The Institute for Balkan Studies & Centre of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Wunderkammer Publishers are pleased to invite you to the presentation of the new book by Kalin Yordanov, PhD "The Prince of Philippopolis: The Unknown Despotes Alexios Slav in the Light of New Sources and Discoveries". The event will be held on October 4, 2022 (Tuesday) at 17.30 at the Institute of Balkan Studies & Centre of Tracology, Moskovska Street No. 45.

Kalin Yordanov's second monograph sheds new light on the origins, the pedigree, the personality and the demise of the famous independent Bulgarian ruler Despotes Alexios Slav, and illuminates the unknown aspects of the history of his relations with the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Neo-Byzantine state of Epirus and the Second Bulgarian Empire. The book reveals hitherto unknown facts about the genealogy, the lineage the descent, and the knightly initiation and the coat of arms of the distinguished Bulgarian nobleman of the Assenid family and vassal of the Latin Emperor Henri of Flanders. The book sheds new light on the genesis, the boundaries and the demise of his vast autonomous territorial principality, encompassing the lands of the Rhodope Mountains, the region of Philippopolis and Eastern Macedonia.

A new, surprising and intriguing look at the encounter and clash of the Bulgarians with the Crusader knights and clergy, the expansion of the Roman Church in the Balkans and the defense of the Orthodoxy, at the penetration and the influence of Western European feudal traditions, chivalric symbolism, and Courtois culture in the circles of the Balkan-Byzantine elites, and at the fleeting touch of the Gothic aesthetics and cultural fashion to the world of the 13th-century Bulgarians.

The story of a medieval Balkan "game of thrones" in an attempt to identify a parallel Bulgarian state and its ruling dynasty, to unravel several landmark political assassinations committed 800 years ago, to uncover an ancestral coat of arms, and to unravel the enigma of the most iconic medieval Bulgarian ktetor portrait. A tale of the raw beauty of a forgotten but fascinating world through the prism of new and curious historical sources, exciting archaeological discoveries and challenging historiographical hypotheses.