Rome3rd–5th century AD · Balak Dere, Ivaylovgrad, Haskovo Province, Bulgaria
Temple with rare Cybele relief may be among last Thracian shrines in Bulgaria
The three-room temple beside the Arda River probably opened in the 3rd century AD, and fire destroyed it around the middle of the 5th.
In brief 3 key points
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- A three-room pagan temple was excavated beside the Arda River.
- A marble relief shows Cybele with three nymphs in one scene.
- The team thinks worship continued here after Christianity became official.
Archaeologists in southern Bulgaria have finished a season at a three-room pagan temple beside the Arda River. They think it may be one of the last Thracian temples in Western Thrace. The temple at Balak Dere, in the municipality of Ivaylovgrad, probably began operating in the 3rd century AD. Fire destroyed it around the middle of the 5th century.
Ivaylo Kanev, chief curator at the National Historical Museum, led the team. The season ended in October 2026. The Ministry of Culture paid for the project in full. The Ivaylovgrad municipality supported the work throughout the season.
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Ivaylovgrad lies in south-eastern Bulgaria, close to the Greek border. The area is already known for the Roman villa at Armira, just outside the town.
Altar, sacrifice room and gift store in one line
The temple is 15 metres long and has a trapezoid plan. Its long axis runs from south-east to north-west. Three rooms stand in a single line and connect through doorways. The largest room holds the altar, the middle room was used for sacrifices, and the third stored gifts brought by worshippers.
The team says no earlier excavation has recorded all the main parts of a pagan temple together. That holds for city settings from the Roman period up to the 5th century. The researchers see this complete layout as the main scientific value of the find.
Research at Balak Dere has gone on for years. Earlier finds had already pointed to a major religious centre on the river. The 2026 season supported those earlier ideas. It also showed that daily life at the site was organised around the whole temple complex.
A relief of Cybele with three nymphs
A marble relief gives the best clue to the gods worshipped here. It shows three nymphs together with Cybele, the mother goddess. Cybele was a goddess from Anatolia whose cult Rome adopted in 204 BC. The researchers know of no other scene that places the nymphs and Cybele in a single composition.
A water channel runs around the entire building, and the river flows close by. These details led the team to a working hypothesis. They think a nymphaeum stood on the spot. A nymphaeum is a shrine to the nymphs, usually built around water. Further study of the relief and the channel will test the idea.
Worship after the ban
The religious order of the Roman Empire shifted between the middle of the 4th century and the first half of the 5th, as Christianity gained ground. In 392 Emperor Theodosius the Great made Christianity the only official religion of the empire.
Layers from the fortress show that worshippers at Balak Dere kept up their rites despite the ban. According to the team's account, officials found out and the punishment was severe. Around the middle of the 5th century, fire destroyed the whole complex. The researchers read the fire as an attempt to wipe out the memory of the great Thracian gods.
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The team bases its main conclusion on the building's design, its dating, the relief and the link to water. Together, these lead the researchers to think Balak Dere could hold one of the last pagan temples of the Thracians in Western Thrace. If so, old cult practices survived years of repression against those who opposed Christianity as the sole religion of the empire.
This remains an interpretation, and the nymphaeum idea is still a working hypothesis. Further study of the relief and the water channel is meant to test it. The season's finds also set clear goals for the next excavations.
Sources (1)
News reportsfrom National Historical Museum (Bulgaria), Bulgarian Ministry of Culture and Ivaylovgrad Municipality
Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars
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