Nessebar ( Несебър)
The town of Nessebar has about 10,000 inhabitants and extends over a small peninsula. It lies 37km northeast of Bourgas. Its beach is considered to be one of the finest along the Black Sea coast due to a large sandy strip of land between the town and the village of Ravda, covered with clean golden sand.
The municipality of Nessebar and the resorts on its territory are located in the southeastern part of Bulgaria. For this reason the temperatures here are always two or three degrees higher than in the resorts along the northern Black Sea coast.
The resorts are spread along the Black Sea coast in beautiful bays with wide sandy beaches and crystal clear sea water. The beaches are covered in fine golden sand, and the sea bottom dips slightly, slowly increasing in depth, which makes it fun and safe for children. This is one reason why holiday villages in the region are among the most popular destinations for family tourism. Numerous foreign tourists arrive every summer via the many coach lines connecting the town with all corners of the country; the railway station, or the two large airports – Varna and Bourgas, respectively 130 km and 30 km away from Sunny Beach.
Nature has been exceedingly generous to this region. The coastline is 50km long. The combination of mountain and sea is a pleasant surprise. Among the natural landmarks are the protected natural reservations of Irakli and Kalinata, distinctive sand formations and rare plants species. An important element of the natural potential of the area is the sun - it gets between 2100 and 2200 hours of sunshine annually.
The climate is moderate continental with Mediterranean influence, average summer temperatures here are about 20C-26C for the water, and 28C-30C for the air. The difference between day and night temperatures does not exceed 3C. The constant sea breeze brings pleasant cool in the heat of summer. The nearness of the sea also determines the high humidity of the air.
The rich cultural and historical heritage and the numerous significant international, national and regional events from all art genres make Nessebar a magnetic cultural center, where the unique symbiosis of past and present enchants the citizens and thousands of multilingual guests of the town.
All cultural events are combined under the heading of Nessebar Panorama.
Within the Panorama, outside the festivals and celebrations, the best Bulgarian performers and singers visit Nessebar, and Nessebar artists organize exhibitions in the new art gallery twice a month.
New part of Nessebar
Administrative life is concentrated in the new part of Nessebar. This part of the town is characterized by its modern architecture. The hotels, guest houses and private lodgings are also modern and correspond to the latest trends in tourism. To the north and south of the town are wide beaches and natural sand dunes, whose crests form a fabulous natural phenomenon. Some of the leisure activities available are boat or yacht trips, fishing, rental bikes, water sports, etc.
TheSouth Park is located in the Southeastern part of the town on a territory of over 27 decares. During the creation of the park, four ancient tombs from 4th-3th century BC were discovered and axhibited. All plant species have been labeled with their Bulgarian and Latin name.
Ancient part of Nessebar
The ancient town with millennia-old history is on a romantic rocky peninsula, connected to the mainland via a narrow isthmus. Valuable monuments from all stages of its long existence are preserved here: remnants of fortress walls from Roman times and the Middle Ages, old Byzantine and Bulgarian churches, antique 18th and 19th century houses. The greatest treasure of the town are the numerous churches.
The Old Town is only 850 m long and 350 m wide. During various periods of its existence, it has lost 1/3 of its territory, eaten away by the sea.
Nessebar is the historic treasury of Bulgaria and in 1956 it was declared and recognized as museum city – archaeological and architectural reservation.
Today the old part of the town is an attractive place for romantic walks along the narrow cobbled streets, among the little shops offering hand crafted souvenirs – pottery, crocheting, and jewelry. The wonderful ancient ambiance is the background for an unforgettable holiday opportunity.
Get around
Roads in and around the old town of Nesebar are quite narrow and cobbled. It is probably wise to park just outside of the town and go by foot. The cobblestones does make wheelchair access quite difficult but some streets have smoother surfaces.
Fortification Walls
The sea was a natural, but not the only barrier against enemy attacks on Nessebar. Over the town's many centuries of existence, fortress systems were erected many times, making the peninsula unassailable.
After the excavations subsequent restoration and conservation, the still existing parts of the fortifications system became the most imposing monuments of the past.
Early-Byzantine Therms
The Therms (baths) in Nessebar are located in the lowest part of the North shore of the peninsula, to the North of the St. John the Baptist church. About 2/3 of their area are studied - the antechamber, the center hall and caldariums with pools. The rest remains buried under the modern buildings. They were supplied with water via underground passage sewers
Houses of the National Revival Period
The wooden house built in late 18th and early 19th century are most numerous and best preserved monuments from the Bulgarian National Revival Period. With its original architecture, they reveal the development and significance of the Black Sea type of wooden house - an expression of the original creative genius of the Bulgarian builder.
Popular attractions
A huge part of the ancient city of Messembria (the old city of Nesebar, located on the ex-island) has sunk under water. When counting the numerous sunken ones, Nesebar becomes the city with most churches per capita in Bulgaria.
Museums:
Municipality of Nessebar is a cross point of many civilizations and old aged cultures. Nessebar’s Peninsula – the ancient Messambria has been settled before more than three-thousand years, at the end of the Bronze Age. The ancient Thracians has been called the settlement Melsabria, which means the town of Melsa – its legendary founder.
Archaeological Museum
Archaeological excavations on the Nessebar peninsula and its territorial waters over the past four decades discovered rich collections of significant cultural monuments, illustrationg the history of ancient Messambria and mediaval Nessebar. Most of them are axhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Nessebar.
Ethnographic Museum - Moskoyani House
The Moskoyani House is one of the most interesting Renaissance monuments - a typical example of Nessebar residental architecture from the late period of the Bulgarian Renaissance.
Churches
The early Christian basilicas were among the first to be built after the Christianity was adopted as official religion throughout the Roman Empire in 313. Six such basilicas are known to have been built in Nessebar, of which only two are well preserved.
The Church St. Paraskeva / XIII-XIV c./ is a single nave church, 15 m by 6 m in size, with a nartex. A pentagonal apse is jutting out to the East. The church is built of stone and bricks in rows. The Southern and northern facades are ornamented with blind arches which drums are richly decorated. The motives are fish bone, sun zigzag, checker board etc. are made of stone and bricks too. Over them decorative ornaments - round and glazed saucers are walled in. Result of later reconstruction, the roof of the church has two slopes. It is a typical cruciform church- the roof is formed as a cross and above it, in the central part, there is a drum with a dome. In the past there has been a bell-tower over the nartex. Its existence is proved by the stone stairway inside between the naos and the nartex.
Do
The main things to do in Nesebar are to wander around the cobbled streets and visit the churches.
A boat ride from Nessebur to Sunny Beach can be a lot of fun. There are different boats located at the dock in the old part of nessebur. Some are pore upperscale and will offer cocktails and drinks on board. Others are just plain old modified fishing boats. A ride on the more upperscale boats and yachts is about 20 bulgarian levs.
Cocktails cost about the same as they do in the local bars. The fishing boats will charge you about 8-12 levs.
Buy
Today the old part of town is an attractive place for romantic walks along the narrow cobbled streets, among the little shops offering hard crafted souvenirs pottery, crocheting, and jewelry. The wonderful ancient ambience is the background for an unforgettable holiday opportunity.
Eat
The many restaurants, tucked in the narrow winding streets in Nessebar town or located near the beach are a great place for relaxation and pleasant experience. Here you can taste traditional Bulgarian dishes, fish delicacies, game, exotic cocktails and bran liquor, combined with high standards of service. Numerous restaurants, mekhana pubs with folklore shows, fast food places, cafes, day and night clubs, bars with variety shows, casinos and discos in Sunny Beach ensure your good mood and culinary pleasures.
Bulgarian cuisine consists of plenty of fresh vegetables, eaten raw, roasted or stewed with meat in terracotta pots, lots of garlic, onions, oil and spices. Influences of its neighbors, Turkey and Greece are also present in dishes such as sarmi (stuffed vine leaves), moussaka and baklava. A salad and rakia (Bulgarian schnapps) are the obligatory start to the meal. Listed below are traditional Bulgarian Dishes, well worth a try.
Salads
shopska salata - chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and peppers sprinkled with sirene (Bulgarian white cheese)
snezhanka - thick creamy yogurt with chopped cucumber or gherkins, walnuts and garlic
kyopolou -roasted aubergines, peppers, loads of garlic, parsley.
Soups
bob chorba - traditional bean soup with plenty of herbs
shkembe chorba - tripe soup with garlic, vinegar and chilli, quite tasty if you can bring yourself to try it.
tarator -cold yoghurt and cucumber soup.
Meat Dishes
kavarma -meat and vegetable stew, usually served in individual pots
gyuvetch -stewed chunks of vegetables and lamb
kyufteta -spicy meat balls.
kebaptcheta -spicy mince meat, sausage shaped, grilled.
Vegetarian Dishes
kashkaval (or sirene) pane -fried yellow (or white) cheese
chushki byurek - fried peppers stuffed with egg and cheese
sirene po shopski - white cheese, egg, tomatoes and peppers baked in a pot
Desserts
Most restaurants offer only pancakes or cream caramel. Cafes usually have a good selection of pastries and cakes. The garash torta is the Bulgarian equivalent of the Sacher Torte, made from eggs, walnuts and cocoa.
Snacks
Snacks ('zakuska') are available all over town in tiny shops or from stands on the street.
banitsa - fillo dough pastry filled with white cheese
gevrek - like a very dry bagel, sold from big bags on street corners
kifla - croissant usually filled with jam
pirozhka - dough stick filled with white cheese and fried.
For the really adventurous, try:
boza - a thick malt drink with a distinct smell.
Get out
There is a regular transport connecting town Bourgas and Pomorie to Nessebar and Sunny Beach.
There is water transport to Bourgas ; one can often hire local boatmen to transport one to different places in the bay.
History
The Nessebar peninsula – the ancient Messambria, called during the late Middle Ages Messemvria, and later Nessebar, was first settled over three millennia ago, at the end of the Bronze Age. The anciant Thracians use to call it Melsambria, which meant the town of Melsa, the legendary founder of the settlement. Messambria had two convenient harbors – a northern and a southern one, where even today pieces of equipment from ancient ships can still be found.
In the late 6th century BC, the first Greek colonists arrived – Doric in origin. The town gradually grew; temples, a gymnasium and a theater were built.
Messambria began to mint its own coins around the year 440 BC. It reached its peak in 3th – 2nd century BC, when gold coins were first minted. The town maintained good commercial contacts with the polises along the Black Sea, the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The material testament of the rich economic, cultural and spiritual life of the town are the many finds form this period, exhibited at the Archaelogical museum of the town.
In 72 BC town was captured without any resistance by the Roman armies. After a short occupation, it became part of the Roman Empire in early 1st century AD. Messemvria as it was called at the time, with its fortress walls and large public buildings preserved intact, continued to mint its own bronze coins and remained an important commercial and cultural center along the Black Sea coast of Roman Thrace.
The town first became part of the Bulgarian state in 812, when Khan Kroum stormed and conquered it, and Slavs and the Bulgarians settled here. Nessebar as Slavs called it remained in Bulgarian hands for a longer period of time during the reign of Tsar Simeon The Great.
After almost 40 years of Byzantine domination, Nessebar was again incorporated into the Bulgarian state in 1304 by Tsar Todor Svetoslav. The town underwent a great boom during the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander.
In 1366 the town was captured by the knights of Count Amedeo di Savoya, and later ceded to the Byzantine emperor. The town was first invaded by the Ottoman Turks in 1396. It finally became a part of the Ottoman Empire together with the capital Constantinopol in 1453.
Over the centuries of Ottoman domination, the economic and cultural life did not cease. Churches were built and decorated, icons painted.
The port of Nessebar continued to be a major import and export center on the Black Sea coast. Some of the Nessebar monasteries and scriptoria were active until 18th – 19th century. Many houses from Bulgarian Renaissance period are preserved in Nessebar – typical examples of the Black Sea architecture, some of the many windmills, which worked in the town, public baths and fountains.
The cultural heritage of the ancient town is presented in four museum expositions
The Archaelogical Museum, exhibiting the rich material culture of Messambria - Messemvria – Nessebar from the antiquity, Middle Ages and the Renaissance.