About Nessebar

A short history of Nessebar

The town's history begins more than 3,000 years ago, at the end of the Bronze Age. Its first inhabitants were Thracians, who called the settlement Melsambria — according to one legend after its founder Melsa, though this etymology is now regarded as a later reconstruction from the Hellenistic period.

At the start of the 6th century BC, Greek colonists from Megara (of the Dorian tribe) settled on the peninsula and renamed the town Mesambria. It became a prosperous trading hub that minted its own bronze and silver coins from the 5th century BC and gold from the 3rd century BC, trading throughout the Mediterranean.

Between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, the town gradually came under Roman rule and later became an important Byzantine centre under the name Mesemvria. In 812 Khan Krum captured it after a two-week siege and incorporated it into Bulgaria for the first time. Between 1201 and 1263 Nessebar lived through a golden age as part of the Second Bulgarian Empire — many of its most beautiful churches were built then. In 1366 it was taken by the knights of Count Amadeus VI of Savoy, and finally fell under Ottoman rule in 1453, along with Constantinople.

The name Nessebar was officially restored on 14 August 1934, and in 1983 the Old Town was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Landmarks of Nessebar

The old town of Nessebar is a true open-air museum. Monuments from many different eras are gathered in a tiny area:

• The basilica of St Sophia (the Old Metropolitan church) — late 5th / early 6th century, once the city's main cathedral.
• St Stephen church (the New Metropolitan church) — built in the 11th century, with striking frescoes added in later eras.
• St John the Baptist church — 10th–11th century, a prototype for the later Nessebar masterpieces.
• The medieval churches of Christ Pantocrator, St John Aliturgetos, Sts Michael and Gabriel, St Paraskeva and St Theodore — built in the 13th–14th century.
• The western fortress wall with its gate — the only surviving defensive structure.
• The Early Byzantine thermae from the 6th century, built under Emperor Justinian I.
• National Revival houses from the 18th–19th century with their distinctive Black Sea architecture.
• The Archaeological Museum with its 'Nessebar Through the Ages' exhibition.
• The Ethnographic Museum in the Moskoyani house.
• The old windmill on the isthmus — one of the symbols of the town.

Nessebar today — between history and the sea

Nessebar has a population of around 15,000, putting it among the largest towns on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. During the summer season the number of people in the town multiplies many times over.

Today the town combines the authentic charm of its Old Town with the modern infrastructure of the new part and of the neighbouring resort of Sunny Beach, with which it merges to the north. Cobbled lanes, galleries, fish restaurants, beaches and a turquoise sea — Nessebar is among the most popular destinations in Bulgaria.

For residents and visitors of Burgas, Nessebar is one of the easiest and most essential day trips. Regular bus services connect the two towns and the journey takes about an hour. One visit is enough to understand why this small peninsula gathers more than three thousand years of European history in a single place.