Omurtag

Omurtag (Bulgarian: Омуртаг) is a town at the eastern foot of Stara Planina in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Targovishte Province, situated at 525 m above sea level. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Omurtag Municipality. As of February 2011, the town has a population of 7,369 inhabitants. A notable native is Aleksandar Aleksandrov, one of the two Bulgarian cosmonauts. The area around the modern town has been inhabited since the Neolithic. Part of Justinian I's defensive system in the 6th century, the region gained importance as part of the First Bulgarian Empire due to the proximity to the capitals Pliska and Preslav and the passes of Stara Planina. The first written evidence of the modern town date from the 17th...