ANCIENT CITY OF NESSEBAR

Just 3 km south of Sunny Beach lies what is undoubtedly the most beautiful city on the coast, or at least the one with the richest heritage! Nessebar, the "City of 40 Churches" or "Pearl of the Black Sea", rests on a rocky peninsula in the sea, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Nessebar is known for having the highest number of churches per inhabitant in the world. Built on a rocky peninsula in the Black Sea, the site of Nessebar was constructed over three thousand years ago. It was originally a settlement for the Thracians (Menobria). Then, in the early ^6th century BC, it became a Greek trading post. The remains that can be seen today date mainly from this Hellenistic period, including the acropolis, a temple to Apollo, an agora and a Thracian fortification wall. The most sumptuous remains, on the other hand, date back to the Byzantine period and revolve around religious buildings. Among the most remarkable monuments are the basilica of Stara Mitropolia and the fortress, reminders that in the Middle Ages the city on its peninsula was one of the most important Byzantine cities on the west coast of the Black Sea. Today, the charm of Nessebar's pedestrian lanes lies in the succession of multi-storey, overhanging wooden houses. Built in the ^19th century, they are representative of the Black Sea architecture of the period.