A 'mini-Greece' by the ocean with a treasure trove simply off the shore

The BBC’s Wonders of Bulgaria explores Sozopol, a bustling port metropolis the place unbelievable relics from Antiquity are being uncovered just some metres beneath the water.

Perched on a rocky peninsula, Sozopol’s outdated city is a fowl’s nest of stone and timber. Stable household houses, robustly restored metropolis partitions and weather-beaten cliffs give a tight-knit, fortress vibe. However the place this historical settlement faces west, in the direction of the small island of St Kirik, Sozopol throws welcoming arms round its pure harbour, providing sailors a secure port of name alongside this uneven stretch of the Black Coastline.

Sozopol is now certainly one of Bulgaria’s hottest resorts, with medieval church buildings and vast sandy seashores. However it’s that embracing harbour that first introduced travelling historical Greeks to Sozopol greater than 2,500 years in the past. The city’s fashionable title derives from the Greek for “Metropolis of Salvation”, however within the first millennium BC it was known as Apollonia Pontica (Apollo of the Black Sea) after the nice Greek Solar god Apollo. Apollonia Pontica grew right into a bustling port metropolis, full with a considerable temple to Apollo, and a 13m-tall bronze picture of the god. So far as historical Greek statues go, this was second in dimension solely to the Colossus of Rhodes, one of many Seven Wonders of the Historical World. Well-known all through the Jap Mediterranean, Apollonia Pontica’s large statue featured on town’s cash and was ultimately stolen by the Romans.

On a sunny, early spring day, it may be exhausting to think about the hazards of crusing the Black Sea. However for each historical and fashionable seafarers, this space will be treacherous, says Nayden Prahov, director of the Sozopol-based Centre for Underwater Archaeology. “It is a dangerous crusing route, due to the southern winds on the Black Sea,” Prahov tells me once I meet him on his dive boat Hristina, anchored among the many blue and white fishing boats that line the harbour. “That is the primary secure harbour between the Bosphorus and the Balkan Mountains.”

Prahov explains that again in Antiquity, the doorway into the port was by way of a slender opening on the northern finish, now closed off by a breakwater. This is able to not have been straightforward to navigate; however as soon as inside, the ships have been secure, sheltered between the peninsula and St Kirik Island. “That is the explanation that the image of Apollonia Pontica is the anchor,” Prahov provides with a smile.

The result’s a thick layer of what was as soon as garbage – largely hundreds of items of damaged pottery, from utilitarian jars to finely-painted consuming cups – however is now a useful supply of data and proof about one of many biggest ports on the traditional Black Sea.

Apollonia Pontica was based by Greeks from Miletus, now in western Turkey, in 610BC. They have been pioneers in an enormous motion of individuals and concepts, a course of described by some as “Greek colonisation” that lasted from the eighth to the sixth Century BC and noticed dozens if not a whole bunch of settlements established across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea – as far west as southern Spain and as far east as Georgia.

Apollonia Pontica was one of many first such colonies on the Black Sea. The security of its port performed a central half in reworking the ocean as soon as identified to the Greeks because the Pontos Axeinos, or the “Inhospitable Sea”, into the Pontos Euxeinos, or “Hospitable” one. However the Greeks didn’t arrive in a abandoned land. This a part of the world was residence to the Thracians, a strong, assured civilisation. And the commerce between the native inhabitants and the Greek settlers was on the coronary heart of town’s development and prosperity: in alternate for grain, salt, timber and copper ore from the native mines, the Greeks introduced sought-after produce from the Mediterranean, specifically olive oil and wine. Through the excavations, native archaeologists have even discovered a glass fragrance bottle from the Roman interval with oily fragrance nonetheless intact inside.

You do not have to look far to seek out that Mediterranean affect nonetheless alive and properly among the many cobbled streets and seafront tavernas of Sozopol at this time. Locals and guests alike compete for the most effective harbour-side tables, laden with a fusion of Balkan and Greek delicacies: grilled fish, taramasalata, mussels and saganaki, and naturally, the ever-reliable “Greek” salad.

Sozopol’s Mediterranean character will not be a fossilised relic of the long-lost historical world that Prahov and his workforce are so busy uncovering. Remarkably, together with different Black Sea fishing villages that hint their origin again to Greek colonies, Sozopol remained majority Greek-speaking properly into the early twentieth Century, till inhabitants exchanges throughout the Balkans noticed many of the city’s ethnic Greeks abandon their houses and transfer to Greece itself.

Some, nonetheless, remained, as Aspasia Porozhanova confirms once I sit down along with her outdoors the Fishermen’s Affiliation clubhouse. Because the Solar units over the harbour, Porozhanova is at pains to level out that each one Sozopolitans are proud Bulgarians, however {that a} small variety of households are additionally determinedly hanging on to their Greek heritage. “It is tough to reply, ‘Who’re we?’ or ‘How lengthy have we been right here?’ However we’re all pleased with our lineage. It is what unites us, that we’re from historical Apollonia.”

Delightfully, Porozhanova shares her first title with the notorious concubine of Perikles, the nice historical Athenian chief. “I am named after my grandmother,” she explains, “as she was named after hers, and my granddaughter is called after me. So we move our names down inside the household.” To my fascination, she and her buddies share just a few phrases in Sozopolitan Greek, a singular dialect that the majority Greeks would wrestle to grasp.

My time with Porozhanova ends on a candy notice. Drained ouzo glasses are pushed apart to make means for a tray piled excessive with damga, a particular sort of fried cake made in line with a secret recipe and never discovered wherever outdoors of Sozopol outdated city. A scrumptious emblem of town’s wealthy cultural combine, enduring character and cosmopolitan heritage.