Pliska
The ruins of a fortified settlement in north-eastern Bulgaria. The timeline sets the baptism of Boris here by convention; the sources for the baptism do not name the place.
The site lies in the plain north-east of Shumen, a short distance from the modern town that has taken its name. The Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon, writing at the end of the tenth century, names “Pliskouba” among the places that the emperor John Tzimiskes took on his march from Preslav to Dorystolon (Leo the Deacon, History 8.8, pp. 138–139).
It is commonly described as the residence of the Bulgar rulers of the ninth century, and for that reason the timeline places the baptism of Boris here. None of the sources read for that entry names the place. The Annals of St Bertin speak only of the king’s palace and of the gates of a city (Annals of St Bertin, year 866, p. 85).
What happened here
- AD 864–866, estimated dateThe Baptism of Boris and the Conversion of Bulgaria
Boris, ruler of the Bulgars, accepts baptism from Constantinople and takes the name Michael. He puts down a revolt of his nobles, then asks the pope for bishops, and his country becomes a prize in the quarrel between Rome and Constantinople.