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The stable walls of the fortress, the citadel, the ability to control both the port and the trade speak of an essential part of the life of the colony.
“Everything we find shows that this is part of the city of Apollonia Pontica. Everything here is Greek,” says Pavlina Devlova, head of the archaeological excavations.
Scientists are gradually uncovering the details of life here. They are helped by the students of the Liceo Classico. They show what a grand entrance should be.
“It is a rather large entrance, its dimensions are exactly four meters. We enter the space in front of the fortress walls, inside the fortress, where part of the commercial activity was probably located”, says Pavlina Devlova. Now devoid of woodland vegetation, from here you can enjoy a spectacular view of the historic center and the copper mines. But this is also the most vulnerable place for the fortress, which explains the presence of numerous stone spheres. They are stocked just in case.
Here, archaeologists expect to find a large paved road, a connection with the southern entrance to the fortress. To the east, they believe they have discovered the citadel and telltale clues to the builders:
“Barbukan – drainage system and has a direct parallel with the temple of Apollo in Miletus,” explained Pavlina Devlova.
The lack of subsequent settlements of the fortress is the reason why the walls have been preserved in their original construction of meters. But the most interesting are the rooms next to the western wall of the fortress, where pieces of ore have been found. The Copper Ridge ore is extremely rich in copper and the mine was worked by the Thracians long before the arrival of the settlers from Miletus.
“The Thracians worked it, but the Apollinians took the mining, sale and processing of the polymetallic ore mined in Medni Rid to a large-scale commercial level,” says Pavlina Devlova.
The fortress was not destroyed or burned. Built in the 5th century BC, its functions ceased with the arrival of the Romans. Sure they knew the precious raw material, but they probably had other better alternatives.
