Holiday Memories - Eighth Day

Ancient City of Nessebar

  

This place could not be missed. We have been to Nessebar several times and always come back here with pleasure. The ancient city is unique. Every street, every building is history. The Ancient city of Nessebar is a unique example of a synthesis of the centuries-old human activities in the sphere of culture

 Situated on a rocky peninsula on the Black Sea, the more than 3,000-year-old site of Nessebar was originally a Thracian settlement (Menebria). At the beginning of the 6th century BC, the city became a Greek colony. The city’s remains, which date mostly from the Hellenistic period, include the acropolis, a temple of Apollo, an agora and a wall from the Thracian fortifications. Among other monuments, the Stara Mitropolia Basilica and the fortress date from the Middle Ages, when this was one of the most important Byzantine towns on the west coast of the Black Sea. Wooden houses built in the 19th century are typical of the Black Sea architecture of the period.

 Nesebar is one of the most ancient towns in Europe, founded 3200 years ago. During Antiquity the town was called Mesembria, in the Middle Ages it was known as Mesemvria, and it was later renamed to Nesebar. Numerous archaeological finds provide evidence of the centuries-old history of Old Nesebar. Many of them can be seen at the Archaeological Museum which is located at the very beginning of the peninsula.

 

THE CHURCH ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST was built in 10th century. Its construction was made of rough stone and mortar. The church is 14 m long and 10 m wide. Around the windows and above the door rudiments of decorative elements can be seen. The church is a typical representative of the transition between the shortern basilica towards the cruciform church. There is a cylindrical drum above the central part of the church and it ends with a hemispherical dome. To the East there are three semicircular apses. No nartex can be seen. Western, northern and southern facades of the church possess high blind arches.

THE CHRIST PANTOCRATOR CHURCH (All Powerfull) is dated back 13th - 14th century. It’s one of the most remarquable and well preserved medieval churches in Nessebar, typical for the picturesque style in the religeous architecture. The church is rectangular with dimensions 16 m in length and 6,90 m in width. It possesses two entrances - to the south and to the west. On the eastern side there are three small richly profiled apses.

THE CHURCH ST. STEPHEN, known as The New Bishopric, was built in the period 11th - 13th century. In 16th century the church was elongated and in the 18th century a nartex was added. The church is a three-nave basilica. The central nave raises up above the lateral and has oval frontons in the east and west. The church was built in stones and bricks. For the construction of the church many architectural elements -cornises, capitals, reliefs of destroied earlier buildings were secondary used.
In the beginning the church was dedicated to the Holly Mother. That why the wall paintings represent scenes from the Holy Mother’s life.

 

 

“The Old Nessebar” ethnographic exposition is arranged in a representative of the National Revival period house, built by a wealthy local merchant in 1840. It is a two-storey house consisting of a stone ground floor and a timber-framed residential second floor occupied by 5 rooms and a spacious central salon with carved wooden ceiling, ornate in the middle by a big star-shaped rosette. A kitchen, a bedroom, both with fireplaces, and a larder are situated to the north. The two bedrooms facing south have no fireplaces and were used only in summer. Photos and plans inside the salon reveal the town’s splendid architecture, presenting some of the emblematic Nessebar houses, as well as the famous windmills. Here, one can also see records and drawings left by travelers and painters, who visited Nessebar in the 17th – 19th centuries. In addition, the central salon features some items typical of the urban lifestyle of that time.

The ruins of Nessebar date back to the Hellenistic period and they include a temple of Apollo,an agora and the remains of the acropolis.

Nessebar was captured and incorporated in the lands of the First Bulgarian Empire in 812 by Khan Krum after a two week siege only to be surrendered back to Byzantium

 

THE CHURCH ST. PARASKEVA (13th -14th century) is a single nave church, 15 m X 6 m in size, with a nartex. A pentagonal apse is jutting out to the East. The church is built of hewn stone and bricks in rows. The southern and northern facades are ornamented with blind arches which drums are richly decorated. The motives are fishbone, sun, zigzag, checker board etc. are made of stone and bricks too. Over them decorative ornaments - round and glazed saucers are walled in. Result of later reconstruction, the roof of the church has two slopes. It is a typical cruciform church - the roof is formed as a cross and above it, in the central part, there is a drum with a dome. In the past there has been a bell-tower over the nartex. Its existence is proved by the stone stairway inside between the naos and the nartex.

THE CHURCH ST. SPASS (17th century) is a small single nave and single apse building, 11,70 m long and 5,70 m wide. In the past there was a long, narrow narthex in the north side and with it, the width of the church was 9,80 m. The wooden roof with eaves is without edging. Eastern facade was half dug in the ground.

 

Nessebar ancient town wall.