Duration: 7 Days / 6 Nights
Day 1
Arrived at Varna and transfer to the hotel. Accommodation. Dinner.
Day 2
Breakfast. Visit to one of the symbols of the city – the Cathedral of the Holy Assumption.
The first stone in the construction of the temple was laid by Prince Alexander I Battenberg in 1880. After the conquest, the prince gave amnesty to all the prisoners from the prison in Varna, to whom remained 3 months until the end of the sentence. During the construction, the craftsman used to work on the model of the Peterhof`s Temple in St. Petersburg, using local materials. The roof and the temple are lined with copper. The construction of the temple was completed in the early October 1885. The whole painting of the temple began in 1949 and lasted till the 60`s of the 20-th century.
Visit of the Ethnographic Museum. The museum shows the rich diversity in the culture and the lifestyle of the population of the Varna region from the second half of the 19-th century until the beginning of the 20-th century. It is t hosted in a Renaissance house of the so-called „Symmetrical houses“ built around 1860. The Ethnographic Museum was opened in this building in 1974. Visit to the Roman Baths. One of the most valuable monuments of Varna`s culture and part of the objects of the Archaeological museum in the city. The public baths of Odessos are one of the most preserved architectural monuments of the Roman epoch in Bulgaria (І-ІV century St.). They are from the so-called „Small imperial type“ and their construction dates back to the end of the second century, the largest Roman bath on the Balkan Peninsula – with an area of 7000 square meters.
Visit of the Archaeological museum. It was founded in 1887 by the brothers Karel and Hermann Shkorpil (archeologists and scientists of Czech-Bulgarian origin, founders of Bulgarian archeology and museum work). The building, which is housed, was built in 1892 – 1898 for a school – Girls’ High School. It is built in late baroque style with basement rooms and two floors. It is almost square in shape with a spacious patio.
Visit of the Festa Dolphinarium – an unique attraction facility in Bulgaria. It was opened in 1984 and is one of the symbols not only of Varna but also a symbol of the Bulgarian tourism. Visit of the „Old Varna“ winery where the wine degustation is accompanied by interesting discussions. Observing an unique photo exhibition of images from The Old Varna. Dinner. Two-hours sailing trip in the bay. Voyage tour of the ship. Overnight.
Day 3
Breakfast. Trip to Balchik. Visit to the University Botanical Garden and Palace Complex – the former summer residence of the Romanian Queen Mary.
The architecture of the palace intertwines Old Bulgarian, Gothic, Oriental and Moorish elements. Observation of the Botanical Gardens. The collection of plants, brought from around the world is located on an area of 16 acres. One of the biggest attractions is the collection of giant cacti, growing in the open from April to October – the second largest in Europe after Monaco.
Departure to Kaliakra Cape. Visit to the natural and archaeological reserve Kaliakra. The earliest evidences of the population of the nose is from the 4-th century BC, when the region is inhabited by the Thracian Thracian tribe. Many legends are related to Cape Kaliakra. The most famous of them tells about 40 Bulgarian girls, led by the beautiful Kaliakra, who jumped from the rocks to the sea to save themselves from the Ottoman Turks. In order not to give up one of them, they braced their hair in one another.
One of the caves of Cape Kaliakra has a museum where many archaeological relics were discovered during excavations. A model of the ancient fortress is among the most attractive exhibits that demonstrates how it looked in the past. The fortress was declared an architectural monument of culture in 1967 and Cape Kaliakra was announced to be a nature reserve in 1941. Visit of a potter’s workshop. Demonstrational manufacture of ceramic vessels. Dinner. Overnight.
Day 4 – 5
Breakfast. Free time for beach and walking around the city. Dinner. Overnight.
Day 6
Breakfast. Departure to Nessebar. Observation of the “St. Sofia”, which origin we find in the 5-th century. It is almost complete and might be the most impressive of all Nessebar churches. Today it is located in the center of the city. The church is over 25 meters long and 22 meters wide. By colonnade and arches were made 3 of her ships, and it was built by stone and bricks. Its floor has been covered with mosaics.
Departure for Sozopol. Walk around the Old Town of Sozopol and the city’s main attractions.
Visit to the church of the Virgin Mary. It was built in the 15th century on the place of an older medieval Christian temple. Its existence dates from 1482. In order not to disturb the Ottoman conquerors, the church is built low, dug in the ground and in appearance almost does not differ from a house. The buildings of the church and the convent are made of stone, aligned with sanctuaries. Its iconostasis from the end of the 18th century was the work of the Deborah masters. Strandzha icons are from 18th – 19th century. The building is a monument of culture of national importance.
Visit to the temple „St. Cyril and Methodius“. It is also called the „Refugee Church“. It was built in 1889 for the needs of settled Bulgarian refugees from Adrianopolis and Belomorska Thrace in Sozopol. After 1944, the building was first transformed into a city museum, then into a warehouse and finally into a „museum of underwater archeology“. After 1989 the state returned the temple to St. Synod. Despite the vicissitudes, the main stone and the altar table, under which the relics were built, remained intact. The relics of John the Baptist found under the holy throne of the church on St. Ivan’s Island are also preserved in the temple. An iconostasis was mounted, carried by another, collapsed Sozopol church, a work of Debar masters from the 17th – 18th century.
Examination of the Architectural and Historic Complex „South Fortress and Tower“ located on the southern panorama of the ancient town of Apollonius. The fortress was built in the middle of the 5th century and is made of limestone quarries. The walls were destroyed by the conquest of the city by the Romans. Shortly afterwards they were completely restored by local people.
Explore the Medieval Basilica, built in the 5th century on an older cultural layer. There were found four coins of Apollonia from the period 350-306 BC, with emperors Valente, Valentinian Arkady, Honorius, Anastasius and Theodosius I. There are traces of writings, as well as remnants of a richly decorated marble altar arch. In the 9th century the temple was destroyed by a fire. After its restoration, the walls were decorated with frescoes. At the end of the 11th to the end of the 14th century a serious reconstruction was carried out and the basilica plan was reorganized. At the end of the 17th century, the basilica was destroyed by the Turkish authorities. Dinner. Overnight.
Day 7
Breakfast. Transfer to the airport. Flight.
