Sozopol
Encyclopedia
Sozopol is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas
on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
. Today it is one of the major seaside resorts in the country, known for the Apollonia art and film festival (which takes place in early September) that is named after one of the town's ancient names.
The busiest times of the year are the summer months, ranging from May to September as tourists from around the world come to enjoy the weather, sandy beaches, history and culture, fusion cuisine (Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish), and atmosphere of the colourful resort. The increasing popularity of the town has led to it being dubbed the Bulgarian St. Tropez, seeing stars like Ralph Fiennes
, Brad Pitt
, Angelina Jolie
and Goldfrapp
exploring its beauty and charm.
Part of Burgas Province
and administrative centre of the homonymous Sozopol Municipality
, as of December 2009, the town has a population of 5,410 inhabitants.
One of the most active and popular mayors had been Nikola Kaloyanov, who initiated numerous infrastructure changes to modernize the town in the 70s.
coast. The first settlement on the site dates back to the Bronze Age
. Undersea explorations in the region of the port reveal relics of dwellings, ceramic pottery, stone and bone tools from that era. Many anchors from the second and first millennium BC have been discovered in the town's bay, a proof of active shipping since ancient times.
The current town was founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists from Miletus
as Antheia. The name was soon changed to Apollonia, on account of a temple dedicated to Apollo
in the town, containing a famous colossal statue of the god Apollo by Calamis, 30 cubits high, transported later to Rome by Lucullus
and placed in the Capitol
.
The coins, which begin in the fourth century BC, bear the name Apollonia and the image of Apollo; the imperial coins, which continue to the first half of the third century AD, and the Tabula Peutinger also contain the name Apollonia; but the "Periplus Ponti Euxini", 85, and the Notitiæ episcopatuum have only the new name Sozopolis. In 1328 Cantacuzene (ed. Bonn, I, 326) speaks of it as a large and populous town. The islet on which it stood is now connected with the mainland by a narrow tongue of land. Its inhabitants, in the past mostly Greeks, lived by fishing and agriculture.
The town established itself as a trade and naval centre in the following centuries. It kept strong political and trade relations with the cities of Ancient Greece
– Miletus
, Athens
, Corinth
, Heraclea Pontica
and the islands Rhodes
, Chios
, Lesbos
, etc. Its trade influence in the Thracian territories
was based on a treaty with the rulers of the Odrysian kingdom
dating from the fifth century BC.
The symbol of the town – the anchor, present on all coins minted by Apollonia since the sixth century BC, is proof of the importance of its maritime trade. The rich town soon became an important cultural centre. At these times it was called Apollonia Magna.
Ruled in turn by the Byzantine
, Bulgarian
and Ottoman
Empires, Sozopol was assigned to the newly independent Bulgaria in the 19th century. At the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence
(1821) prominent local personalities were arrested and executed by the Ottoman authorities due to participation in the preparations of the struggle.
Almost all of its Greek population
was exchanged with Bulgarians from Eastern Thrace in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars
. In 2011 the remainings of an ancient Greek settlement, part of Apollonia, were excavated in the small island of St. Kirik (Saint Cerycus) off Sozopolis.
Since 1984 Sozopol hosts the Apollonia art festivities every September, which include theatre shows, exhibitions, movies, musical and dance performances, book presentations and other cultural events.
(1524), Philotheus (1564) and Joasaph (1721).
From being suffragan to the archbishopric of Adrianopolis, it became in the fourteenth century a metropolis
without suffragan sees; it disappeared perhaps temporarily with the Turkish conquest, but reappeared later; in 1808 it was united to the See of Agathopolis. The titular resided at Agathopolis, in Ottoman days called Akhtébolou, in the vilayet of Adrianopolis
(Edirne, in European Turkey).
Eubel (Hierarchia catholica medii ævi, I, 194) mentions four Latin bishops of the fourteenth century.
The city remains a titular see
of the Roman Catholic Church, that of Sozopolis in Haemimonto, suffragan of Adrianopolis. The seat has stood vacant since the death of the last titular bishop in 2000.
Art flourished in the Christian era. The ancient icons and magnificent woodcarving in the iconostases are a remarkable accomplishment of the craftsmanship of these times. The architecture of the houses in the old town from the Renaissance period
makes it a unique place to visit today.
on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands
, Antarctica is named after Sozopol.
Burgas
-History:During the rule of the Ancient Romans, near Burgas, Debeltum was established as a military colony for veterans by Vespasian. In the Middle Ages, a small fortress called Pyrgos was erected where Burgas is today and was most probably used as a watchtower...
on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coastline. White and golden sandy beaches occupy approximately 130 km of the 378 km long coast...
. Today it is one of the major seaside resorts in the country, known for the Apollonia art and film festival (which takes place in early September) that is named after one of the town's ancient names.
The busiest times of the year are the summer months, ranging from May to September as tourists from around the world come to enjoy the weather, sandy beaches, history and culture, fusion cuisine (Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish), and atmosphere of the colourful resort. The increasing popularity of the town has led to it being dubbed the Bulgarian St. Tropez, seeing stars like Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
, Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
, Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
and Goldfrapp
Goldfrapp
Goldfrapp are an English electronic music duo, formed in 1999 in London, England, that consists of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory ....
exploring its beauty and charm.
Part of Burgas Province
Burgas Province
-Municipalities:The Burgas province contains 13 municipalities . The following table shows the names of each municipality in English and Cyrillic, the main town or village , and the population of each as of 2009.-Demography:The Burgas province had a population of 423,608 -Municipalities:The Burgas...
and administrative centre of the homonymous Sozopol Municipality
Sozopol municipality
The Sozopol Municipality is located in the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and borders Burgas Municipality and Primorsko Municipality. The coast stretches 51 km of which 17.1 km are excellent beaches. There are many small bays and peninsulas as well as several isles...
, as of December 2009, the town has a population of 5,410 inhabitants.
One of the most active and popular mayors had been Nikola Kaloyanov, who initiated numerous infrastructure changes to modernize the town in the 70s.
Name
The original name of the city is attested as Antheia but was soon renamed to Apollonia. At various times, Apollonia was known as Apollonia Pontica (that is, "Apollonia on the Black Sea", the ancient Pontus Euxinus) and Apollonia Magna ("Great Apollonia"). By the first century AD, the name Sozopolis began to appear in written records. During the Ottoman rule the town was known as Sizebolu, Sizeboli or Sizebolou.History
Sozopol is one of the oldest towns on Bulgarian Thrace's Black SeaBlack Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
coast. The first settlement on the site dates back to the Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
. Undersea explorations in the region of the port reveal relics of dwellings, ceramic pottery, stone and bone tools from that era. Many anchors from the second and first millennium BC have been discovered in the town's bay, a proof of active shipping since ancient times.
The current town was founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists from Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
as Antheia. The name was soon changed to Apollonia, on account of a temple dedicated to Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
in the town, containing a famous colossal statue of the god Apollo by Calamis, 30 cubits high, transported later to Rome by Lucullus
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...
and placed in the Capitol
Capitoline Hill
The Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...
.
The coins, which begin in the fourth century BC, bear the name Apollonia and the image of Apollo; the imperial coins, which continue to the first half of the third century AD, and the Tabula Peutinger also contain the name Apollonia; but the "Periplus Ponti Euxini", 85, and the Notitiæ episcopatuum have only the new name Sozopolis. In 1328 Cantacuzene (ed. Bonn, I, 326) speaks of it as a large and populous town. The islet on which it stood is now connected with the mainland by a narrow tongue of land. Its inhabitants, in the past mostly Greeks, lived by fishing and agriculture.
The town established itself as a trade and naval centre in the following centuries. It kept strong political and trade relations with the cities of Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
– Miletus
Miletus
Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...
, Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
, Heraclea Pontica
Heraclea Pontica
Heraclea Pontica , an ancient city on the coast of Bithynia in Asia Minor, at the mouth of the river Lycus. It was founded by the Greek city-state of Megara c.560-558 and was named after Heracles who the Greeks believed entered the underworld at a cave on the adjoining Archerusian promontory .The...
and the islands Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, Chios
Chios
Chios is the fifth largest of the Greek islands, situated in the Aegean Sea, seven kilometres off the Asia Minor coast. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. The island is noted for its strong merchant shipping community, its unique mastic gum and its medieval villages...
, Lesbos
Lesbos Island
Lesbos is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of with 320 kilometres of coastline, making it the third largest Greek island. It is separated from Turkey by the narrow Mytilini Strait....
, etc. Its trade influence in the Thracian territories
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
was based on a treaty with the rulers of the Odrysian kingdom
Odrysian kingdom
The Odrysian kingdom was a union of Thracian tribes that endured between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC. It consisted largely of present-day Bulgaria, spreading to parts of Northern Dobruja, parts of Northern Greece and modern-day European Turkey...
dating from the fifth century BC.
The symbol of the town – the anchor, present on all coins minted by Apollonia since the sixth century BC, is proof of the importance of its maritime trade. The rich town soon became an important cultural centre. At these times it was called Apollonia Magna.
Ruled in turn by the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
, Bulgarian
Bulgarian Empire
Bulgarian Empire is a term used to describe two periods in the medieval history of Bulgaria, during which it acted as a key regional power in Europe in general and in Southeastern Europe in particular, rivalling Byzantium...
and Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
Empires, Sozopol was assigned to the newly independent Bulgaria in the 19th century. At the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution was a successful war of independence waged by the Greek revolutionaries between...
(1821) prominent local personalities were arrested and executed by the Ottoman authorities due to participation in the preparations of the struggle.
Almost all of its Greek population
Greeks in Bulgaria
Greeks in Bulgaria constitute the eighth-largest ethnic minority in Bulgaria . They number 1,356 according to the 2011 census, but are estimated at around 25,000 by Greek organizations and around 28,500, including the Sarakatsani, officially by Greece...
was exchanged with Bulgarians from Eastern Thrace in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars
Balkan Wars
The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
. In 2011 the remainings of an ancient Greek settlement, part of Apollonia, were excavated in the small island of St. Kirik (Saint Cerycus) off Sozopolis.
Since 1984 Sozopol hosts the Apollonia art festivities every September, which include theatre shows, exhibitions, movies, musical and dance performances, book presentations and other cultural events.
Ecclesiastical history
Sozopol was Christianized early. Bishops are recorded as resident there from at least 431. At least eight bishops are known (Le Quien, Oriens christianus, I, 1181): Athanasius (431), Peter (680), Euthymius (787) and Ignatius (869); Theodosius (1357), Joannicius, who became Patriarch of ConstantinoplePatriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
(1524), Philotheus (1564) and Joasaph (1721).
From being suffragan to the archbishopric of Adrianopolis, it became in the fourteenth century a metropolis
Metropolis
A metropolis is a very large city or urban area which is a significant economic, political and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections and communications...
without suffragan sees; it disappeared perhaps temporarily with the Turkish conquest, but reappeared later; in 1808 it was united to the See of Agathopolis. The titular resided at Agathopolis, in Ottoman days called Akhtébolou, in the vilayet of Adrianopolis
Adrianópolis
Adrianópolis is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
(Edirne, in European Turkey).
Eubel (Hierarchia catholica medii ævi, I, 194) mentions four Latin bishops of the fourteenth century.
Titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular bishop", "titular metropolitan", or "titular archbishop"....
of the Roman Catholic Church, that of Sozopolis in Haemimonto, suffragan of Adrianopolis. The seat has stood vacant since the death of the last titular bishop in 2000.
Art flourished in the Christian era. The ancient icons and magnificent woodcarving in the iconostases are a remarkable accomplishment of the craftsmanship of these times. The architecture of the houses in the old town from the Renaissance period
Bulgarian National Revival
The Bulgarian National Revival , sometimes called the Bulgarian Renaissance, was a period of socio-economic development and national integration among Bulgarian people under Ottoman rule...
makes it a unique place to visit today.
Miscellanea
Sozopol GapSozopol Gap
Sozopol Gap is a partly ice-covered, 500 m long saddle in Delchev Ridge, Tangra Mountains, eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica bounded to the southwest by Petko Voyvoda Peak and to the northeast by Kaloyan Nunatak...
on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
, Antarctica is named after Sozopol.
Notable natives
- Patriarch John XII of ConstantinoplePatriarch John XII of ConstantinopleJohn XII was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1294 to 1303. John XII was born in Sozopolis on the western Black Sea coast . Prior to becoming patriarch, he was known as Kosmas....
(in office 1294–1303) - Giorgios Gounaropoulos (1889–1977), Greek painter
- Svetoslav Shivarov (b. 1944), Bulgarian politician, former Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry
- Bozhidar DimitrovBozhidar DimitrovBozhidar Dimitrov Stoyanov is a well-known Bulgarian historian working in the sphere of Medieval Bulgarian history, the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria and the Macedonian Question...
(b. 1945), Bulgarian historian
See also
- St. Ivan IslandSt. Ivan IslandSt. Ivan Island is the largest Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, with an area of . It lies off the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast near Sozopol, a town with rich history and a popular tourist place, and is separated by a strait several hundred metres long from the small neighbouring St. Peter Island....
- St. Cyricus IslandSt. Cyricus IslandSt. Cyricus Island , also known as St. Cyril Island or Sts. Quiricus and Julietta Island is a Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, situated 150 metres from Sozopol's Stolets peninsula. It has an area of about 0,08 square kilometres and a height of 15 metres. The island is connected to the continent...
- St. Anastasia IslandSt. Anastasia IslandSt. Anastasia Island is a Bulgarian islet in the Black Sea. It is located 1.5 km off the coast near Chernomorets, at 12 metres above sea level, and embraces a territory of 0.022 km². It is the only inhabited island off the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.The island is supplied with...
- St. Thomas IslandSt. Thomas IslandSt. Thomas Island or Snake Island is a Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, 15 km south of Sozopol. It has an area of 0,012 square kilometres and is the only place in Bulgaria where wild cacti grow, brought from Bratislava, Slovakia and planted on the orders of Tsar Boris III in 1933. They...