The han Asparuh monuments immortalise the first Bulgarian ruler han Asparuh. The first one is located in the garden which belongs to the “Prosveta 1927” community centre. The second one is the monument of the Asparuhov soldier, located in the Asparuhovo park. 

The history of their construction starts in 1934 based on the idea of colonel Petar Dimkov. He assembled a committee for building a park in the grounds surrounding the Asparuhovo shaft. A copy of the bust of han Asparuh was planned to be placed in the Asparuhovo tower. The tower is the highest point of the Roman thermae. During that time the Asparuhovo neighbourhood was named “Tihina”. The name found its origins in the Turkish name for this area “Ses Sevmes”. The inhabitants did not like the name of the region and the sound coming from the shaft was a good reason to rename the neighbourhood. The new name was given on the 17th of December 1934.

The work for the project continued on and in December 1935 some 120 people were working on the design of the alleys and park. A fence was placed along the whole length of the Burgas road and the road to Galata – trees were also planted beside that road. At the same time again by proposition by Dinkov, Kiril Shivarov was charged with the design of the Asparuhovo soldier, while Kirili Georgiev was charged with designing the bust. When finished, the bust was placed at the start of the shaft while the soldier was placed some 600 metres to the southwest of the bust. The soldier was facing the sea which made for a very intimidating look.

Opening and the third monument

Apart from the two main han Asparuh monuments, a third monument was erected. It resembled an authentic old Bulgarian marble column with the symbols “IYI” carved in it. The column itself was found 20 years earlier by the archeologist Karel Skorpil. He believes that the column was authentic and dated from the time of Asparuh.

On the 3rd of august 1935 the monuments and the park were officially opened, amassing big celebrations. The Asparuhovo tower received a copy of the bust which was later removed during more serious excavations of the thermae. In May 2000 the bust was relocated to its current location. 

If you wish to visit the monuments you can take advantage of My Rent a Car by getting a car of your choosing anywhere from Varna Airport, the centre itself, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.