Tsarevgrad Tarnov Sound and Light Festival

An audio-visual show first staged in 1985 uses roughly 2,400 colored spotlights, lasers and six bells weighing up to six tons to narrate the rise and fall of the medieval Bulgarian capital across the ruined walls of Tsarevets Fortress in Veliko Tarnovo. The program, titled The Legend of Tarnovo, covers history from the founding of the Second Bulgarian Empire through the Ottoman capture of the city, viewable free from the square below or from a paid glazed viewing hall.

Six bells weighing up to six tons ring out over Tsarevets Hill each time the Tsarevgrad Tarnov sound-and-light show reaches its telling of the fall of the medieval Bulgarian capital, one beat in an audio-visual program that uses roughly 2,400 colored spotlights, lasers and recorded narration to walk the fortress through centuries of history after dark.