The Thracians were the oldest native population in the territory of present Bulgaria. They inhabited also the lands of present Romania, Eastern Serbia and Northern Greece. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) the Thracians were the most numerous people in the Ancient world, after the Indians. The name 'Thracians' first appeared at the end of the second millennium B.C. in the Homer's epos. The Thracians took part in the Trojan War on the side of the Achaeans.

At the beginning of the 5th century BC Theres, the chieftain of one of the tribes, called the Odrysses, founded the first Thracian state. During the 5th century BC all Thracian tribes in the present Bulgarian lands had been united within the borderlines of the Odrys kingdom.

In the middle of the 4th century BC the Macedonian kings Philip II and his son, Alexander III the Great, conquered a part of the Thracian lands. As part of Alexander’s army, the Thracian detachments reached Egypt, Persia and India.

At the beginning of the 1st century BC began the invasion of the Roman empire. After a series of sanguinary wars Rome succeeded in imposing its power on the Thracian people in the year 46 AD. Many Thracians were captured and sold into slavery in Rome. Among them was Spartacus who later rose the biggest uprising of slaves in the antique world.

There is no doubt that the Thracian culture is one of the pillars of the ancient European civilization. This culture preserved what was traditional but also assimilated ideas from other nations. At the same time some of the Thracian customs and religious cults were spread to and further developed in the Greek world.

The Thracian cultural heritage has left us numerous bronze, silver and gold adornments, household objects and vessels, applications to horse-harness, tools and arms. The largest gold treasures in the Bulgarian museums today are Thracian. These treasures have also gone round the world and thousands people have been enraptured with the magnificent examples of the Thracian craftsmanship and art.

The only surviving remnants of the Thracian architecture are the stone-vaulted sepulchers of the Thracian kings, which were built to preserve the body of the ruler intact under a thick layer of loose ground. The extraordinary frescoes of the tombs near the town of Kazanlak and near the village of Sveshtari are another example of the Thracian art.

During the Barbarian raids in the 3rd-6th centuries AD the Thracians were subjected to ruthless annihilation. Only separate groups of Thracians survived mostly in the mountain regions. They were assimilated quickly by the more numerous Slavs and Bulgarians.