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Sozopol & Useful Info

Getting There/Transport

Direct flights to Bourgas are available from most UK airports. Our apartment is located about 28 miles (45 km.) south of Bourgas Airport. A taxi should cost from around £32. High-frequency bus services connect Sozopol to Bourgas. A taxi from Cape Saint Stefan to Sozopol costs about 10 leva.

Currency

The currency in Bulgaria is the ‘lev’ (plural: 'leva') - which is pegged to the Euro. The current exchange rate (March 2022) is approx. 2.32 leva to the pound. We have historically found that you will get a better exchange rate in Sozopol than at home. There are numerous banks in Sozopol New Town with ATMs and we have found them to be reliable.

Geography

The town of Sozopol has a population reported in different places at between 4,000 ~ 7,000 people and lies about 21 miles (c.31km) south of Bourgas - the second-largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and the fourth-largest city in Bulgaria. Sozopol sits on a small rocky peninsula in the farthest southern part of the Bourgas Bay. A one hundred-metre long strip of land connects the Old Town to the mainland. In 1925, the town expanded in the direction of the Harmanite Area (the 'New Town') and visitors will find a significant difference between the Old Town and the New Town.

Beaches

Sozopol itself has two clean, sandy beaches (Central and Harmani) and the Black Sea is surprisingly warm. Both beaches have sunshades/chairs and there are a number of restaurants and places to eat and drink conveniently located nearby.

  • Central Beach is located between the Old and the New Town. It is easily reached and is busier during the summer months.

  • Harmani Beach is located in the New Town. It is wider and longer than the Central Beach, so it is a better option during July and August. This beach is served by lifeguards.

  • Kavatsite - about 2km south of Cape Saint Stefan - offers a fine sandy beach.

  • Duni - about 5km south of Cape Saint Stefan - has a 4.5km long and up to 100m wide beach, covered with fine golden sand and dotted with natural dunes. The sea is safe and calm, with a gradually sloping bottom and the bay is naturally sheltered against northern winds, making it an ideal place for all kinds of water sports.

Restaurants

Sozopol has many restaurants. For an authentic atmosphere we would suggest eating in the Old Town. The restaurants perched on top of the rocks (for example ‘The Windmill’) offer excellent sea views and some offer live entertainment. One of our favourite places to eat - offering a more international menu - is ‘Hotel Selena’ in Yani Popov Street. There are numerous fish restaurants along the harbour side.

Shopping

There is a variety of tourist shops and a market selling fresh fruit, vegetables, clothing, etc. in Sozopol. In the streets of the Old Town you can buy laces and embroideries made by locals. There are two small art galleries in the Old Town.

Culture & The Arts

The Old Town with its ruins from the old church and the wall, which used to protect the town back in the past, is certainly the most impressive part of Sozopol. The distinctive 19th century original stone and wooden houses in the cobbled streets of the Old Town are striking. A small archaeological museum in the Old Town heading down towards the harbour is well worth a visit.

Sozopol proudly hosts the Apollonia Festival of Arts – the largest and most popular Bulgarian art forum that gathers painters and actors, singers and musicians, poets and dancers to a world of art that comes alive in late summer each year. For more information, visit the Apollonia Art Foundations' website.

History of Sozopol

The earliest settlers of Sozopol were Thracian (Indo-European) tribesmen. In the 7th century BC, Greek colonisers called the town after their god of Apollo, Apolonia. Apolonia mainly developed as a trading centre for commodities and was already minting its own coins as far back as the 6th century BC. As the subject of many economic and political disputes, the town fell under Roman domination in the 1st century BC. The high level of cultural development of the town at that time is testified by items found in its necropoleis - ceramics, Egyptian glass vases and silver and golden decorations.

Roman domination secured three centuries of peace before the next invasion of barbarian tribes. In the 5th century the town was included in the territory of Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire). Like other Bulgarian sea towns, ownership frequently changed hands between Bulgaria and Byzantium. An attack of the Genoa fleet severely devastated the town in the mid 14th century before it was later conquered and sold to the Romans.

The town fell under Turkish rule in 1453 after a lengthy siege and since then, only wooden houses have been built there - the oldest of which can be still seen in the old quarter of the town. Sozopol gradually became the biggest fishing centre on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and also developed a tourism industry. An ancient necropolis was found in Sozopol in 1993 and excavations are still ongoing.