An ancient legend has it that during the reign of Tsar Kaloyan, when the city of Veliko Tarnovo was the capital of the Bulgarian Empire, the emperor of the Latin Empire, Baldwin I, was imprisoned in the ancient fortress of Tsarevets. The beautiful wife of Tsar Kaloyan, Queen Anna, fell in love with the young emperor and offered him freedom if he would take her with him to his lands as a wife. The emperor refused Anna's offer, thereby cursing and condemning himself to the death penalty. Today, this story is associated with the name of the tower, where the emperor, captured in the Battle of Adrianople, was imprisoned.

There are many legends about the secret underground mazes of the great stone citadel. People say that they served as a refuge even for the ancient Romans during barbarian raids, and the bottom of an underground lake still hides countless treasures. No one has yet dared to find the ancient treasures, because according to another legend, there are deadly mechanisms from thieves and ill-wishers in the lake.

The fortress also has another creepy place, associated with scary stories. In the northern part of Tsarevets, there is Execution Rock. This place was used for pushing enemies and traitors to their deaths for many years. In the 16th century, it was adorned with a monastery, designed for monks to pray for forgiveness of the fortress rulers.

However, these are all just legends. According to historical facts, the ancient Bulgarian fortress was built by the brothers Ivan Asen I and Peter IV, the kings of the Second Bulgarian Empire. The impressive size of the fortress and high rocky mountains turned the stone Tsarevets into an impregnable medieval citadel. Strong defensive walls, more than a kilometer long, were interrupted by three gates and one drawbridge.

The enemies beleaguered the walls 10 meters high and 4 meters thick for many years. But only Sultan Bayezid I managed to conquer Tsarevets and burn most of the buildings. The great fortress remained empty for five hundred years until the restoration in the middle of the 20th century. Then the once-robust citadel became the Tsarevets Museum and Archaeological Reserve.