The oldest traces of human habitation found in the territory of the park date from the Neolithic period in c. 6000 BC. By the mid-1st millennium BC Strandzha was inhabited by Thracian tribes, forming part of several Thracian kingdoms until the region was annexed by the Roman Empire in 45 AD. In the Middle Ages the area was contested between the Byzantine and the Bulgarian Empires until it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the late 14th century. After the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, Strandzha remained in the Ottoman Empire, which resulted in the 1903 Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising by the local Bulgarian population. The region was liberated in 1912 during the First Balkan War. The rich history has left an important cultural heritage by several civilizations and folklore traditions unique for Bulgaria, such as Nestinarstvo that involves a barefoot dance on smouldering embers — a vestige from the pagan past. Traditional Strandzha wooden architecture from the mid-17th to the 19th century is preserved in the villages of Brashlyan and Kosti, as well as in the town of Malko Tarnovo.