Nicopolis ad Nestum, the Roman Town of Trajan by the Mesta River
Nicopolis ad Nestum is a ruined Roman town beside the village of Garmen, about 7 km east of Gotse Delchev, in the upper Mesta valley of south-west Bulgaria. Founded by Emperor Trajan in 106, it still has stretches of defensive wall up to 6 m high, a late Roman bath and a courtyard house. It is one of the few preserved ancient cities in Bulgaria and the only one of its kind in the Rhodopes.
The Ottoman-era town of Nevrokop, today Gotse Delchev, kept the memory of this Roman city in its very name. The city’s own coins, struck only once, show it was really called Nicopolis ad Mestum.
The history of Nicopolis ad Nestum
People lived in this stretch of the Mesta valley long before the Romans. The earliest finds from the site date to the Neolithic, and Thracian burial mounds from the first century BCE lie nearby. The area had been inhabited for roughly fourteen centuries by the time Emperor Trajan founded a new town on the spot in 106, on the site of the Thracian settlement of Alexandropolis, to mark his victory over the Dacians. The name means “city of victory on the Nestos”, the ancient Greek name of the Mesta; the coins of the city itself give the form Nicopolis ad Mestum, which is the correct Roman-period spelling.
The town stood on a road linking the Aegean coast with the great military road, the Via Egnatia, and leading north across the Rhodopes and the Thracian plain towards Philippopolis, today’s Plovdiv. This position helped it grow into an economic, political and cultural centre. Ptolemy mentions it, and its people worshipped a lively mixture of deities known from coins and votive reliefs: Zeus, Pluto, Hermes, the Thracian Horseman, Asclepius and Hygieia, the river god Nestos, and the Thracian favourites Ares and Dionysus. The city struck coins only once, in 211 under Caracalla and Geta, and these are all rare.
Its heyday came in late antiquity, from the fourth to the sixth century. A fortified wall, between 2.4 and 2.6 m thick and built in opus mixtum, with courses of stone alternating with bands of four rows of brick, enclosed the town. A wealthy house with a marble-columned courtyard stood in the south-east corner, and a public bath was built in the 320s. The bath burned at the turn of the fifth century, was rebuilt, and was probably destroyed for good in an earthquake in the sixth century. A gold coin of Emperor Zeno found there proves its reuse.
Christianity left strong marks. The remains of three early Christian churches have been found around the town, among them a three-aisled basilica 40 metres long, built in the late fourth century, whose mosaic floors have geometric and natural motifs. The city was a bishopric, and sources place the bishop’s seat here between the fourth and eleventh centuries.
In the late sixth century Slavs and Avars destroyed the town; it was rebuilt under Justinian. The settlement revived in the tenth century under the name Nikopol and lasted until the thirteenth century. Later a Bulgarian village and an Ottoman farm estate occupied parts of the ruins, and under Ottoman rule the town centre moved a few kilometres west. The name survived there as Nevrokop, today’s Gotse Delchev. Excavations began in 1980 and have uncovered some 280 metres of wall, public and religious buildings and burial mounds. In 2020 researchers reassembled a Greek inscription discovered in 1923: a letter from Septimius Severus and Caracalla thanking the town for a donation of 700,000 denarii.
Curious facts about Nicopolis ad Nestum
- The surviving sections of the wall rise to about 5 to 6 metres, and the south gate opened into a 40-metre semicircular exedra flanked by square towers.
- Excavators found more than 95 gold coins, about 22 other coins and a gold ring, as well as glass, bronze and ceramic vessels.
- A round altar table of white marble, found in fragments in a building in the north-west of the town, is among the most interesting late antique stone works from the site and is shown in the Gotse Delchev museum.
- German scholar Holger Komnick dated the city’s only coin issue to 211, and only about 300 of these coins are known, so even a single specimen is a rarity.
- Battered coins of Nicopolis ad Istrum are often mistaken for coins from the Mesta valley, since both cities carry the same Roman name.
- The stela with the imperial letter was found back in 1923, yet it took until 2020 for its fragments to be put together and translated.
Tours near Nicopolis ad Nestum
Experiences in the area that you can book online with Viator:
Visiting Nicopolis ad Nestum: what to see
- Walk along the preserved stretches of the fortress wall, in places 5 to 6 metres high, and look for the south gate and its round towers.
- Inside the walls you can make out the courtyard house with its columned peristyle and the late Roman bath, whose changing room, hot and cold rooms and hypocaust heating can be recognised.
- A tumulus, or burial mound, can be seen beside the town.
- The early Christian basilicas with mosaic floors lie in the surroundings, one about 3 km south-west of the town and another in the village of Garmen.
- Finds are shown in the historical museum at Gotse Delchev; check the current opening hours and access conditions before you go.
Opening hours, access and conditions can change. Check before you go.
Map: where Nicopolis ad Nestum is
Photos of Nicopolis ad Nestum
Questions
What is Nicopolis ad Nestum?
Nicopolis ad Nestum is a ruined Roman town in the upper Mesta valley, founded by Emperor Trajan in 106. It flourished in late antiquity.
Where is Nicopolis ad Nestum and how far is it from Gotse Delchev?
It stands beside the village of Garmen, about 7 km east of Gotse Delchev, in south-western Bulgaria.
Why is it called Nicopolis ad Nestum or ad Mestum?
The name means “city of victory on the river”. Nestos is the Greek name of the Mesta, and the city’s own coins use the form ad Mestum.
What can be seen at Nicopolis ad Nestum?
Visitors can see fortress walls up to about 6 m high, the south gate with towers, a courtyard house, a late Roman bath and a burial mound.
Are there early Christian churches nearby?
Yes. Remains of three early Christian churches have been found around the town, and a basilica nearby has mosaic floors with geometric and natural motifs.
Where are the finds from Nicopolis ad Nestum displayed?
Some finds, including a marble altar table, are exhibited in the historical museum in Gotse Delchev.
Also nearby
Rozhen Monastery
Melnik · Pirin's largest monastery, frescoes and sacred icon
32 km away
Kordopulov House
Melnik · 1754 wine mansion with a cellar cut into the rock
34 km away
Church of the Holy Trinity in Bansko
Bansko · a modest-looking church with a grand Revival interior
37 km away
Heraclea Sintica
Rupite · ancient city located thanks to a chance inscription
47 km away