Opaka

Opaka is a small town in Targovishte Province, northeastern Bulgaria, near the Danube Plain, about 70 km south of Ruse on the border with Romania and roughly 305 km northeast of Sofia. It is the administrative seat of Opaka Municipality. As of December 2009 the town had a population of about 2,873 spread over a municipal area of 57 km²; like much of rural northeastern Bulgaria, its population has continued to decline since. Archaeologists have documented Thracian, Roman, and Slavic-era settlement in the surrounding area. Near the village of Krepcha, within Opaka Municipality, a rock-cut monastery holds what is considered the oldest known Old Bulgarian Cyrillic inscription, dated to around 920 CE. A 2nd-century Thracian burial mound excavated near Opaka in 2011 yielded gold and bronze grave goods, including fragments of a golden wreath.

Opaka is reached by regional road from Targovishte or Ruse; the nearest rail connections are via those two cities.

The town centre is small and walkable.

• Targovishte — the provincial capital
• Ruse — larger city on the Danube and the Romanian border, about 70 km north
• Popovo — nearby town in Targovishte Province