The Black Sea Coast

The coast has some of the earliest traces of wealth in Europe: the Varna Necropolis, found in 1972, held gold objects from around 4500 BC, the oldest worked gold known. Thracian tribes lived here when Greek colonists arrived in the 7th and 6th centuries BC and founded Odessos (Varna), Apollonia (Sozopol) and Messembria (Nesebar), with Anchialos (Pomorie) following later, trading wine and pottery for grain.

Rome and then Byzantium held the coast, and Messembria filled with churches. The Bulgarian state fought Byzantium for the ports for centuries; Kaliakra, on the northern cape, was the seat of the 14th-century Dobrujan ruler Dobrotitsa. In 1444 a crusader army was destroyed outside Varna and the Polish-Hungarian king Władysław III was killed there, sealing Ottoman control. In 1791 a Russian fleet defeated the Ottomans off Cape Kaliakra.

After 1878 Varna became the country's main port and a seaside resort, with the royal palace of Euxinograd. Southern Dobruja, including Balchik and Dobrich, was part of Romania from 1913 to 1940, when it returned to Bulgaria. In the 1950s the communist state built Golden Sands and Sunny Beach as holiday complexes, and after 1989 the coast was developed intensively, often with little planning, turning fishing villages into resort towns.

The coast has always been more mixed and outward-looking than the interior. Greek communities lived in Nesebar, Sozopol and Pomorie into the early 20th century, and their churches, houses and names remain; Dobruja has Turkish, Tatar and Romanian traces, and the Gagauz, Orthodox Turkic-speakers, have villages near Varna. Varna is a cultural centre in its own right, hosting summer festivals and a long-running international ballet competition.

In the Strandzha hills, the village of Bulgari keeps nestinarstvo, a fire-dancing rite in which dancers carry icons barefoot across glowing embers on the feast of Saints Constantine and Helena on 21 May; it is recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage. Fishing traditions survive in Sozopol and in the villages around Cape Kaliakra, and St Nicholas's Day, 6 December, is the fishermen's feast, marked with a meal of carp.

Summer transforms the culture: from June, students and workers from across Bulgaria arrive for seasonal jobs, and the coast becomes the country's playground, with beach clubs and festivals alongside quieter old towns.

Varna, with about 310,000 people, is Bulgaria's third city, a naval and commercial port with several universities. Burgas, with around 200,000, is a major port and home to its main oil refinery, at Neftochimic. Dobrich, inland, is the market centre of the Dobruja plain, often called the granary of Bulgaria for its wheat and sunflowers.

Tourism dominates the economy of the resort towns, and many residents earn most of their income in the summer months. In winter, Sunny Beach and Golden Sands empty, and the small towns fall quiet. Overdevelopment, pressure on protected dunes and coastline, and seasonal work are local concerns.

In summer life runs late: evenings on the promenade, dinners after dark, and crowds on the beaches from morning. The rest of the year the cities keep the usual Bulgarian rhythm of coffee, work and family meals.

The coast eats from the sea. Tsatsa, sprats fried whole and eaten with a beer, and fried safrid, horse mackerel, are the classic summer snacks; turbot, kalkan, is the prized fish, and Black Sea mussels, midi, are steamed or cooked in rice pilaf. Rapana, a large sea snail, is also eaten, and fish soup is on most tavern menus.

Dobruja grows wheat, maize and sunflowers. Pomorie is known for its sea salt from the lagoon pans, still produced today.

Wine from the northern coast is mostly white: Dimyat, a native grape, and Traminer are among the grapes of the coast. Rakia and beer are the everyday drinks, and a glass of mastika, a strong spirit, is common with meze on summer evenings.

In the north, Cape Kaliakra runs into the sea as a long headland of sheer cliffs with fortress walls, and dolphins can sometimes be seen offshore. Nearby are the Yailata archaeological reserve and the lakes of Shabla and Durankulak. Balchik has the palace and botanical garden of Queen Marie of Romania, and Albena is a resort on a long sandy beach.

Around Varna, Golden Sands lines a long beach north of the city, with the rock monastery of Aladzha in the woods behind it. Varna has the Sea Garden park along the shore, the Roman baths, the Archaeological Museum with the Varna gold, and the cathedral; to the west, the Pobiti Kamani, a field of stone columns, rise from the sand.

South of the Balkan range, Sunny Beach is the largest resort on the coast, next to Nesebar's old town with its ruined and restored churches of the Byzantine and medieval era. Burgas has a sea garden and its lakes, rich in birdlife, and Pomorie its salt pans and lagoon. Sozopol's old town and islands lie further south, followed by the Ropotamo river reserve and the Strandzha villages near the Turkish border.