34 km south of Bourgas, not far from Strandzha Pranina, is located Sozopol - a town in southeastern Bulgaria on the Black Sea. It spreads over several small peninsulas in the southern part of Burgas. With a population of 6428 people according to NSI data from December 31, 2019, the city is the eighth largest settlement in Burgas District and is the administrative center of Sozopol Municipality. It is the heir of the Greek colony Apollonia and together with Nessebar is one of the oldest Bulgarian cities. From antiquity to the 17th century Sozopol was a thriving trade center. It is known as a fishing and wine center and occupies an important place in the grain trade from Thrace. From late antiquity the city developed as an important church center with many medieval monasteries.
With its cultural and historical past, with its preserved architecture from the XVIII - XIX century, its beaches and the annual arts festival "Apollonia" Sozopol attracts many tourists today.
The first name of the city, given to it by the Greek colonists during its creation, was Antea. It was later changed in Apollonia in honor of the ancient Greek god Apollo, patron saint of emigrants and revered as a healer. In order to distinguish it from other cities with the name Apollonia that existed at that time, the city is also known for its explanatory epithet Pontica, ie Pontic, Black Sea or Magna, the Great.
Since late antiquity, Apollonia has been known as Sozopolis, translated as City of Salvation, Salvation or Healing.
The climate in Sozopol and the region is a combination between the humid subtropical climate and the Mediterranean, with relatively warm but windy winters (average January temperature +6 ° C) and long, warm summers (average July temperature +27 ° C). The Black Sea and air transport from the Mediterranean are its main shaping factors. The winter northwest and southwest winds prevail, with almost twice the speed of the national average.
The city is divided into Old and New City, between which is the Sea Garden. The old town is located on the small peninsula Skamniy, jutting between Sozopol Bay and Korenyata Bay. Skamniy is connected by an artificial embankment and a breakwater with the island of Sveti Kirik with an area of 80 decares, located 250 meters northwest of Sozopol. The northern part of the peninsula ends with Cape Skamni, and the southern - with Cape Harmanite. Along the Korenyata Bay to the Kolokita Peninsula is the newest part of the city - Harmanite district. The Kolokita Peninsula and Kavatsi Bay mark the southern border of the city.
In the waters of the Sozopol Bay are the island of St. Ivan and the small island of St. Peter located next to it.
On the territory of Sozopol and in the immediate vicinity are declared several protected areas for protection of endangered animal and plant species:
Islands of St. Ivan and St. Peter
Kolokita
The sand lily
Sand dunes in the Kavatsite locality
Sand dunes between the campsites "Goldfish" and "Garden"
Bakarlaka (protected area)
Aleppo
Archaeological excavations in the area of today's Sozopol began in 1904, when a French team led by the French consul in Plovdiv Degran headed to Sozopol to search for the ancient Apollonia Pontica. The results of the excavations were published by archaeologist Georges Sear in 1924 in the French scientific journal Review Archaeologist. The discovered ancient artifacts were donated to the Louvre in Paris. Among them are painted ancient vases of Rhodes-Ionian type from the XVII - XIX century BC, a gilded wreath of a Thracian ruler, an exquisite limestone bust of an Apollonian woman from the III century BC.
Some of the most significant excavations were conducted between 1946 and 1949 under the leadership of Ivan Venedikov and the results were published in the collection "Apollonia".
Since 2010 in the old part of the city are conducted large-scale archaeological excavations, which led to the discovery and restoration of the eastern and southern fortress walls, the southern fortress gate, a medieval customs point, ceramic and metallurgical furnaces, foundries. In the winter of 2011-2012, a team of Bulgarian archaeologists led by Tsonya Drazheva and Dimitar Nedev discovered a single-apse church, a basilica and an ancient Christian necropolis near the southern fortress wall.
