Burgas

The history of Burgas

Burgas is the heir of the small Roman city of Deultum founded  by Emperor Vespasian as a military base for veterans. Besides Deultum, the present-day town encompasses the areas of three other ancient villages: Castiascion, Skafida, and Roccokastron.

Even though Burgas used to have only 3,000 inhabitants during the time of the Liberation, soon after that it became the center of the Southern Black Sea area and a town of well-developed industry and trade.  

Burgas nowadays

Burgas is the center of the tourist industry in the Southern Black Sea area. Besides, it is the starting point for most of the summer resorts and holiday villages around – Sunny Beach (Slanchev Briag), the museums-like cities of Nesebar and Sozopol, the Ropotamo Natural Reserve, and the nature reserve of Stradzha. You will need only half an hour to reach Sunny Beach – it is the most famous and biggest summer resort in Bulgaria, and the old part of the city of Nesebar – which is a museum-like city. To the south, you can find numerous resorts and holiday villages – Tchernomoretz, Primorsko, Kiten, Lozenec, Tzarevo, Ahtopol, the museum-like city of Sozopol, holiday village Dunes, the international youth center – Primorsko. 

The transportation system is very well-developed. The port of Burgas is the biggest port in Bulgaria. The civil and freight airport is at around 15 kilometers far from Burgas to the north-east. The airport offers some of the best airline services on the Balkan Peninsula. In the summer, it is the main airport for charter flights for many international tourists. The automobile and rail system is also very well-developed. The south-east part of Bulgaria is well connected to the capital of Sofia and the neighboring Turkey. The distance between Burgas and Sofia is 400km on the highway. All villages in the region are accommodated in terms of running water, electricity, telephone and transportation.

Spirit of Burgas

Since 2008 the festival takes place each year on the central beach of Burgas. This is the biggest music event in Bulgaria, attracting hundreds of foreigners and offering a variety of scenes and diverse artists from all musical genres. In its first edition the festival was chosen among 50 nominees for one of the 15 best festivals in Europe in 2008  . In 2009 the event was nominated in the category "Best Overseas Festival" and was quoted by "The Times" as one of the 20 best festival destinations, and in January 2010  Spirit af Burgas was among the nominees for "Best Medium Sized Festival" at the first awards European Festival Awards.