EXPLORATIONS IN KASTRITSI FORTRESS (Valentin Pletnyov, Hristo Kuzov – h.kouzov@abv.bg, Asya Stefanova) Twenty-two meters from the western fortification wall were explored to the south of the corner tower. The wall was built with ashlars in opus emplectum. Silver grossi of the Bulgarian Kings Ivan Alexander (1331 – 1371) and Ivan Sratsimir (1356 – 1396) were found. A building was discovered under the mediaeval strata in squares ХХІV and ХХХІV. Tegulae, imbrices and Byzantine folles of Phocas and Heraclius were found. Another building was situated to the west. Two gold hyperpyra of Andronikos II Palaiologos (one of them fourrée) were found in the strata above the building. Another building was explored. Tegulae, imbrices, amphorae and coins of the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th centuries AD were found. The Late Antique buildings were burned, probably in AD 614 judging from the coins. Seventeen buildings of the 13th – 14th centuries, some of them with two construction periods, were discovered. The finds included pottery, including sgraffito, amphorae, coins of the 14th century, a small seal with an inscription that reads: +БАКСАНЪ, three exagia, pendants with a reused anonymous Byzantine follis of Class A2 and a reused follis of Justinian I the Great, crosses – encolpia, finger-rings, a gold earring and bronze lamps. Four streets with two levels, 1.50 – 2 m wide, were discovered. During the excavations 739 coins were found. The coins were minted by Philip of Macedon, Odessos in 3rd – 2nd centuries BC, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Elagabalus, Gordian III, Roman provincial coins of the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD, Galerius, Constantine I the Great, Flavia Iulia Helena Augusta, Constantine II, Constantius II, Valentinian I, Theodosius I, Arcadius, Anastasius I Dicorus, Justin I, Justinian I the Great, Justin II, Tiberius II Constantine, Maurice, Phocas, Heraclius, Basil II, Romanos III Argyros, Michael VII Doukas, Alexios I Komnenos, Manuel I Komnenos, Michael VIII Palaiologos, Andronikos II Palaiologos, Manuel II Palaiologos, the Bulgarian Kings Theodor Svetoslav (1300 – 1321/1322), Michael III Shishman (1323 – 1330), Ivan Alexander and Ivan Sratsimir, the Despot of Dobrudzha (Northeastern Bulgaria) Dobrotitsa (1366 – 1385) minted in Drastar and Kaliakra, Latin imitations of the Type A of the first half of the 13th century, Bulgarian imitations of the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries, the Despot of Epirus John II Orsini (1323 – 1335), the Prince of Walachia Mircea the Elder (1386 – 1418), Prince Stephen I of Moldavia (1394 – 1399), the Khans of the Golden Horde Berke (1257 – 1266), Tokhta (1291 – 1312) and Uzbeg (1282–1341), copper mangır and silver akçe of the Ottoman Sultans Murad I and Bayazid I and Emir Syuleiman (1402 – 1410) – the latest ones minted in 1404, and the Mamluk sultans of Syria of the end of the 14th century.