Balkan, near the Vesselina river. This is one of the biggest monasteries in Bulgaria and is an interesting monument of architecture from the period of Bulgarian National Revival. In the east wall of the monastery, there is an inscription indicating that the monastery was built in 1272. During the Turkish yoke, the monastery was destroyed and later restored several times. In 1835 masters from the town of Dryanovo reconstructed the monastery church, and Papa Vitan – a master from Tryavna, painted the big icons of the iconostasis. The whole west wall of the church represents scenes of the Doomsday and is one of the richest compositions in Bulgaria. It was painted by Joan Pavlovich, an artist from Razgrad.

In 1856, the old walls of the monastery were destroyed and the two brothers Horozov from Elena constructed massive two-storied residential buildings. The exterior is 8m high, 1.5m thick and made of stone, and this makes the monastery imposing.

When restoring the monastery in 1856 paintings of the two brothers St. St. Cyril and Methodius were put up above the entrance door. An unknown artist painted the interior walls in the chapel, built in 1864. Among his paintings are portraits of Famous Bulgarian spiritual and literature activist – Ivan Rilski, Theodosii Tarnovski, Patriah Evtimii, and Ilarion Maglenski. The strongest impression makes the portrait of the two brothers Horozovi.

As far back as the beginning of the Bulgarian national revival, the monastery served as a cultural center. In 1794, father superior of the monastery became Pope Stoiko Vladislavov, later known as Episcopate Sofronii Vrachanski. He was a custodian to the transcript of History of Slavic Bulgarians, from Paisii Hilendaski. In the close proximity of the monastery there is a deep pool, a favourite place for bathing and bivouacking in the hot summer days.