How many people died in the earthquake?

Civil death registers list at least 36 confirmed deaths (20 in Veliko Tarnovo, 16 in Gorna Oryahovitsa), though contemporary reports suggest the true figure was higher. Many casualties likely went unregistered amid the chaos of the Second Balkan War.

Can you still see evidence of the earthquake in Veliko Tarnovo today?

Yes and no. Some churches and Revival-era buildings were rebuilt along their original lines, but much of what you see today is post-1913 reconstruction. The architectural character of the city centre shifted after the quake, with modern seismic-resistant construction more visible in some quarters than pre-earthquake fabric.

Is Veliko Tarnovo still at risk of earthquakes?

Yes. Central Bulgaria remains seismically active, and modern building codes reflect the 1913 lesson. The risk is part of the reason you'll see reinforced concrete frames in older stone buildings and why major renovations in the historic centre require seismic assessments.

On This Day in Bulgaria: The 1913 Earthquake That Levelled Veliko Tarnovo (14 June), Shumen.UK

Q: What caused the 1913 earthquake?

The earthquake was caused by tectonic movement along fault lines beneath central Bulgaria, with the epicentre near Gorna Oryahovitsa at a depth of around 10 kilometres. The region sits on seismically active ground, and modern building codes in Veliko Tarnovo reflect the ongoing risk.

📅 ON THIS DAY IN BULGARIA, Sunday 14 June

On the morning of 14 June 1913, at 11:28 local time, the ground beneath central Bulgaria jolted for 20 seconds. The earthquake measured magnitude 6.3, its epicentre near Gorna Oryahovitsa at a depth of around 10 kilometres. Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria's medieval capital and one of its most historically significant cities, was sitting almost directly on top of it.

80% of the buildings in Veliko Tarnovo collapsed or were rendered structurally unsound. In Gorna Oryahovitsa the damage rate hit 85%. Lyaskovets and Dolna Oryahovitsa, the neighbouring towns, lost 55-60% of their structures. The destruction zone covered roughly 1,000 square kilometres, with tremors felt across the entire country.

The casualties and the hospital that wasn't

Exact casualty figures remain uncertain. Civil death registers for 1 June 1913 (the Julian calendar date) list 20 dead in Veliko Tarnovo at 11:30 a.m. and one more at 2 p.m., with a further 16 confirmed in Gorna Oryahovitsa. The total recorded is at least 36, though contemporary reports suggest the true number was higher, particularly among those buried in rubble before rescuers arrived.

The male gymnasium Sveti Kiril in Veliko Tarnovo had been converted into a military field hospital for soldiers wounded in the Balkan Wars. The earthquake destroyed the building entirely. Whether patients were inside at the time, and how many, is one of the unanswered questions of the disaster.

What came down

The Bulgarian Wikipedia extract reads like an inventory of loss. In Veliko Tarnovo: the churches of Saints Peter and Paul, the Forty Martyrs, Saint Dimitar, the Assumption, and the cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin all collapsed. The churches built by the 19th-century master builder Kolyu Ficheto (Saints Constantine and Elena, Saint Nicholas, Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Transfiguration) suffered varying degrees of structural damage. In Gorna Oryahovitsa: the theatre, the casino, Hotel Boris, the Bulgarian National Bank branch, the chitalishte Napredak, the sugar factory, the Tsentrala ceramics works, the primary school, the girls' gymnasium, and three more churches.

For a country barely a year into independence from the Ottoman Empire, and in the middle of the Second Balkan War, the timing was catastrophic. Bulgaria had no modern seismic building codes, no disaster-relief infrastructure at scale, and its administrative and military resources were stretched across active war zones.

The reconstruction and Leon Filipov's photographs

A commission was formed to assess the damage and classify affected buildings into six categories. The total estimated cost of reconstruction came to 12,316,000 leva, a staggering sum for a young state in wartime. Aid poured in from across the country, and the rebuilding began. The public figure Leon Filipov documented the ruined monuments photographically and participated in the restoration work on Veliko Tarnovo's churches and the nearby village of Arbanasi. His photographs are among the few surviving visual records of the immediate aftermath.

The city that emerged from the rubble was not identical to the one that fell. Some churches were rebuilt along their original lines; others were simplified or never restored at all. The architectural character of Veliko Tarnovo's centre shifted, with more post-1913 construction visible today than pre-earthquake fabric in some quarters.

Why this matters for British expats

The banks are shut because it's Sunday, and there are no name days or municipal processions today. Veliko Tarnovo itself is two hours northeast of Shumen by car, so if you've been meaning to visit the old capital and haven't yet, this anniversary gives you a reason to look at it with fresh eyes.

Every church, every sloping cobbled lane, every Revival-era house in Tsarevets and Asenova has a story layered over a gap. Some of what you see is genuinely medieval. Much of it is post-1913 reconstruction, faithful to the original but not the original itself. The seismic risk hasn't gone away: central Bulgaria sits on active fault lines, and modern building codes reflect the 1913 lesson.

For British expats who enjoy impressing colleagues or in-laws with localized knowledge, mentioning that Veliko Tarnovo was rebuilt from near-total collapse within living memory of the current elderly generation earns you a quiet nod of respect. It signals you understand that Bulgaria's historical cities aren't museum pieces frozen in time, they're places that have been knocked down, patched up, and kept going. The story of 14 June 1913 is part of the user manual for the country you now live in.

File alongside this in your expat mental map: the Shumen.UK driving guide.

Sources and further reading

Details for the 1913 earthquake draw on the Bulgarian Wikipedia article on the Gorna Oryahovitsa earthquake, which cites the Regional Historical Museum in Veliko Tarnovo and contemporary civil registers. The photographs taken by Leon Filipov remain the definitive visual record of the damage.