STARA ZAGORA (Turk. Eski-Zagra)  , the

capital of a department of Bulgaria, in Eastern Rumelia, on the southern slope of the Karaja Dagh, 70 M . N.W. of Adrianople, with which it is connected by railway . Pop . (1906), 20,647 . It is surrounded by vineyards, and has also cloth and carpet manufactures, copper foundries and tanneries . The production of silk and attar of'roses is carried on in the district, which contains numerous mineral springs . The town having been almost wholly destroyed during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, was rebuilt on a regular plan, with wide and broad streets radiating from a fine central square, where are situated the principal public buildings . During the rebuilding, important Thracian, Roman, Byzantine and Turkish antiquities were discovered . Stara Zagora, founded probably by the Macedonians, was known to the Romans as Augusta Traiana, but afterwards, to distinguish it from a Macedonian town of this name, it was named Beroe or Berrhoea . By the Turks the name was changed in the 17th century to Eski-Zagra or Eski-Zaara, but after 1878 the Bulgarian name of Stara Zagora came into general use .