Sozopol
Sozopol is a Black Sea resort and good blend of sea-waves and oil paints scent, 30 kilometers south of Bourgas on a picturesque peninsula in the southern part of the Bourgas Bay. Sozopol is je town of artists-painters, musicians and actors, known for ancient architecture and romantic atmosphere. For many decades, narrow and steep cobbled streets of the town of Sozopol, its old wooden houses with bay windows and red tile, attract actors, artists, poets and visitors.
Archaeological researches and finds indicates that Sozopol has a cultural tradition that is some 7,000 years old. 2600 years ago Greek expatriates from Asia Minor, navigating around the Black Sea, noted the small peninsula surrounded by small islands and lagoons and decided to settle there. On the ruins of an abandoned Thracian settlement a new polis was founded – Apolonia Pontica which had the state status. They dedicated it to Apollo – the God protecting arts. Not before long, Apolonia Pontica became the biggest and also the richest polis on the entire Black Sea coast, named after the ancient Pontus Euxinus) to Apollonia Magna (“Great Apollonia”). By the first century AD, the name Sozopolis began to appear in written records. During the Ottoman rule the town was known as Sizebolu, Sizeboli or Sizebolou.
Bulgaria’s Black Sea resort town of Sozopol is organizing a special archaeological exhibition in order to celebrate the 5th anniversary since the discovery of the relics of St. John the Baptist, which were found by Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov in 2010 in the Early Christian basilica on the nearby St. Ivan (St. John) Island. The archaeological exhibit will be opened in the days before St. John’s Eve (also known as Midsummer; known in Bulgaria as Enyovden), on June 23, the eve before St. John the Baptist’s Feast Day, June 24, the Director of the Sozopol Museum of Archaeology Dimitar Nedev has told Radio Burgas. The special exhibition will feature finds discovered on the St. Ivan Island in the last few years. It will be put together in the Sozopol Museum of Archaeology by experts from Bulgaria’s National Institute and Museum of Archaeology, and the Burgas Regional Museum of History, with the participation of the finder of St. John the Baptist’s relics, Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov. The holy relics of St. John the Baptist, however, will not be moved the Sozopol Museum of Archaeology for the exhibition. They will be kept where they are kept and are accessible for worship – in the St. Cyril and St. Methodius Church in Sozopol.
Back in 2010 during excavations of an ancient monastery on the Saint Ivan (St. John) Island in the Black Sea, off the coast of Bulgaria’s Sozopol, just to the north of Burgas (and the ancient and medieval port of Burgos (Poros) on Cape Foros), Bulgarian archaeologist Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov discovered a reliquary containing relics of St. John the Baptist. The relics of St. John the Baptist, which consist of small bone particles from a skull, jaw bone, arm bone, and tooth, have received lots of international interest in the years since then, and in February 2015 CNN reported that Oxford University scholars had confirmed the possibility of their authenticity by concluding that they belonged to a man who lived in the Middle East at the same time as Jesus Christ.
An ancient Thracian gold Treasure has been discovered by archaeologists during the rescue excavations of a Thracian burial mound near the Black Sea resort of Primorsko in Southeast Bulgaria in the mound located in an area known as Silihlyar, about 7 km away from the town of Primorsko, near the Black Sea coast. The treasure consists of a total of 37 gold appliques which decorated the harness of the horse of an Ancient Thracian ruler during parades and formal religious ceremonies. The harness decorations were placed in their tombs as part of the burial inventories together with the horses who were sacrificed in order to follow their master into the afterlife.
The best beach of the region is undoubtedly south of Sozopol – holiday village of Dyuni. Situated in a bay, the shape of a large semi-circle, within the Ropotamo Natural Reserve, the resort of Dyuni resort offers the best possible conditions for rest and relaxation. The Saint Tomas Island or as the locals call it – the Snakes Island is the only place in Bulgaria where one can find naturally grown cacti. These were brought from Bratislava and planted here by the last Bulgarian king. They are Opuncia cacti and they overlook almost half of the territory of the Snakes Island and spread over half of the island, making is really difficult to pass. The beaches of Sozopol are the ideal complement to the romantic atmosphere of the town. The sand is find and mild, and the waves keep supplying guests with free souvenirs – cute sea shells. Fans of experience can go diving, while those in romantic mood would prefer a promenade on board a small motorboat.
