The town of Veliki Preslav is situated on either banks of the Ticha River shortly before it flows into the Golyama Kamchia River. It is 365 km north-east of Sofia.
Veliki Preslav was the second capital of Danubian Bulgaria. Its imposing ruins are to be found 2 km south of the present day town. Veliki Preslav was the capital of the Bulgarian kingdom from 893 till 969 in the epoch of its supreme might and in the boom of Old Bulgarian culture (the so called Golden Age).
Preslav is a pure Bulgarian name coming from “preslavun” (famous, most glorious), and the name Veliki was added when the capital turned into a really huge and representative town for its time. The old Bulgarian capital occupied a territory of 3.5 sq. km. In the course of 28 years it was built on and improved by Tsar Simeon the Great, one of the most educated European rulers, an exceptional statesman, soldier and man of letters (a disciple of the Magnaur School in Constantinopol). He made Preslav the most majestic town in the whole of south-eastern Europe second only to the capital of Byzantium. For comparison, the population of London in 10th century was hardly fifteen thousand people, Paris had still not developed as a city, Madrid was a village, and Berlin and Moscow did not yet exist.
There have been preserved remains of fortress walls, palaces, civil ensembles, workshops, public baths, and water pipe systems. The most precious building in Veliki Preslav in the past (as well as a sight today) was the Round (Golden) Church built in 908.