HOTALICH FORTRESS (Nadezhda Boteva – nadejda_boteva@abv.bg) The first archaeological explorations of the Early Byzantine and Mediaeval fortress began in 1979. Fortification walls of the citadel were discovered, preserved up to 3 m in height, with four gates and a single-nave church, houses and farm buildings inside the citadel. A suburb was explored and 86 houses and farm buildings, two churches with adjacent cemeteries and an Early Byzantine basilica were discovered. In 2010, a sector of the western fortification wall of the citadel, 24 m in length, was discovered. The fortification wall was 1.75 – 1.80 m wide, preserved up to 1 m in height, built in opus emplectum of roughly cut stones bonded with mortar. A postern, 2.30 – 2.35 m wide, was discovered. The western fortification wall was connected to the northern fortification wall, which dated to the 10th – 14th centuries.