In 1829, the Russian archaeologist I. F. Blaramberg (1772–1831) identified the ruins near the springs of Reka Devnya village as Marcianopolis, a town well known from the ancient written sources. Later on, Hungarian ethnographer Felix Kanitz (1882), Czech historian Konstantin Jireček (1888) and Austrian epigrapher Ernst Kalinka (1906) also wrote about the town. The initial archaeological investigations in Marcianopolis were carried out by Heinrich Hartl – professor of geodesy at the University of Vienna, in September – October 1898. He also drew the first plan of the town.