The town is 335 kilometres (208 miles) north-east of the capital Sofia and about 125 km (78 mi) west of the city of Varna and the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.

The name comes from the Slavic root targ ("trade") + the Slavic placename suffix -ishte, "market town" (a calque of the Ottoman Turkish Eski Cuma, "old Friday", though the Turkish name may be derived from the earlier Bulgarian Sborishte "gathering place").

Archaeological studies prove that in these places there were people in the Copper-Stone Age (Chalcolithic) – between the 5th and the 4th millennium BC.

In the 12th century, due to its location on a main road from the new capital Veliko Turnovo, a fortress by the name "Сборище" (Sborishte) was built.

In the 18th and 19th centuries it became a famous market for animals and craft products called Eski Cuma ("old bazaar" in Turkish).

The town art gallery named after the eminent Bulgarian artist Nikola Marinov, who was born here, has a considerable collection of his works.