Несебър

An ancient city on a rocky peninsula with over 3200 years of history and an ancient city under the protection of UNESCO.

The peninsula on which today's Nessebar stands was inhabited more than 3200 years ago by a Thracian tribe. At the beginning of the 6th century BC, and more precisely around 510 BC, Greek colonists Dorians from Megara founded their colony here and called it Messambria. The city quickly became a significant commercial center and a rival of the neighboring Apollonia (today's Sozopol), and from the 5th century BC. in it they began to mint their own bronze and silver coins, and later, from the 3rd century BC, also gold ones. In 72–71 BC Mesambria came under Roman rule, but retained a number of privileges, including the right to mint its own money. From the 5th century AD the city, already known as Messemvria, became one of the important fortresses of the Eastern Roman Empire and passed between Byzantium and the Bulgarian state several times. In 812, Khan Krum captured the city and it became part of the Bulgarian state for the first time, and over time Slavs and Bulgarians settled here. The Middle Ages were a period of real prosperity for Mesemvria, especially during the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander (1331–1371), when many new churches were built in the city. In the past, they numbered nearly 40, which is why Nessebar was called the "Bulgarian Ravenna" - today the locations of about 23 of them are known, and over 40 medieval temples turn the city into a unique architectural ensemble of Bulgarian-Byzantine art. In the 14th century, the city fell under Ottoman rule, ushering in a new and more closed period of its history, but the old churches and fortifications survived the centuries of slavery largely intact. After the Liberation in 1878, the city remained within the borders of the Bulgarian state. In 1934, with Ordinance No. 2820, renaming a total of 1043 settlements in Bulgaria, the old name Mesemvria was replaced with today's Nessebar. In 1956, the old part of the city was declared an architectural-historical reserve, and in 1983 the ancient city of Nessebar was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List — the only entire ancient city in Bulgaria with this recognition. Today, Nessebar combines preserved ancient, medieval and Renaissance layers with its role as one of the most visited seaside resorts on the Southern Black Sea coast.