Bulgaria Nessebar

The city of Nessebar and the resorts on its territory are located in the southeastern part of Bulgaria.

The present-day town is the successor of a Thracian fishermen's settlement named Menabryia (meaning literally 'the town of Mena'), the foundation of which dates back to the 2nd century BC. Later it remained the only Doric colony along the Black Sea coast, as the rest were typical Ionic settlements. The Greeks named it Messembria (which was later transformed into Nessabar by the Slavs), and it grew into a big and well-fortified town-state. The town benefited from natural protection from both the land and the sea. Remains suggest the existence of aqueducts, a sewerage system, fortified wails, an amphitheatre and numerous cult edifices (including an impressive temple of Apollo) at that time. The town became a popular commercial centre as a variety of goods from the Aegean and the Mediterranean regions were traded there and it also minted its own coins in the 5th century BC. Two centuries later, it founded its own colony called Navlohos near Obzor. The whole land between Nessebar and Obzor used to be a granary that supplied the two colonies with food as well as goods of exchange. In the 1st century BC the town surrendered to Marcus Lukulus' legions and was subjected top Roman domination, during which the construction of a second colony of Messembria began and was finished. The second colony, built to the south of Nessebar, was named Anhialo (present-day Pomorie).

In the early Middle Ages the town rebuilt its fortress walls and stayed part of the Byzantine Empire until 812 when the protobulgarian Khan Kroum conquered it, including it in the territory of Bulgaria. During the reign of Ivan Alexander the town went thorough a cultural and economic boom, and occupied substantial territories beyond the stretch of the peninsula. It was around that period when most of the churches of Nessebar, remains of which are to be found in the present-day town, were built. In 1366 the knights of Amadeus of Savoy conquered the town, and then sold it to Byzantium for 15,000 golden ducats. In 1453, shortly after Constantinople fell under Turkish domination the town was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and went through a period of decay. The Liberation found Nessabar as a small fishermen's settlement, with well-developed viticulture on the hills above the town.

Due to the unique natural surroundings and the well-preserved monuments from various historic periods, at the 7th session of the World Heritage Committee in Florence in 1983, the Old Town of Nessebar became the only Bulgarian town included in the World Cultural Heritage list of UNESCO.

Bulgaria - map

There are many interesting, beautiful and deeply moving legends in Bulgarian history. For those who are not aware of this, Bulgaria was under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire for five hundred years. Many of the Bulgarian legends are connected with that very sad phase of Bulgarian history. One of the legends is telling us about the way Kadin bridge (Kadin Most in Bulgarian) was built. It is one of the most famous bridges left till now. Kadin bridge is in the village of Nevestino, near the city of Kiustendil, the Soutwestern Bulgaria. The bridge is made of stone and it is remarkably beautiful. There is still inscription on it saying that it was built by the order of vizir Ishak Pasha during the reign of sultan Mehmed ?? who is also known as "The Conqueror".
The legend says that the vizir decided to build the bridge because one day while he was on his way to Bosnia, he couldn’t cross the swift-flowing river of Struma. As the story tells, there were three brothers who were assigned to build the bridge. So the three young men started building it but whatever they did, they worked in vain. Because what they managed to build during the day, the river destroyed it at night and washed everything away. The brothers were wondering what to do. They thought very hard trying to find a solution. After many days they arrived at a decision that the river wants something and they should offer up a sacrifice. In order to build the bridge and fulfill their task, the three brothers decided to built-in within the stone walls of the bridge one of their beautiful and beloved wives. Since they could not choose which one, they decided that the busiest one, who is going to bring her husband lunch first, should be the one.
It turned out that it was the wife of master Manol. Her name was Struma. She came first, bringing the bread she baked for her husband and carrying their first child. Then the brothers built her in the middle of the bridge vault. The poor woman was begging for mercy and crying. Finally, when she understood that they will not change their minds, the only thing that she asked crying was to leave holes for her eyes and for her breast so she could see and feed her child. Before long the misfortuned mother died and her milk turned into stone on the walls of the bridge. Since then many nursing mothers from all over the country come to the bridge, take piece of the stone, boil it and drink the water in order to have enough milk for their children.

Bulgaria – Madara Rider

The Madara Rider or Madara Horseman is an early medieval large rock relief carved on the Madara Plateau east of Shumen in northeastern Bulgaria, near the village of Madara.

The monument is dated back to circa 710 AD and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979. The dating means the monument was created during the rule of Bulgar Khan Tervel, and supports the thesis that it is a portrayal of the khan himself and a work of the Bulgars, a nomadic tribe of warriors which settled in northeastern Bulgaria at the end of the 7th century AD and after merging with the local Slavs gave origin to the modern Bulgarians. Other theories connect the relief with the ancient Thracians, claiming it portrays a Thracian god.

Bulgaria – Rila Monastery

The Rila monastery lies in the very Rila mountain, at 1,147 meters above sea level. It is situated 117km away from Sofia to the south.

The monastery is believed to have been founded by a hermit, John of Rila, in the 10th century, during the reign of the Bulgarian Tzar Peter (927-968). St John of Rila, whose relics are exhibited for pilgrims in the main church, in fact lived in a cave about half-an-hour walk away from the present-day monastery complex. The monastery itself is considered to have been built by his scholars, who came to the place to be taught by him.
Similarly to other Bulgarian monasteries that survived during Ottoman times, the Rila monastery has acted as a centre of spiritual and cultural life for the Bulgarian nation during the foreign rule. During that time, the monks created new works and made copies of medival Bulgarian authors, representing mainly the Turnovo and Mount Athos schools.

The monastery was declared a national historical monument in 1976, while in 1983 it was inscribed in UNESCO’s list of world heritage.

Bulgaria – Vidin – Baba Vida Fortress

Baba Vida fortress in the town of Vidin on the river Danube in Northwesternmost Bulgaria is the only medieval fortress that has survived to this day in this country.

A portulan, a travel guide of sorts, from the Roman times first mentioned the fortress under the name Ad Malum (probably of Celtic origin). The Romans later changed the name to Bononia, which the Slavs pronounced as Budin, and the Proto Bulgarians as Bdin. The present-day name Vidin appeared for the first time in Ottoman registers as early as the XV century.

Baba Vida is a medieval fortress built on the foundation of the Roman Bononia fortification that existed for five centuries till the mid sixth century A.D. It was part of the Danubian frontier of the Roman Empire. The citadel had two parts, a housing and economic part, and a defensive part. The castle represented a square building encircled by two walls, an inner wall and an outer wall, forming a courtyard in between. The castle towers were built on the inner wall. Four of them occupied the four corners pointing to the four directions north, south, east, west. There were also five lateral towers, and of course the main entrance tower, built on the outer wall. The fosse in front of the castle was filled with water from the river Danube. It had a wooden bridge that went up and down. The principal construction works date from the period of the Second Bulgarian kingdom, the late XII –early XIV century. During that time Hungarian and Bulgarian rulers took turns to hold the possession of the fortress. The last dynasty of Bulgarian kings before the country fell under Ottoman domination, the Shishman dynasty, originated from there. The building technique combined stone and brick bound by mortar. After the fall to Ottoman domination the castle was turned into a fortification and served that purpose right till the early XIX century. Baba Vida fortress underwent rebuilding to allow for fire from small-calibre rifles and canons from the outer wall.

The inner courtyard was home to the guards and also housed the many warehouses. There used to be a chapel in the XIII-XIV century unearthed during excavations and researchers assume that the fortress was also home to the feudal lord of the region. In the XVII-XVIII century the Ottomans built stone quarters for the garrison.