Valuable Venetian Voins Were Discovered during the Excavations of the Rusokastro Fortress

 

 

During the excavations of the Rusokastro fortress, three silver Venetian coins were found in very good condition. These are pennies known as matapani. Two of them were cut down during the reign of the Venetian doges Raniero Zeno (1252 – 1268) and Giovanni Soranzo (1312 – 1328). The third coin has a deposit, which makes it difficult to determine in the rule of which Venetian ruler it was minted.

 

On one side of the coins is Jesus Christ sitting on a throne, and on the other – St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice, and a Venetian doge holding a flag with a long handle.
The coins were discovered during the study of a monumental building with a still unclear function, which is located during the current archeological season in Rusokastro. The valuable coins are currently being cleaned in a restoration studio.

The excavations of the medieval town of Rusokastro are led by the Regional Historical Museum – Burgas, and are funded for another year by the Municipality of Kameno and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria.