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Shumen is surrounded to the south and west by the Shumensko plato national park , a tableland of dense woodland. The most accessible part of it is the Kyoshkove Park at the western end of town (a 15-minute walk beyond the Tombul Dzhamiya, or buses #1, #10 or #11 from the train station), where tracks lead up into the hills past the sites of World War II partisan bunkers. Immediately above Kyoshkove (and reached by walking 2km uphill from the Shumensko pivo brewery at the entrance to the park) is the Stariyat grad or "medieval fortress" (daily: summer 7am-7pm; winter 8am-5pm; US$1.50), whose monumental, part-reconstructed walls are reminiscent of Tsarevets in Veliko Tarnovo. The Thracians were the first to fortify the site, followed swiftly by Romans, Byzantines and Bulgars, but it was during the Second Kingdom that the fortress developed its current monumental shape. Ruins of medieval houses outside the fortress walls show that the slopes of the hill harboured a sizeable civilian population during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; they were subsequently driven from their homes and sent to live in the valley by the Ottomans. A small pavilion displaying finds from the fortress stands by the entrance, with an abundant collection of Thracian ceramics and brightly decorated tableware from the Second Kingdom. Roadways lead east through the forest towards the 1300 Years of Bulgaria monument - more easily accessible from a processional concrete stairway which begins just above bul. Slavyanski, behind the History Museum. A bewildering juxtaposition of Khans, monks, haiduti and Mother Heroines rendered in concrete by a sculptor with Cubist inclinations, this extraordinary hilltop structure was unveiled on the nation-state's 1300th anniversary in 1981.
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