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Approaching Tsarevets (summer daily 8am-7pm, winter daily 9am-5pm; US$2) along the stone causeway that was erected after the original drawbridge collapsed beneath the Bey 's harem, you can appreciate how the boyars Petar and Asen were emboldened enough by possession of this seemingly impregnable citadel to lead a rebellion against Byzantium in 1185. Petar's proclamation of the Second Kingdom and his coronation occurred when Constantinople was already preoccupied by the Magyar and Seljuk Turk menace, and when a punitive Byzantine army was eventually sent in 1190 it was utterly defeated at the Tryavna Pass. Now restored, the ramparts and the Patriarchate (plus the ruins of the palace and various churches) convey something of Tsarevets's grandeur during the Second Kingdom, when travellers deemed Tarnovo "second after Constantinople".
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