Greek Vasiliko (antiquity – 19th c.)
The earliest settlements in the area date back to antiquity — Thracian and Greek colonists made the small peninsula an important fishing station on the route between Apollonia (Sozopol) and the Black Sea outlet to the Bosphorus. The name Vasiliko (Βασιλικό) means "the royal place" — perhaps after an ancient local ruler's name, perhaps linked to Byzantine rule.
Byzantium and Ottoman Empire (4th–19th c.)
Under Byzantine and later Ottoman rule, Vasiliko remained a quiet fishing settlement with a mostly Greek population. It appears in 15th-century Ottoman registers as a small port. In the 19th century the Dormition of the Mother of God church (1810) was built — today the heart of the old part of town.
Vasiliko in Bulgaria (1913–1934)
After the Balkan Wars (1912–1913) Vasiliko passed to the Principality of Bulgaria. Its Greek population emigrated during the 1925 Bulgaria–Greece population exchange, replaced by Bulgarian refugees from Eastern Thrace. In 1934 the town was renamed Tsarevo — in honour of Tsar Boris III.
Michurin (1950–1991)
In 1950 the communist authorities in Bulgaria removed the "royal" name and renamed the town Michurin — in honour of the Soviet plant breeder Ivan V. Michurin. The period saw substantial construction — new neighbourhoods, schools and hotels, the first socialist-era resorts on the southern coast. In 1991, after the end of socialism, the town restored its Tsarevo name.
Modern Tsarevo (1991 — today)
After the transition, the town has developed as a quiet tourist centre — an alternative to the mass resorts further north. Today it is the administrative seat of Bulgaria's southernmost Black Sea municipality. Although fishing remains important, tourism and family hospitality form the backbone of the local economy.