Zlataritsa is a town in Northern Bulgaria. It lies in the municipality of Veliko Tarnovo, close to the town of Lyaskovets. It is situated amidst the lowest hills of the Balkan mountain, on the bank of the Zlatarishka River. The names of the town and the river come from the extraction of gold from the waters of the river (as “zlato” in Bulgarian stands for gold). This activity was developed during the later period of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria, as miners settled here after the Chiprovtsi uprising was suppressed by the Turkish authorities.
The first settlement in the place of Zlataritsa emerged already in the 14th century, while the villages in the Zlataritsa municipality were established even earlier, during the Second Bulgarian State. Nevertheless, traces of human presence in the municipality date back 6,000-7,000 years ago. Remains of a fortress can be found in the Gradishteto area, while to the south of Zlataritsa, archeologists have uncovered an old Roman road to Tsarigrad (present-day Istanbul).
