Landmarks
The old town holds dozens of Revival-era houses, mediaeval churches, fortress walls and the Archaeological Museum.
Landmarks
The old town holds dozens of Revival-era houses, mediaeval churches, fortress walls and the Archaeological Museum.
Church of St. Mary
Built half-sunk into the ground in the late 15th century so as not to rise above the mosques under Ottoman decree — one of the oldest preserved churches in Sozopol. It is renowned for a remarkable 19th-century carved wooden iconostasis with vine clusters and a carved pulpit, set in a fig-tree courtyard in the heart of the Old Town.
Archaeological Museum
The collection traces the history of Apollonia/Sozopolis — Greek ceramics, Roman sarcophagi, mediaeval icons and finds from St. Ivan Island.
Southern fortress wall and tower
A restored section of the late-antique and mediaeval fortress — with a panoramic view of the harbour and bay.
St. Ivan Island
The largest Bulgarian island (~66 ha), about 920 m from the Stalpets peninsula. It hosts the excavations of an early Christian and medieval monastery of St John the Forerunner, where in July–August 2010 the team of Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov discovered a reliquary with bone fragments later identified as relics of St John the Baptist. The island is also a protected area with more than 70 species of birds, including the largest Bulgarian colony of yellow-legged gulls.
Revival-era houses
Dozens of 18th–19th-century houses with stone ground floors and wooden upper floors shape the look of the old town. Many now serve as galleries, taverns and small hotels.
Apollonia Art Gallery
The municipal gallery in the old town exhibits work by Bulgarian artists inspired by Sozopol and the Black Sea. The heart of the September Apollonia festival.