Stara Zagora
Among the important centres of southern Bulgaria, Stara Zagora is mainly a place of economic growth and Communist-era concrete blocks. Still, the province boasts one of the country's oldest trade institutions, such as the Stara Zagora Chamber of Commerce. It's also on this territory that the most ancient settlements in the country have been unearthed, some of them 8,000 years old. Having started off under the Thracian name of Beroe (Iron), its major town, Stara Zagora, displays an abundance of Neolithic artifacts, as well as an important antique copper mine, one of Europe's oldest. Under Byzantian rule, the province's major town received new fortifications. Taken by the Ottomans in the 14th Century, the area became a place of culture preservation. Following the Independence War, the province was annexed into the autonomous kingdom of Eastern Rumelia before the country's unification in 1886.