Nesebar

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Nesebar (Bulgarian: Несебър, variously transliterated), previously known as Mesembria (Greek: Μεσημβρια) and before that as Menebria, is an ancient city on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, located in Nesebar municipality, Burgas Province.

In modern times, Nesebar is a major tourist attraction in what has become a popular area with several large resorts—the largest, Sunny Beach, is situated immediately to the north of Nesebar.

Nesebar has on several occasions found itself on the frontier of a threatened empire, and as such it is a town with a rich history. The ancient part of the town is situated on a peninsula (previously an island) connected to the mainland by a narrow man-made isthmus, and it bears evidence of occupation by a variety of different civilisations over the course of its existence. Its abundance of historic buildings prompted UNESCO to inscribe Nesebar on its list of World Heritage Sites in 1983.

As of September 2005 Nesebar has a population of 10,194^GRBulgaria and the mayor is Nikolay Trifonov. The town lies at 42°39′N 27°44′E.

Coat of arms of Nessebar

A panoramic view of the ancient part of Nesebar, seen from across the bay into which the city's peninsula protrudes

View of Nesebar's Old Town with the wooden houses, ancient ruins and churches and one of the town's symbols, the wooden windmill (to the left)

1 History
2 Churches
3 Gallery
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Church of Christ Pantocrator (13th century)

Church of St John Aliturgetos (14th century)

Church of St John the Baptist (11th century)

Wooden houses on Nesebar's peninsula

Originally a Thracian settlement known as Menebria founded in the 2nd millennium BC, the town became a Greek colony when settled by Dorians from Megara at the beginning of the 6th century BC, and was an important trading centre from then on and a rival of Apollonia (Sozopol). Remains from the Hellenistic period include the acropolis, a temple of Apollo, and an agora. A wall which formed part of the Greek fortifications can still be seen on the north side of the peninsula. Bronze and silver coins were minted in the city since the 5th century BC and gold coins since the 3rd century BC.

The town fell under Roman rule in 71 BC, yet continued to enjoy privileges such as the right to mint its own coinage. It was one of the most important strongholds of the Byzantine Empire from the 5th century AD onwards, and was fought over by Byzantines and Bulgarians, being captured in 812 by Khan Krum after a two week siege only to be ceded back to Byzantium by Knyaz Boris I in 864 and reconquered by his son Tsar Simeon the Great. During the time of the Second Bulgarian Empire it was also contested by Bulgarian and Byzantine forces and enjoyed particular prosperity under Bulgarian tsar Ivan Alexander (1331-1371) until it was conquered by Crusaders led by Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy in 1366 and handed back to Byzantium. The Slavic version of the name, Nesebar or Mesebar, has been attested since the 11th century.

Monuments from the Middle Ages include the 9th century Stara Mitropoliya ("old bishopric"; also St Sophia), a basilica without a transept; the 10th century church of the Virgin; and the 11th century Nova Mitropoliya ("new bishopric"; also St Stephen) which continued to be embellished until the 18th century. In the 13th and 14th century a remarkable series of churches were built: St Theodore, St Paraskeva, St Michael and St Gabriel, and St John Aliturgetos.

The capture of the town by the Turks from the Byzantine Empire in 1453 marked the start of its decline, but its architectural heritage remained and was enriched in the 19th century by the construction of wooden houses in the Eastern Rumelian Greek style typical for the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast during this period. After the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1878, Nesebar became part of the autonomous Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia until it united with the Principality of Bulgaria in 1886.

Around the end of the 19th century Nesebar was merely a fishermen's and vinegrowers' village, but developed as a key Bulgarian seaside resort since the beginning of the 20th century, with a new town part being built and the historic Old Town being restored.

[edit] Churches

Nesebar is sometimes said to be the town with the highest number of churches per capita.^{[1], [2]} Although this might be wrong, their number and variety is still impressive. Some of the most famous include:

the Church of St Sophia or the Old Bishopric (Stara Mitropoliya) (5th-6th century)
the Holy Mother of God Eleoussa Basilica (6th century)
the Church of John the Baptist (11th century)
the Church of St Stephen or the New Bishopric (Nova Mitropoliya) (11th century; reconstructed in the 16th-18th century)
the Church of St Theodore (13th century)
the Church of St Paraskeva (13th-14th century)
the Chruch of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel (13th-14th century)
the Church of Christ Pantocrator (13th-14th century)
the Church of St John Aliturgetos (14th century)
the Church of St Spas (17th century)
the Church of St Clement (17th century)

Whether built during the Byzantine, Bulgarian or Ottoman rule of the city, the churches of Nesebar represent the rich architectural heritage of the Eastern Orthodox world and illustrate the gradual development from Early Christian basilicas to medieval cross-domed churches.

[edit] Gallery

Traditional wooden house	Ancient fortifications	Wooden houses	The New Bishopric
Wooden house	The Old Bishopric	Ancient ruins	The middle-18th-century windmill

[edit] References

Evaluation of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, June 1983 (PDF file)

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Nesebar

World Heritage Sites in Bulgaria

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