{"id":4183,"date":"2022-07-25T05:22:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T05:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelshelper.com\/bulgaria\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2022-07-31T19:14:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T19:14:52","slug":"shumen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/travelshelper.com\/bulgaria\/shumen\/","title":{"rendered":"Shumen"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Shumen is Bulgaria\u2019s tenth biggest city and the administrative and economic centre of Shumen Province.<\/p>

The city is located 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Varna and is surrounded by a cluster of hills, northern outliers of the eastern Balkans, that form a horseshoe shape surrounding it on the west and south. The horseshoe ridge is bisected longitudinally by a steep valley.<\/p>

From Shumen, highways spread north to the Danubian cities of Rousse and Silistra, as well as to Dobruja, south to Balkan passes, and east to Varna and Balchik.<\/p>

In January 2012, Shumen had a population of 80 511 people inside the city boundaries and 93 160 people throughout the Shumen Municipality and its legally linked surrounding towns. The following table summarizes the population change since 1887. The population of the city (not the municipality) peaked in 1990-1991, when it topped 110,000.<\/p>

The city\u2019s population is mostly Eastern Orthodox, with a sizable Muslim community and considerably smaller minorities of other faiths.<\/p>

Shumen is located in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church\u2019s Eparchy (diocese) of Varna and Veliki Preslav and serves as the capital of the Shumen church region (okolia). Two prominent Orthodox temples, the Church of the Holy Ascension (est. 1829) and the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs (est. 1857), as well as a few chapels, are located in the city.<\/p>

The Sherif Halil Pasha Mosque, more often known as the Tombul (or Tumbul) Mosque, was erected between 1740 and 1744 in Shumen. It is Bulgaria\u2019s biggest mosque and the second largest in the Balkans.<\/p>

According to the most recent 2011 census statistics, those who indicated their ethnic identification were divided into the following categories:<\/p>