Nessebar - Bulgaria

Valentin and I drove from Dragoinovo; our base in Bulgaria to Nessebar via Burgas, Bulgaria’s 4^th largest city.  Nessebar is a town with a lot of history.  It is situated on the Black sea about 3 and a half hours drive from Dragoinovo.  The town bears evidence of occupation by a variety of different civilisations over the course of its existence.  Its abundance of historic buildings prompted UNESCO to include Nessebar as a World Heritage Site in 1983.  The old part of the city is located on a beautiful peninsula which is surrounded by a walkway allowing you to walk all around and appreciate every aspect of this lovely and inviting place.



At the Entrance of the Peninsula

Statue at the Harbour

The Main  Road on the Peninsula

Houses lining the Main Road

Nessebar is an ancient town dating back to Thracian times with lots of well-preserved buildings.  There were quite a few tourists still enjoying the place in mid-September.  Plenty of fresh seafood on offer in a lot of restaurants either with sea views or typical settings.  We enjoyed some squid, mussels, fish soup, grilled blue fish not dissimilar to sardines.  All very tasty.

Part of St Stephen's Church

Another Magnificent Church



Glory from Yesteryear

A Restaurant with Great Views.

The Ancient town of Nessebar is a unique example of the synthesis of centuries-old human cultural activities.  It is a location where numerous civilisations have left tangible traces of their passage there.  The town contains elements from the second millennium BC, all the way to the medieval period until the present time.



Witness from a long-gone era

 


Building from the 19th Century

 

A modern Building Form

 

Early Vestiges of Occupation

 

A Back Street in Nessebar

 

A Street in Nessebar

Often referred to as the "Pearl of the Black Sea", Nessebar is now one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.  It boasts several large resorts, the largest, Sunny Beach, situated immediately North of Nessebar.



Another view of the Main Beach

 The white sands of Nessebar...

One of the Beaches at Nessebar

 In the distance, Sunny Beach...

Sunny Beach - view from Nessebar

 

Originally a Thracian settlement, known as Menebria, the town became a Greek colony at the beginning of the 6th century BC.  It was an important trading centre from then on and a rival of Apollonia (Sozopol.  The capture of the town by the Turks in 1453 marked the start of its decline, but its architectural heritage remained and was enriched in the 19th century by the construction of wooden houses in style typical of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast during this period.

 

19th Century wood and stone construction

Basker playing a local instrument

After the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1878, Nessebar united with the Principality of Bulgaria in 1885.  Around the end of the 19th century Nessebar was a small town of fishermen and vine growers.  In the early 20th century, the population increased and developed as a key Bulgarian seaside resort.  After 1925, a new town part was built and the historic Old Town was restored.

Local Fishermen

The Fishing Harbour

Local Crafts

A local Souvenir Shop

The town has served for over thousands of years as the spiritual hearth of Christian culture and it is sometimes said to be the town with the highest number of churches per capita.  Today, a total of forty churches survive, wholly or partly, in the vicinity of the town.  Whether built during the Byzantine, Bulgarian or Ottoman rule of the town, the churches of Nessebar represent a rich architectural heritage of the Eastern Orthodox world.
 

Another Amazing Church Structure

Ruins of an Early Temple

 

Young Children Playing by an Old Church

 Another Old Building Showing its Age and Unique Architecture...

Another religious building

We left Nessebar after a copious breakfast and headed for Sunny Beach, a place some 10 kms away from Nessebar.  It may have been a million miles away so big was the change of scenery and atmosphere.

 

Modern Sunny Beach

 Horse-drawn Carriage with  KFC in the Background...

Even KFC has a stronghold in Sunny Beach

From the gentle, peaceful historic and cobble stone Nessebar, one steps directly into a luxury modern hotel, night club, erotic dancing, 24/7 booze outlets aimed specifically at mass foreign tourism and especially the young English party crowd looking for a cheap place to get smashed.



The Seaway to Sunny Beach

The 5-kilometre beach with its fine sand and clear water can be very inviting except for the thousands of people all parked next to each other claiming a spot in the water.  An hour or so was sufficient to get a fairly good idea of what the place was like before heading to Sozopol and a bit of sanity.

Sunny Beach on the Black Sea

 

Huge crowds gather to the beach



Too many people for me!!

The contrast between Nessebar and Sunny beach is just amazing .