Stara Zagora, city in central Bulgaria, in Khaskovo Region, on the Thracian Plain, at the foot of the Sredna Gora mountains. Vineyards, fields of grain and roses, and truck farms surround the city, which is a road and rail hub with plants manufacturing textiles, chemicals, machinery, attar of roses, pottery, tobacco products, leather, furniture, food products, and beer. The city has a school of veterinary medicine, an opera house and a theater, and a museum. The Roman colony of Augusta Trajana (Traiana) was founded here on the site of the earlier Thracian city of Beroea (Beroe or Berrhoea). It was known as Irenopolis in Byzantine times. Under the Ottoman Turks after the 15th century, the city was called Eski Zagra (or Yeski Zagra). Ceded to Bulgaria in 1877, it was destroyed in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, but was rebuilt. Population (1996 estimate) 151,218.
