The white city

The name Byala (the Bulgarian word for "white") is supposed to come from the colour of the white hills which surround it.

Archaeological and other sources prove that its territory was populated as early as c. 4-5 AD. The first written document in which the name Byala is mentioned is an Ottoman tax register of the then Tarnovo province from 1618. It says that the settlement numbered five Bulgarian houses.

At the beginning of c. 17, Byala was a small hamlet with a…