Varna
Varna is Bulgaria's third largest city. It was an inhabited place even before the Greeks established the colony of Odessos there about 580 B.C. Later, under the Romans and their successors, the Slavs, Varna became a major port trading with Constantinople, Venice and Dubrovnik. The name of the town (Odessos - a settlement on water) is not Greek but of an earlier linguistic origin, which suggests the presence of an older village on the same territory.
The city of Varna – population 325,137, is situated on the Bay of Varna, 470 km east of Sofia. Varna is the biggest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Varna’s length is over 11 km, its width, including the new residential district in nearly 9km. The city stands in tiers and follows the curves of the Bay of Varna.
Nowadays it is the main port for both naval and commercial shipping and, as it is near the coastal resorts of Golden Sands, St. Constantine (Drouzhba) and Albena, it has a cosmopolitan atmosphere. Sailors on shore-leave in unfamiliar ceremonial uniforms, mingle with foreign tourists and locals as they promenade along shady boulevards, lined by dignified 19th and early 20th century buildings.
The city is surrounded by numerous gardens, vineyards and deciduous groves. Almost the whole territory is occupied with private country houses and small farms that belong to them. About 20 kilometres west of Varna is the so-called Stone Forest, a curious collection of stone columns up to 7 metres high. The first impression is of a ruined temple but scientists have discovered that it is a geological formation of stalagmites some fifty million years old. |
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