Varna ( , ) is the largest city and
seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in
Northern Bulgaria, third-largest
in Bulgaria
after
Sofia
and Plovdiv
, and
77th-largest in the European Union, with a population of
355,450 (405,329 in the metro
area).
Commonly
referred to as the marine (or summer) capital of Bulgaria, Varna is
a major tourist destination, business and university centre,
seaport, and headquarters of the Bulgarian Navy and merchant marine, as well
as the centre of Varna
Province
and
Bulgaria's North-Eastern planning region (NUTS
II), comprising also the provinces of Dobrich
, Shumen
, and Targovishte
.
In April 2008, Varna was designated seat of the Black Sea
Euro-Region (a new regional organization, not identical to the
Black Sea Euroregion) by the
Council of Europe.
Geography, climate, and transportation
The city
occupies on verdant terraces (Varna monocline of the Moesian
platform) descending from the
calcareous Franga Plateau (height ) on the north and Avren Plateau
on the south, along the horseshoe-shaped Varna Bay of the Black Sea
, the elongated Lake Varna
, and two artificial waterways connecting the bay
and the lake and bridged by the Asparuhov
most. It is the centre of a growing conurbation
stretching along the seaboard north and south (mostly residential
and recreational sprawl) and along the lake west (mostly
transportation and industrial facilities). Since antiquity, the
city has been surrounded by vineyards, orchards, and forests.
Commercial shipping facilities are being relocated inland into the
lakes and canals, while the bay remains a recreation area; almost
all the waterfront is parkland.
The urban area has in excess of of sand beaches and abounds in
thermal mineral water sources (temperature ). It enjoys a mild
continental climate influenced by the sea with long, mild, akin to
Mediterranean, autumns, and sunny and hot yet considerably cooler
than Mediterranean summers moderated by a breeze and more regular
rainfall. Although Varna receives about two thirds of the average
rainfall for Bulgaria, abundant groundwater keeps its wooded hills
lush throughout summer. The city is cut off from north and
north-east winds by hills along the north arm of the bay, but
January and February still can be bitterly cold at times, with
blizzards. Black Sea water has become cleaner after 1989 due to
decreased chemical fertilizer in farming; it has low salinity,
lacks large predators or poisonous species, and the tidal range is
virtually imperceptible.
The city
lies north-east of Sofia; the nearest major cities are Dobrich
( to the
north), Shumen
( to the
west), and Burgas
( to the
south-west). Varna is accessible by air (Varna International
Airport
), sea (Port of Varna
Cruise Terminal), railroad (Central Train
Station
), and automobile. Major roads include
European routes E70 to Bucharest
and E87 to Istanbul
and Constanta
, Romania
; national
motorways A-2 (Hemus motorway) to
Sofia and A-5 (Cherno More
motorway) to Burgas. There are bus lines to many Bulgarian and
international cities from two bus terminals and train ferry and
ro-ro services to Odessa
, Ukraine
, Port Kavkaz
, Russia
, Poti
and Batumi
, Georgia
.
The public transit system (
map) is extensive and reasonably priced, with over 80
local and express bus, electrical bus, and fixed-route minibus
lines; there is a large fleet of taxicabs. In 2007, a number of
double-decker buses were purchased; the mayor vowed that by summer
2008, all city buses would be retrofitted with air conditioners and
later fueled by methane. Timetables for the city's bus services can
be found
here.
There is a plethora of Internet cafes and many places, including
parks, are covered by free public wireless internet service. Varna
is connected to other Black Sea cities by the submarine Black Sea
Fiber Optical Cable System.
Climate chart
The Köppen classification for the climate of Varna is
Cfa.
Varna Bay
Cape Galata lighthouses
History
Prehistory
Prehistoric settlements best known for the
eneolithic necropolis
(mid-5th millennium BC radiocarbon dating), a key
archaeological site in world prehistory, eponymous of old European Varna culture and internationally considered
the world's oldest large find of gold artifacts, existed within
modern city limits. In the broader region of the Varna lakes
(then freshwater) and the adjacent
karst
springs and caves, over 30 prehistoric settlements have been
unearthed with the earliest artifacts dating back to the
Middle Paleolithic or 100,000 years
ago.
Antiquity and Bulgarian conquest
Varna is among Europe's oldest cities.
Thracians populated the area by 1200 BC.
Miletians
founded the apoikia (trading colony) of
Odessos towards the end of the 7th century
BC (the earliest Greek archaeological material is dated 600-575
BC), or, according to Pseudo-Scymnus, in the time of
Astyages (here, usually 572-570 BC is
suggested), within an earlier Thracian settlement. The name
Odessos, first attested by
Strabo,
was pre-Greek, perhaps of
Carian origin. A
member of the Pontic
Pentapolis, Odessos
was a mixed Greco-Thracian community—contact zone between the
Ionians and the Thracians (
Getae, Crobyzi, Terizi) of the
hinterland. Excavations at nearby Thracian sites
have shown uninterrupted occupation from the 7th to the 4th century
and close commercial relations with the colony. The Greek alphabet
has been applied to inscriptions in
Thracian since at least the 5th century
BCE; the Hellenistic city worshipped a Thracian great god whose
cult survived well into the
Roman
period.
Odessos presumably was included in the assessment of the
Delian league of 425 BC. In 339 BC, it was
unsuccessfully besieged by
Philip
II (priests of the Getae persuaded him to conclude a treaty)
but surrendered to
Alexander the
Great in 335 BC, and was later ruled by his
diadochus Lysimachus,
against whom it rebelled in 313 BC as part of a coalition with
other Pontic cities and the Getae. The Roman city,
Odessus, first included into the
Praefectura orae
maritimae and then in 15 AD annexed to the province of
Moesia (later
Moesia Inferior),
covered 47 hectares in present-day central Varna and had prominent
public baths,
Thermae, erected in the late
2nd century AD, now the largest Roman remains in Bulgaria (the
building was 100 m wide, 70 m long, and 25 m high) and
fourth-largest known Roman baths in Europe. Major athletic games
were held every five years, possibly attended by
Gordian III in 238 AD.
Odessus was an early
Christian
centre, as testified by ruins of ten early basilicas, a
monophysite monastery, and indications that one
of the
Seventy Disciples,
Ampliatus, follower of
Saint Andrew (who, according to the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church legend,
preached in the city in 56 AD), served as bishop there. In
6th-century imperial documents, it was refereed to as "holiest
city,"
sacratissima civitas. In 442, a peace treaty
between
Theodosius II and
Attila was done at Odessus.
In 536, Justinian I made it the seat of the Quaestura exercitus ruled by a
prefect of Scythia and including Moesia, Scythia, Caria, the Aegean
Islands and Cyprus
. The
Jireček Line, or the approximate
linguistic frontier between Latin and Greek linguistic influence,
ran through the Balkans from Odessus to the Adriatic.
Theophanes the Confessor
first mentioned the name
Varna, as the city came to be
known with the
Slavic conquest of the
Balkans in the 6th-7th century. The name may be
older than that; perhaps it derives from
Proto-Indo-European root
we-r- (water) (see also
Varuna), or
from
Proto-Slavic root
varn
(black, see also
Etymological list of
provinces of Bulgaria). According to Theophanes, in 680,
Asparukh, the founder of the
First Bulgarian Empire, routed an
army of
Constantine IV near the
Danube delta and, pursuing it, reached
the so-called Varna near
Odessos and the midlands thereof ("...ελθοντες επι την
λεγομενην Βαρναν πλησιον 'Οδυσσου και του εκεισε μεσογαιου"—perhaps
the new name applied initially to an adjacent river or area, and
only later to the city itself).
It has been suggested that the 681 peace treaty with the
Byzantine Empire that established the new
state was concluded at Varna and the first Bulgarian capital south
of the Danube may have been provisionally located in its
vicinity—possibly in a city near Lake Varna's north shore named
Theodorias (Θεοδωριάς) by Justinian I—before it moved to
Pliska 70 km to the west. Asparukh fortified the
Varna river lowland by a rampart against a possible Byzantine
landing; the
Asparuhov val (Asparukh's Wall) is still
standing. Numerous 7th-century
Bulgar
settlements have been excavated across the city and further west;
the Varna lakes north shores, of all regions, were arguably most
densely populated by Bulgars.
Middle Ages
Control changed from Byzantine to Bulgarian hands several times
during the
Middle Ages. In the late 9th
and the first half of the 10th century, Varna was the site of a
principal
scriptorium of the
Preslav Literary School at a
monastery endowed by
Boris I who may have
also used it as his monastic retreat. The scriptorium may have
played a key role in the development of the
Cyrillic alphabet by Bulgarian scholars
under the guidance of one of
Saints Cyril and Methodius'
disciples.
Karel Škorpil has
suggested that Boris I may have been interred there. In 1201,
Kaloyan took over the Varna fortress, then
in Byzantina hands, on
Holy Saturday
using a
siege tower, and secured it for
the
Second Bulgarian
Empire.
By the
late 13th century, with the Treaty of Nymphaeum of 1261, the
offensive-defensive alliance between Michael VIII Palaeologus and
Genoa that opened up the Black Sea
to Genoese commerce, Varna had turned into a thriving commercial
port city frequented by Genoese and later by Venetian
and Ragusan
merchant ships. The first two maritime republics held
consulates and had expatriate colonies there (Ragusan merchants
remained active at the port through the 17th century operating from
their colony in nearby Provadiya
). The city was flanked by two fortresses
with smaller commercial ports of their own, Kastritsi and Galata,
within sight of each other, and was protected by two other
strongholds overlooking the lakes, Maglizh and Petrich. Wheat,
animal skins, honey, wax, and other local agricultural produce for
the Italian and Constantinople markets were the chief exports, and
Mediterranean foods and luxury items were imported.
Shipbuilding
developed in the Kamchiya
river mouth.
14th-century Italian portolan charts showed Varna as perhaps the
most important seaport between Constantinople
and the Danube delta; they usually labeled the
region Zagora
. The
city was unsuccessfully besieged by
Amadeus
VI of Savoy, who had captured all Bulgarian fortresses to the
south of it, including Galata, in 1366. In 1386, Varna briefly
became the capital of the spinoff
Principality of Karvuna, then was
taken over by the
Ottomans in 1389 (and
again in 1444), ceded temporarily to
Manuel II Palaeologus in 1413 (perhaps
until 1444), and sacked by
Tatars in
1414.
Battle of Varna
On 10 November 1444, one of the last major battles of the
Crusades in European history was fought outside the
city walls.
The Turks
routed an army of 20,000 crusaders led by Ladislaus III of Poland (also
Ulászló I of Hungary
), which had assembled at the port to set sail to
Constantinople. The Christian army was attacked by a
superior force of 55,000 or 60,000 Ottomans led by sultan
Murad II. Ladislaus III was killed in a bold
attempt to capture the sultan, earning the sobriquet
Warneńczyk (
of Varna in Polish; he is also known
as
Várnai Ulászló in Hungarian or
Ladislaus
Varnensis in Latin). The failure of the
Crusade of Varna made the fall of
Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 all but inevitable, and
Varna (with all of Bulgaria) was to remain under Ottoman domination
for over four centuries.
Today, there is a cenotaph
of Ladislaus III in Varna.
Late Ottoman rule
A major
agricultural, trade and shipbuilding centre for the Ottoman Empire
in the 16th-17th century, preserving a significant and economically
active Bulgarian population, Varna was later made one of the
Quadrilateral Fortresses (along with Rousse
, Shumen,
and Silistra
) severing Dobruja from the
rest of Bulgaria and containing Russia in the Russo-Turkish wars. The Russians
temporarily took over in 1773 and again in 1828, following the
prolonged
Siege of Varna, returning
it to the Ottomans two years later after the medieval fortress was
razed.
The British and French campaigning against Russia in the
Crimean War (1854–1856) used Varna as
headquarters and principal naval base; many soldiers died of
cholera and the city was devastated by a fire. A British and a
French monument mark the cemeteries where cholera victims were
interred.
In 1866, the first railroad in Bulgaria
connected Varna with the Rousse on the Danube, linking the Ottoman
capital Istanbul with Central Europe;
for a few years, the Orient Express
ran through that route. The
port
of Varna developed as a major supplier of food—notably wheat
from the adjacent breadbasket
Southern
Dobruja—to Istanbul and a busy hub for European imports to the
capital; 12 foreign consulates opened in the city. Local Bulgarians
took part in the
National
Revival;
Vasil Levski set up a
secret revolutionary committee.
Liberated Bulgaria
With the national
liberation
in 1878, the city, which numbered 26 thousand inhabitants, was
ceded to Bulgaria by the
Treaty
of Berlin; Russian troops entered on 27 July. Varna became a
front city in the
First Balkan War
and the
First World War; its economy
was badly affected by the temporary loss of its agrarian hinterland
of Southern Dobruja to Romania (1913-16 and 1919-40). Also, Varna
was occupied by Romania between
July 15,
1913-
August 10, 1913 during
Second Balkan War. In the
Second World War, the
Red Army occupied the city in September 1944,
helping cement communist rule in Bulgaria.
Over the
first decades after liberation, with the departure of most ethnic
Turks and Greeks and the arrival of Bulgarians from inland, Northern Dobruja, Bessarabia
, and Asia
Minor
, and later, of refugees from Macedonia, Eastern Thrace and Southern Dobruja following the Second Balkan War and the First World War,
ethnic diversity gave way to Bulgarian predominance, although
sizeable minorities of Gagauz,
Armenians, and Sephardic Jews remained for
decades.
One of
the early centres of industrial development and the Bulgarian labor
movement, Varna established itself as the nation's principal port
of export, a major grain producing and viticulture centre, seat of the nation's oldest
institution of higher learning outside Sofia, a popular venue for
international festivals and events, as well as the country's de
facto summer capital with the erection of the Euxinograd
royal summer palace (currently, the Bulgarian
government convenes summer sessions there). Mass tourism
emerged since the late 1950s. Heavy industry and trade with the
Soviet Union boomed in the 1950s to the 1970s.
From 20 December 1949 to 20 October 1956 the city was renamed by
the communist government
Stalin after Soviet dictator
Joseph Stalin.
In 1962, the 15th
Chess Olympiad,
also known as the World Team Championship, was here. In 1969 and
1987, Varna was the host of the World
Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships. From
30 September to 4 October 1973, the 10th
Olympic Congress took place in the Sports
Palace.
Varna is running for
European Capital of Culture for
2019.
Economy
A new "lifestyle" shopping mall in the Troshevo district
The Palace of Culture and Sports also hosts trade shows
Varna is the second most important economic centre for Bulgaria
after Sofia, the country's foremost trade link to Russia, and one
of themajor hubs for the Black Sea region.
The economy is service-based, with 61% of net revenue generated in
trade and tourism, 16% in manufacturing, 14% in transportation and
communications, and 6% in construction. Financial services,
particularly banking, insurance, investment management, and
real-estate finance are booming. As of December 2008, the fallout
of the global financial crisis has not yet been hard. The city is
the easternmost destination of
Pan-European transport corridor 8 and
is connected to corridors 7 and 9 via Rousse. Major industries
traditionally include transportation (
Navibulgar, Port of Varna, Varna International
Airport), distribution (
Logistics Park
Varna ),
shipbuilding (see also
Oceanic-Creations), ship repair,
and other marine industries.
In June
2007, Eni and Gazprom
disclosed the South Stream project
whereby a -long offshore natural gas pipeline from Russia's Dzhubga
with annual capacity of 31 cubic kilometers is
planned to come ashore at Varna, possibly near the Galata offshore
gas field, en route to Italy
and
Austria
.
With the
nearby towns of Beloslav
and Devnya
, Varna
forms the Varna-Devnya
Industrial Complex, home to some of the largest chemical,
thermal power, and manufacturing facilities in Bulgaria, including
Varna Thermal Pover Plant and Sodi Devnya, the two largest cash
privatization deals in the country's recent history. There
are also notable facilities for radio navigation devices, household
appliances, security systems, textiles, apparel, food and
beverages, printing, and other industries. Some manufacturing
veterans are giving way to post-industrial developments: an ECE
shopping mall is taking the place of the former VAMO diesel engine
works and the Varna Brewery is being replaced by a convention
centre.
Tourism
is of foremost importance with the suburban beachfront resorts of
Golden
Sands
, Holiday Club Riviera, Sunny Day, Constantine
and Helena
, and others with a total capacity of over 60,000
beds (2005), attracting millions of visitors each year (4.74
million in 2006, 3.99 million of which international tourists
). The resorts received considerable internal and foreign
investment in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and are
environmentally sound, being located reassuringly far from chemical
and other smokestack industries. Varna is also Bulgaria's only
international
cruise destination (with
over 30 cruises scheduled for 2007) and a major international
convention and spa centre.
Real estate boomed in 2003–2008 with some of the highest prices in
the nation, by fall 2007 surpassing Sofia (this still holds true in
April 2009). Commercial real estate is developing major
international office tower projects.
In retail, the city not only has the assortment of international
big-box retailers now ubiquitous in larger Bulgarian cities, but
boasts made-in-Varna national chains with locations spreading over
the country such as retailer
Piccadilly, restaurateur
Happy, and pharmacy chain
Sanita.
In 2008,
there were three large shopping malls operating and another four
projects in various stages of development, turning Varna into an
attractive international shopping destination (Pfohe Mall, Central
Plaza, Mall
Varna
, Grand Mall, Gallery Mall, Cherno More Park, and
Varna Towers), plus a retail park under development outside
town. The city has many of the finest eateries in the nation
and abounds in ethnic food places.
Economically, Varna is among the best-performing and
fastest-growing Bulgarian cities; unemployment, at 2.34% (2007), is
over 3 times lower than the nation's rate; in 2007, median salary
was the highest, on a par with Sofia and Burgas. Many Bulgarians
regard Varna as a boom town; some, including from Sofia and
Plovdiv, or returning from western countries, but mostly from
Dobrich, Shumen, and the greater region, are relocating
there.
In September 2004,
FDI Magazine (a
Financial Times Business
Ltd publication) proclaimed Varna
South-eastern Europe City of
the Future citing its strategic location, fast-growing
economy, rich cultural heritage and higher education. In April
2007, rating agency
Standard &
Poor's announced that it had raised its long-term issue credit
rating for Varna to BB+ from BB, declaring the city’s outlook
"stable" and praising its "improved operating performance".
In December 2007 (and again in October 2008), Varna was voted "Best
City in Bulgaria to Live In" by a national poll by
Darik Radio, the
24
Chasa daily and the information portal
darik.news.
Population
The first population data date back to the mid-1600s when the town
was thought to have about 4,000 inhabitants. After the liberation
in 1878, the first population census in 1881 counted 24,555 making
it the second-largest in the
principality. With
unification, Varna became Bulgaria's
third-largest city and kept this position steadily for the next 120
years, while different cities took turns in the first, second, and
fourth places.
Since 2006, various sources, including the
Bulgarian National Television,
national newspapers, research agencies, the mayor's office, and
local police, claim that Varna has a population by present address
of over 500,000, making it the nation's second-largest city.
Official statistics according to GRAO and NSI, however, have not
supported these claims yet.
In 2008, Deputy Mayor Venelin Zhechev estimated the actual
population at 650,000. In December 2008, Mayor
Kiril Yordanov claimed the actual number of
permanent residents was 970,000, or that there were 60%
unregistered people. In January 2009, the
Financial Times
said that "Varna now draws about 30,000 new residents a
year."
The metro
area (including Varna municipality and adjacent parts of Aksakovo,
Avren, Beloslav, and Devnya municipalities, and excluding adjacent
parts of Dobrich
Province) population
is estimated by official data at 405,329. Here, the
"Varna-Devnya-Provadiya agglomeration" is not
considered identical to the "Varna metro area".
Varna is one of the few cities in Bulgaria with a positive natural
growth and new children's day care centers opening (6 expected in
2009).
Ethnic composition
Most Varnians (варненци,
varnentsi) are ethnic
Bulgarians (92.5% in Varna municipality).
Turks traditionally rank second (3.8%
in the municipality; by 2009,
Russians and
other
Russian-speaking recent
immigrants, estimated at over 20,000, perhaps have outnumbered
them). There is a comparable number of
Roma mostly in three distinctive and
largely impoverished ethnic neighborhoods: Maksuda; Rozova Dolina
in the Asparuhovo district; and Chengene Kula in the Vladislavovo
district. Varna is spearheading several programs on Roma
integration.
Armenians,
Greeks,
Jews, and other
long-standing ethnic groups are also present although in much
smaller numbers, plus a growing number of new Asian and African
immigrants and corporate
expatriates.
Historical population
| Year |
1852 |
1878 |
1887 |
1896 |
1910 |
1920 |
1926 |
1946 |
| Population |
16,000 |
24,555 |
24,830 |
33,687 |
41,419 |
50,810 |
60,536 |
76,954 |
| Year |
1956 |
1965 |
1975 |
1982 |
1990 |
2001 |
2008 |
| Population |
120,345 |
180,110 |
251,654 |
295,038 |
302,841 |
313,408 |
352,211 |
City government
The municipality (община,
obshtina, commune) of Varna
comprises the city and five suburban villages: Kamenar, Kazashko,
Konstantinovo, Topoli, and Zvezditsa, served by the city public
transit system.
Executive
The municipal chief executive is the mayor (кмет,
kmet:
the word is
cognate with
count). Since the end of the
de facto
one-party communist rule in 1990, there have been three mayors:
Voyno Voynov, SDS (
Union of Democratic
Forces),
ad interim, 1990-91; Hristo Kirchev, SDS,
1991-99;
Kiril Yordanov, independent,
1999–present. Yordanov was reelected for a third consecutive term
in 2007.
Legislative
As of January 2009, the city council (общински съвет,
obshtinski savet, the 51-member legislature) is composed
as follows: centre-left
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), 9
council members; centre-right
Citizens for
European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), 9; Dvizhenie Nashiyat
Grad (
Our Town Movement, a local group supporting mayor
Yordanov), 6; Red, Zakonnost i Spravedlivost (
Order, Rule of
Law, and Justice), 5; the
Movement for Rights and
Freedoms (DPS), 4; coalition of SDS and
Democrats for a Strong
Bulgaria (DSB), another centre-right party, 3; other groups and
independents, 15. Borislav Gutsanov (BSP) is council
chairman.
Party politics
The largest political parties in the city are BSP, GERB and SDS,
with the
National Movement
for Stability and Progress (NDSV) as a distant fourth; DSB, the
Bulgarian Democratic
Party, the
Internal
Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO, VMRO), and
Ataka are also active. SDS
took a heavy hit in early 2009 as its local leader's student son
was charged with the brutal murder of a young woman. Local business
groups have formed political parties for recent local elections,
setting a national trend.
Varna is currently (March 2009) represented by five ministers in
Sergey Stanishev's cabinet: Deputy
Prime Minister Meglena Plugchieva (BSP, Administration of EU
Funds), Nikolay Vasilev (NDSV, State Administration), Daniel
Valchev (NDSV, Education and Science), Miglena Tacheva (BSP,
Justice), and Petar Dimitrov (BSP, Economy and Energy). Among other
noted Varna politicians are Ilko Eskenazi (SDS), Aleksandar
Yordanov (SDS), Borislav Ralchev (NDSV), and
Nedelcho Beronov (independent).
Judicial
The city is the seat of a regional, district, administrative, and
military court, and a court of appeal; regional, military, and
appellate prosecutor's offices.
Consulates
There are
consulates of the following countries: the Czech
Republic
, France
, Germany
, Hungary, Italy, Malta
, Poland
, Russia, Slovakia
, Sweden
, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom
.
Boroughs and urban planning
The city is divided by law into five boroughs (райони,
rayoni), each with its mayor and council: Asparuhovo,
Mladost, Odessos (the historic centre), Primorski (the largest one
with official population of 102,000 also comprising the seaside
resorts north of the city centre), and Vladislav Varchenchik. The
boroughs are composed of various districts with distinctive
characters and histories. The villages too have а mayor or a
mayoral lieutenant (кметски наместник,
kmetski
namestnik).
As of January 2009, a heated public discussion of a new draft
general
plan has been under way for a few months; it is expected to be
passed by the city council later this year. According to the
Financial Times, "A new city master plan, due to be
launched this year [2009], will be a 21st-century take on
King Ferdinand's grand scheme. Among
other projects, the commercial port will be moved to a new site on
an inland lagoon to the west of the city, opening up space for what
would become the Black Sea's largest and best-equipped marina. The
plan will allow for a major redevelopment of the port site [with]
luxury homes, hotels, restaurants." The quay streets of the new
waterfront are deemed important for opening the urbanscape to the
sea as most of the coast is framed by parks.
Sights
Turn of the century mansion on Exarch Joseph Circle
City
landmarks include the Varna Archaeological Museum
, exhibiting the Gold of Varna
, the Roman Baths, the
Battle of
Varna
Park Museum, the Naval Museum in the Italianate
Villa Assareto displaying the museum ship Drazki torpedo boat
, the Museum of Ethnography in an
Ottoman-period compound featuring the life of local urban dwellers,
fisherfolk, and peasants in the late 19th and early 20th
century.
The Sea Garden is the oldest and perhaps largest park in town
containing an open-air theatre (venue of the International Ballet
Competition, opera performances and concerts), an
aquarium (opened 1912), a
dolphinarium (opened 1984), the Nicolaus
Copernicus
Observatory and Planetarium, the Museum of Natural
History, a terrarium, a zoo, an alpineum, a children's amusement
park with a pond, boat house and ice-skating rink, and other
attractions. The National Revival Alley is decorated with bronze
monuments to prominent Bulgarians, and the Cosmonauts' Alley
contains trees planted by
Yuri Gagarin
and other Soviet and Bulgarian
cosmonauts.
The Garden is a national monument of landscape architecture and is
said to be the largest landscaped park in the Balkans.
The waterfront promenade is lined by a string of beach clubs
offering a vibrant scene of rock, hip-hop, Bulgarian and
American-style pop, techno, and
chalga. In
October 2006,
The
Independent dubbed Varna "Europe's new funky-town, the
good-time capital of Bulgaria". The city enjoys a nationwide
reputation for its rock, hip-hop, world music, and other artists,
clubs, and related events such as
July
Morning and international rock and hip-hop (including graffiti)
venues.
The city beaches, also known as
sea baths (морски бани,
morski bani), are dotted with hot (up to 55°С/131°F)
sulphuric mineral water sources (used for spas, swimming pools and
public showers) and punctured by small sheltered marinas.
Additionally, the long, high
Asparuhov
most bridge is a popular spot for
bungee jumping.
Outside the city are
the Euxinograd palace, park and winery, the University
of Sofia
Botanical Garden (Ecopark Varna), the Pobiti Kamani
rock phenomenon, and the medieval cave monastery, Aladzha
.
Tourist shopping areas include the boutique rows along Prince Boris
Blvd (with retail rents rivaling Vitosha Blvd in Sofia) and
adjacent pedestrian streets, as well as the large mall and big-box
cluster in the Mladost district, suitable for motorists. Two other
shopping plazas, Piccadilly Park and Central Plaza, are
conveniently located to serve tourists in the resorts north of the
city centre, both driving and riding the public transit. ATMs and
24/7 gas stations with convenience stores abound.
Food markets, among others, include supermarket chains Piccadilly
and Burleks. In stores and restaurants, credit cards are normally
accepted. There is a number of farmers markets offering fresh local
produce; the Kolkhozen Pazar, the largest one, also has a fresh
fish market but is located in a crowded area virtually inaccessible
for cars.
Like other cities in the region, Varna has its share of stray dogs,
for the most part calm and friendly, flashing orange clips on the
ears showing they have been castrated and vaccinated. However,
urban wildlife is dominated by the ubiquitous seagulls, while brown
squirrels inhabit the Sea Garden. In January and February,
migrating swans winter on the sheltered beaches.
Churches
Notable
old Bulgarian Orthodox temples
include the metropolitan Dormition of the Theotokos Cathedral (of
the diocese of Varna and Veliki Preslav
); the early 17th-century Theotokos Panagia (built
on the site of an earlier church where Ladislaus III was perhaps
buried); the St. Athanasius
(former Greek
metropolitan cathedral) on the footprint of a razed 10th-century
church; the 15th-century St. Petka
Parashkeva chapel; the seamen's church of Saint Nicholas; the Archangel Michael chapel, site of the
first Bulgarian secular school from the National Revival era; and
the Sts. Constantine and
Helena church of the
14th-century suburban monastery of the same name.
The remains of a large 4th-5th-century stronghold basilica in
Dzhanavara Park just south of town are becoming a tourist
destination with some exquisite mosaics displayed
in situ.
The remains of another massive 9th-century basilica adjacent to the
scriptorium at Boris I's Theotokos Panagia monastery are being
excavated and conserved. A 4th-5th-century episcopal basilica north
of the Thermae is also being restored. There is also a number of
newer Orthodox temples; two, dedicated to apostle Andrew and the
local martyr St. Procopius of Varna, are currently under
construction. Many smaller Orthodox chapels have mushroomed in the
area. In early 2009, Vasil Danev, leader of the ethnic Organization
of the United Roma Communities (FORO), said local Roma would also
erect an Orthodox chapel.
There is an old
Armenian
Apostolic church; two
Roman
Catholic churches (only one is now open and holds mass in
Polish on Sundays), a thriving
Evangelical Methodist episcopal church
offering organ concerts, active
Evangelical Pentecostal,
Seventh-day Adventist, and two
Baptist churches.
Two old mosques (one is open) have survived since Ottoman times,
when there were 18 of them in town, as have two once stately but
now dilapidated synagogues, a
Sephardic and
an
Ashkenazic one, the latter in
Gothic style (it is undergoing
restoration). A new mosque was recently added in the southern
Asparuhovo district serving the adjacent
Muslim Roma neighborhood.
There is also a
Buddhist centre.
On a different note, spiritual master
Peter
Deunov started preaching his
Esoteric Christianity doctrine in
Varna in the late 1890s, and, in 1899–1908, the yearly meetings of
his Synarchic Chain, later known as the Universal White
Brotherhood, were convened there.
Architecture
By 1878, Varna was an
Ottoman city of mostly wooden
houses in a style characteristic of the Black Sea
coast, densely packed along narrow, winding
alleys. It
was surrounded by a stone wall restored in the 1830s with a
citadel, a moat, ornamented iron gates flanked by
towers, and a vaulted stone
bridge across
the River Varna. The place abounded in pre-Ottoman relics, ancient
ruins were widely used as stone quarries.
Today, very little of this legacy remains; the city centre was
rebuilt by the nascent Bulgarian middle class in late
1800s and early 1900s in Western style with local interpretations
of
Neo-Renaissance,
Neo-Baroque,
Neoclassicism,
Art Nouveau and
Art Deco
(many of those buildings, whose ownership was restored after 1989,
underwent renovations).
Stone masonry from demolished city walls was used for the
cathedral, the two elite high schools, and for paving new
boulevards. The middle class built practical townhouses and coop
buildings. Elegant mansions were erected on main boulevards and in
the vineyards north of town. A few industrial working-class suburbs
(of one-family cottages with small green yards) emerged. Refugees
from the 1910s' wars also settled in similar poorer yet vibrant
neighbourhoods along the city edges.
During the rapid urbanization of the 1960s to the early 1980s,
large
apartment complexes sprawled onto land formerly
covered by small private vineyards or agricultural cooperatives as
the city population tripled. Beach resorts were designed mostly in
a sleek modern style, which was somewhat lost in their recent more
lavish renovations. Modern landmarks of the 1960s include the
Palace of Culture and Sports (1968).
With the country's return to capitalism since 1989, upscale
apartment buildings mushroomed both downtown and on uptown terraces
overlooking the sea and the lake. Varna's vineyards (лозя,
lozya), dating back perhaps to antiquity and stretching
for miles around, started turning from mostly rural grounds dotted
with summer houses or
vili into affluent
suburbs sporting opulent villas and family hotels,
epitomized by the researched
postmodernist kitsch of the
Villa Aqua.
With the new suburban construction far outpacing infrastructure
growth, ancient landslides were activated, temporarily disrupting
major highways. As the number of vehicles quadrupled since 1989,
Varna became known for traffic jams; parking on the old town's
leafy but narrow streets normally takes the sidewalks. At the same
time, stretches of
shanty towns, more
befitting Rio de Janeiro, remain in
Roma neighbourhoods on the western
edge of town due to complexities of local politics.
The beach resorts were rebuilt and expanded, fortunately without
being as heavily overdeveloped as were other tourist destinations
on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, and their greenery was mostly
preserved. New modern office buildings started reshaping the old
centre and the city's surroundings.
Education
Higher learning institutions
The
University
of Economics
, founded in 1920 as the Higher Business School, is
the second oldest Bulgarian university, the oldest one outside
Sofia, and the first private one—underwritten by the Varna Chamber
of Commerce and Industry. Prof. Tsani Kalyandzhiev, who was
educated at Zürich
and made a
career as a research chemist in the United States
, was its first Rector (President).
The
Nikola
Vaptsarov Naval Academy
is successor to the nation's oldest technical
school, the Naval Machinery School, established in 1881 and renamed
His Majesty's Naval Academy in 1942. Other higher schools
include the Medical University, the Technical University, the
Chernorizets Hrabar Varna Free
University—the first private university in the land after 1989,
three junior colleges, and two local branches of other Bulgarian
universities.
There are four
Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences research institutes (of oceanology,
fisheries, aero and hydrodynamics, and metallography), a government
research institution (shipping), and a now-defunct naval
architecture design bureau.
The Institute of Oceanology (IO-BAS) has
been active in Black Sea deluge
theory studies and deepwater archaeology in cooperation with
Columbia University, MIT
, UPenn, and National Geographic
.
In 2007, Varna was home to a total of 2,500 faculty and researchers
and over 30,000 students.
Chaika apartment complex, the socialist showcase for the 1972 World
Congress of Architecture
Officers' Beach at sunset
Local universities:
Other universities' local branches:
Noted high schools (gymnasia)
Libraries
Culture
Varna has some of the finest and oldest museums, professional arts
companies, and arts festivals in the nation and is known for its
century-old traditions in visual arts, music, and book publishing,
as well as for its bustling current pop-culture scene. Over the
past few decades, it developed as a festival centre of
international standing. Varna is a front-runner for
European Capital of Culture for
2019, planning to open several new high-profile facilities such as
a new opera house and concert hall, a new exhibition centre, and a
reconstruction of the Summer Theatre, the historic venue of the
International
Ballet Competition.
Museums
Galleries
- Boris Georgiev Art Gallery
- Georgi Velchev Gallery
- Modern Art Centre
- Print Gallery
- Numerous smaller fine and applied arts galleries
Performing arts professional companies
Other performing arts groups
- Morski Zvutsi Choir School (academic choirs)
- Dobri Hristov Choir School
(academic choir)
Notable bands and artists
- Lot
Lorien (Ethno-Art/Indie)
- Deep
Zone (Tech House/Euro)
- DJ
Balthazar (Tech House/Euro)
- Big Sha and the Gumeni glavi (Rubber
Heads) (Hip Hop)
- 100 Kila (Hip Hop)
- Elitsa Todorova (Ethnic &
Electro)
- Indignity (Hardcore)
- Outrage (Hardcore)
- One Faith (Hardcore)
- Crowfish (Progressive/Punk/Indie)
- Maniacal Pictures (Alternative/Rock/Post Punk)
- Minddread (Metal/Thrash/Progressive)
- ClearLand (Rock/Classic Rock/Progressive)
- Pizza (Punk/Ska/Rock)
- A-Moral (Punk/Hardcore)
- On Our Own (Hardcore)
- Cold Breath (Hardcore)
- Sealed In Blood (Hardcore/Metal)
- ENE (Alternative/Folk/Other)
- EASTRIBE (Metal/Hardcore/Alternative)
- Zayo Bayo Gives Me The Creeps (Metal/Grunge/Comedy)
Other institutions
- Festival
and Congress Centre (in Bulgarian, 1986; concerts, film,
theatre and dance shows, exhibitions, trade shows)
- Palace
of Culture and Sports (1968; sports events, concerts, film
shows, exhibitions, trade shows, sports classes, fitness)
International arts festivals
National events
- Golden Rose Bulgarian Feature Film Festival
(biennial)
- Got Flow National Hip-Hop Dance Festival (annual)
- May Arts Saloon at Radio Varna
- Bulgaria for All National Ethnic Festival (annual,
minority authentic folklore)
- Dinyo Marinov National Children's Authentic Folklore
Music Festival
- Morsko konche (Seahorse) children's vocal
competition (annual, pop)
- Navy Day (second Sunday of August)
- Urban Folk Song Festival
- Christmas Folk Dance Competition
Local events
Media
As early as the 1880s, numerous daily and weekly newspapers were
published in Bulgarian and several minority languages. Radio Varna
opened in 1934.
Galaktika book publishing house occupied a
prominent place nationally in the 1970–1990s, focusing on
international sci-fi and marine fiction, contemporary non-fiction
and poetry.
Nicolaus Copernicus Observatory and
Planetarium
City Hall
New housing in the Briz district
Local newspapers
National newspapers' local editions
Magazines
Publishing houses
- Alfiola (New Age)
- Alpha Print (advertising)
- Atlantis
- Kompas
- Liternet
(poetry, fiction, non-fiction: electronic and print)
- Обяви
Варна (free classifieds)
- Naroden Buditel (history)
- Slavena
(history, children's books, travel, multimedia, advertising)
Local radio stations
Local TV stations
Web portals
Hospitals
- Sveta Marina University Hospital for active treatment
- Sveta Anna Hospital for active treatment
- Navy Hospital
- Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital
- Dr. Marko Markov Interdistrict Dispensary for Oncological Diseases
- Sveta Petka Ophthalmology Clinic
- Kamee Clinic, plastic and reconstructive surgery
- Valem, plastic and aesthetic surgery
- Kibela Consultancy Centre, psychological consultancy
- Universum Medical, alternative medicine and massage
- Dentaprime Clinic, dental implants and aesthetic dentistry
Sports
A municipal swimming pool
Palace of Culture and Sports
Football is the biggest spectator sport with
two rival clubs in the nation's top professional league,
Cherno More (
the Sailors),
founded in 1913 and four times national champion, including the
first championship in 1925, and
Spartak (
the Falcons), founded in
1918, one time champion and participant in the
UEFA Cup in 1983, when it reached the second
knockout round and played
Manchester
United.
In the late 1800s, Varna was considered the birthplace of Bulgarian
football with a Swiss gym teacher coaching the first varsity team
at the men's high school.
In February 2007, the city decided to
replace its antiquated 1950's municipal stadium
with a new arena according to UEFA/FIFA
specifications. The new venue
will seat 30,000 (40,000 for concerts including
standing room). Another state-of the-art track-and-field
stadium with a capacity of 5,000 seats and training halls for
professional and public use will open in the
Mladost district in 2009 to compensate for the lost
track-and-field capacity of old Varna stadium.
Men's basketball, women's volleyball, gymnastics, boxing, martial
arts, and sailing are also vibrant. The swimmimg marathon Cape
Galata—Varna is a popular venue. Varna hosts international
competitions, including world championships, and national events in
several sports on a regular basis, including auto racing and
motocross.
Bulgarian national basketball and volleyball
teams host their games, including Volleyball World Cup games, at the
Palace of
Culture and Sports
, the country's largest arena. Currently (2007),
three 18-hole golf courses of
professional quality are being developed north of the city in the
vicinity of Balchik
and Kavarna
, with more to come. A hippodrome with a
horseback riding school is located in the Vinitsa neighborhood, and
Asparuhov most is the foremost bungee jumping spot in the nation
due to the local
Club
Adrenalin.
In early August 2007, a new municipal sports complex with fields
for football, basketball and volleyball was opened as a part of a
larger complex of sports facilities, mini-golf, tennis, biking
alleys, mini-lakes and ice-skating rinks in the district of
Mladost. Smaller municipal fields opened in the Sea Garden,
Asparuhov Val Park, and elsewhere; the municipal Olympic-size
swimming pool complex was rebuilt also in 2007, and the first
segment of a bike lane to connect the Sea Garden with the
westernmost residential districts was completed outside City Hall.
Paying tribute to the golf course development mania, the mayor
vowed to build a free municipal
driving
range in the district of Asparuhovo. The new urban general plan
(under discussion in early 2008) envisages a large public amateur
sports complex south of Lake Varna and a ski run with artificial
snow covering.
The number and range of
fitness, wellness and recreation clubs in Varna
is rapidly growing which reflects the positive change of lifestyle
of the average Varna citizen.
Varna athletes won 4 of the 12 medals for Bulgaria at the
2004 Summer Olympics.
Organized crime
As in other Bulgarian cities, some sectors of the economy,
including gambling, corporate security, tourism, real estate, and
professional sports, are believed to be controlled in part by shady
business groups with links to Communist-era secret services or the
military; the
TIM group is one example.
In 2003,
Iliya Pavlov, chairman of MG
Holding (former Multigroup), owner of the posh St. Elias resort at
Constantine and Helena and president of PFC Cherno more, was shot
down in Sofia, as was
Emil Kyulev,
chairman of DZI Financial Group and owner of the stylish Holiday
Club Riviera resort at Golden Sands, in 2005. The perpetrators are
still unknown. Varna has also seen gangland- (
mutri-) style bombings, and is believed to be a
hangout for Russian and Chechen mafias.
However, it is noted that in Varna, the
mutri presence is
by no means as visible as it is in smaller coastal towns and
resorts. Over the last couple of years, crime has subsided, which
is said to have contributed to Varna's naming as Bulgaria's Best
City to Live In (2007); in 2007, the regional police chief was
promoted to the helm of the national police service.
In January 2009, the
Financial Times said that "communism
[was] followed [by] a gritty transition period, including shootings
of local mobsters in crowded seaside cafés. But, according to
residents, a group of ex-Bulgarian marines nicknamed the
Varna
Seals eventually managed to expel members of the Russian,
Chechen, Ukrainian and Georgian mafias vying for control of the
port and the city's underground economy. And today 'you can stroll
around the centre late at night without problems.'"
International Relations
Twin towns and sister cities
Varna is
twinned with:
- Aalborg
 , Denmark
- Amsterdam
 , Netherlands
- Barcelona
 , Spain
- Bayburt
 , Turkey
- Dordrecht
 , Netherlands
 Genoa , Italy- Hamburg
 , Germany
- Karlsruhe
 , Germany
- Kavalla
 , Greece
- Kharkiv
 , Ukraine
- Liverpool
 , United
Kingdom
 Lyon , France- Malmö
 , Sweden
- Medellín
 , Colombia
|
|
- Memphis
 , United States
- Miami
 , United States
- Novosibirsk
 , Russia
- Odessa, Ukraine
- Piraeus
 , Greece
- Rostock
 , Germany
 Saint Petersburg , Russia- Stavanger
 , Norway
- Szeged
 , Hungary
- Turku
 , Finland
 Vysoké
Mýto , Czech
Republic- Washington
 , United
Kingdom
 Wels , Austria
|
Honour
Varna Peninsula on Livingston
Island
in the South Shetland Islands
, Antarctica
is named after Varna.
Varna, Illinois, a small town of 400 people, was named in this
city's honour. The
War of Varna was
going on at the time.
Varna in fiction
Varna was the point of origin of the ship
Demeter in
Bram Stoker's
novel
Dracula.
British spy 07 kidnapped Soviet physicist Konstantin Trofimov from
a villa in Varna in Andrei Gulyashki's novel
Avakoum Zahov versus 07.
Gallery
File:Hotel Cherno More.jpg|
Hotel Black
Sea - one of the tallest buildings on the
BalkansFile:City of Varna.jpg|Panoramic view of the
central part of VarnaFile:Varna shopping area.jpg|Shopping area in
the city
File:Kabakum.JPG|"Kabakum" beach in Varna,
BulgariaFile:Bulgaria-Varna-02.JPGFile:Bulgaria-Varna-01.JPGFile:Bulgaria-Varna-03.JPGFile:Bulgaria-Varna-04.JPGFile:Theotokos_Cathedralnight.jpg
See also
References
- General
Directorate of Citizens' Registration and Administrative Services:
Population Chart by permanent and tempoprary address (for
provinces, municipalities and settlements) as of 15 October,
(Bulgarian). Retrieved on 2008-10-27
- Varna Becomes Centre of the Black Sea Euro-Region
(Bulgarian). Retrieved on 2008-04-16
- Municipality of Varna: Information (Bulgarian). Retrieved
on 2007-02-10
- Дървен град предхожда каменната Плиска (Bulgarian).
Retrieved on 2006-01-28
- Apostolov, Shanko (Director, Władysław Warneńczyk
Park Museum, Varna). The Campaigns of Ladislaus of Varna and
John Hunyadi in 1443–1444 (Bulgarian). Retrieved
2007-02-10
- http://www.addgop.com/Kitaplar/ikinciBalkanSavasi-2.pdf
- http://www.dominuss.com/
- Varna, the City that Outran Statistics (Bulgarian).
Retrieved on 2008-02-09
- Plovdiv uncrowned on New Year 2007, it's now put third
after Varna.
- General
Directorate of Citizens' Registration and Administrative Services:
Population Chart as of 15 December 2007 for Varna Province by
Municipality (Bulgarian). Retrieved on 2008-02-11
- http://www.strategy.bg/FileHandler.ashx?fileId=200
- http://www.grao.bg/tna/tab02.txt
- http://moreto.net/novini.php?g=ОУП%20Варна
- http://www.varna.bg/kult/galerii.htm
- Former Secret Services Control the Bulgarian
Economy (Бившите тайни служби контролират българската
икономика, Mediapool, in Bulgarian). Retrieved
2007-04-11
- Editor-in-chief of Varna daily brutally
assaulted (Bulgarian Helsinki Committee). Retrieved
2007-02-10
- Bullet for a Billionaire (Sofia Echo).
Retrieved 2007-02-10
- Bulgarian Banker Shot Dead (Sofia Echo).
Retrieved 2007-02-10
- Three Foreigners Expelled (Government of
the Republic of Bulgaria, Information and Public Relations
Directorate). Retrieved 2007-02-10
- [1]
External links
Local Centre Varna
ethnographical village (mockup, with historical
reenactments)
festival, cathedral patron, Varna Day (August 15)
municipality
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