SOZOPOLIS – SOZOPOL

In 610 B.C. Asia Minor Greeks from Miletus, led by the famous Greek philosopher Anaximander, looking for new lands, founded APOLLONIA.

The ancient Greeks built a town with an independent democratic state government, developed different crafts with testified to the highly developed culture. Apollonia became a town with influence and importance in the ancient Hellenic world. At the end of the first century B.C. the legions of Marcus Lucullus ruined the town, and plundered the majestic temple of God Apollo. They took to Rome the very bronze statue /a work of art of Calomis, 460 B.C./, high 13 metres, to decorate with it the Capitolinus hill. The town looses its independence and becomes a part of the Roman empire.

Later in the IV century with proclamation of the Christianity as an official religion in the Roman empire the name of the town was changed: SOZOPOLIS – a town of rescue. After disintegration of the Roman empire the town becomes a part of the newly formed empire of Byzantium.

In 811 the Bulgarian khan Kroum defeated the Byzantine army, and as a result of which he captured SOZOPOL and annexed it to the Bulgarian State. Different civilisations like Thracian, Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, Bulgarian, Turkish ones imprinted the history of Sozopol. With them the town and its citizens experience moments of progress and fall.

Today Sozopol attracts thousands of tourists with its magnificent coves, with its beautiful beaches, with its romantic streets and original architecture.

Ropotamo river

The mouth of the Ropotamo river, 16km south of Sozopol can rightly be called a “European jungle” and attracts with its unique nature many holidaymakers and tourists. Where the river flows into the bay, god has piled together a number of natural wonders.

The river flows out and forms a lake, both of its banks have transformed into marshlands covered with rushes, age old forests come down from the nearby Strandja Mountain almost to the edge of the sea. Under their deep green arches trees seem to be floating, entwined with wild wines, bindweed, ivy and lianas, hanging down to the water surface. From the nearby bushes the song and voices of myriad birds can be heard. The water is teeming with fish because large schools of migrating fish swarm into the river in autumn and spring.

Bulgaria ancient and modern

These who have chosen the Bulgarian Black Sea coast for their holiday will have the unique opportunity to see many of the most beautiful masterpieces of the European and world culture. On the territory of modern Bulgaria different civilisations have left signs 7000 years ago. Bulgarian state exists since 681 and has a 1300-year-old history. For these years Bulgaria became a center of Orthodox Christianity in Eastern Europe. The Cyrillic alphabet created by the Kiril and Methodii brothers (862); The Bulgarian Renaissance; all the historical monuments and artefacts found in our lands, make Bulgaria one of the biggest cultural centers in Europe.