Artisans

Artisans in the medieval Bulgarian lands made and maintained the objects and buildings on which everyday life and political power depended. This article concerns the First Bulgarian Empire, conventionally dated 681–1018, and the Second Bulgarian Empire, established in 1185 and conquered by the Ottomans in the late fourteenth century. Byzantine rule separated the two empires from 1018 to 1185. Their territories changed over time and extended across parts of the Danube region and the Balkans, rather than matching the borders of modern Bulgaria.

Craft production ranged from pottery and metalworking to weaving, leatherworking, carpentry and construction. Workshops were concentrated in towns, although crafts also operated in some villages. The scale and setting of work varied: household goods served local needs, while skilled workers also supplied expanding towns, religious buildings, rulers and long-distance trade.

On this page6 sections

Workshops and places of production

In the First Bulgarian Empire, Pliska and Preslav combined political centres with areas of economic activity. Their outer towns contained markets, workshops and dwellings, while the walled inner towns held administrative and defensive buildings. Preslav had workshops for working metal, stone and wood and for making pottery, glass and jewellery. Craft production also took place in other urban centres and some villages.

In the Second Bulgarian Empire, the growth of towns during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries encouraged handicrafts and metallurgy. Urban neighbourhoods could be associated with particular groups, including craftsmen and merchants. Tarnovo was the capital and a major centre, while other important towns included Vidin, Sofia and Messembria. Metalworking is specifically associated with Tarnovo and Messembria, as well as with Chiprovtsi, Velbazhd and Sofia in the west.

Workshops depended on their neighbours and suppliers. Towns concentrated customers and merchants, while food, fuel and raw materials arrived from outside the workshop. The location of a furnace or kiln also had practical consequences for fire, smoke and the movement of bulky supplies.

Pottery and ceramic production

Wheel-made pottery appears among First Empire domestic and funerary finds. Rotating the vessel allowed a potter to raise and regularise the walls, with handles or spouts added separately. Drying prepared the clay for firing. A two-level kiln separated the fuel and fire below from the vessels above, directing heat through the load.

Preslav developed specialised ceramic production. Workshops in and around the city made high-quality tiles from white clay, or kaolin. Ceramic plates decorated palaces and churches, and tiles were also exported. Some carried Cyrillic or Glagolitic letters on their backs; examples of Preslav-style tiles have been found in Kyiv. Their movement beyond Bulgaria shows how products made for local building projects could also reach distant buyers.

Pots, bowls and jars continued to serve cooking, serving and storage in the Second Empire. Glazed and decorated wares added finishing stages to production. Whether plain or elaborate, a batch required clay preparation, shaping, drying and controlled firing before the vessels could be sold.

Metalworkers and makers of equipment

Metalworkers served both ordinary needs and more specialised demands. In the First Bulgarian Empire, Preslav had workshops for processing metals, especially gold and silver, and making jewellery. Small-scale mining took place in the Balkan and Rhodope Mountains and in parts of Macedonia.

Medieval ironworking sites preserve furnaces, smithing hearths and waste. A bloomery furnace heated ore with charcoal and an air supply, producing a spongy mass of iron called a bloom, mixed with slag. Hammering consolidated the metal and removed waste before it could be worked into an implement. Archaeological studies identify furnaces and smithing hearths at Pliska and other early settlements, and later workshops in towns including Tarnovo and Cherven.

Coins became more common during the Second Empire, especially under Ivan Alexander, who ruled from 1331 to 1371. Bulgarian copper, billon and silver coins circulated alongside currency from neighbouring powers and Balkan states.

Textiles, leather and other practical trades

Textile workers made fabrics and clothing from materials available in different regions. In the First Bulgarian Empire, linen was used for cloth and fabrics, some of which were exported to the Byzantine Empire. In the Second Empire, weaving was among the prominent crafts, and silk was associated with the country’s wealth. A Western European account of the dowry of the Bulgarian princess Maria describes horses covered in red silk fabric, illustrating the use of costly textiles in elite display. Such an account tells us more about aristocratic possessions than about the clothes worn by most people.

Leatherworkers prepared animal hides for shoes, straps and other goods; carpenters cut and joined timber for household equipment and buildings. Textile production required spinning fibres into yarn before weaving them into cloth. Each trade transformed a raw material through repeated operations before a usable object reached its buyer.

Builders and construction work

Builders brought together stone, brick, timber and decorative materials for houses, fortifications and religious buildings. In the First Bulgarian Empire, workshops at Preslav processed stone and wood, while brick production was extensive in eastern Bulgaria. Some bricks bore incised signs made before firing. The scale of construction in the capitals created demand for both materials and skilled work.

Builders chose materials for the task. Pliska’s monumental buildings used large cut stone blocks, while later fortresses commonly had stone faces and a rubble core held with mortar. Houses could combine a stone lower level with timber above. Churches used alternating stone and brick courses and ceramic ornament, bringing structural and decorative skills into one project.

Construction therefore brought several crafts into the same project. Stone and brick workers prepared materials, carpenters worked with timber, and other specialists supplied decorative elements. Palaces, fortresses and churches represented major commissions, but the same building trades also shaped the homes and ordinary surroundings of townspeople.

Markets, buyers and changing demand

Craft goods reached buyers through local markets and commercial networks. In the First Bulgarian Empire, trade with Byzantium was governed by agreements that included rules for merchants and goods. In 894, the Byzantine government moved the Bulgarian market from Constantinople to Thessaloniki, disrupting commercial interests; after war, the 896 settlement restored Bulgaria’s favourable trading status. These events show that political decisions could affect the routes and conditions through which goods were exchanged.

Preslav’s ceramic exports provide a direct example of craft products travelling beyond their place of manufacture. In the Second Bulgarian Empire, the growth of towns supported handicrafts, and the circulation of Bulgarian and foreign coins accompanied an increasingly active economy. The products and buyers differed by trade: pottery and building materials served homes and construction, while fine silk and fur could be used for costly clothing and display. Across both empires, artisans linked local materials and specialised work to the needs of households, urban communities, rulers and merchants.