![\"Old](\"https:\/\/images.luga.bg\/2026\/09\/anhialo-1907-solnitsi.jpg\")
The salt pans and the town of Anchialos, 1907 (public domain)<\/p><\/div>\n
Where was the earliest settlement?<\/h2>\n
No traces of the earliest fortress of Anchialos have been found to date. Folk tradition and archaeological research suggest that the remains of an old settlement lie at the edge of the Pomorie plain, beyond the peninsula, in the locality of Paleokastro (from the Greek “palaios” \u2014 old, ancient, and “kastro(n)” \u2014 fortress), which today is a quarter of the town. However, the long years of observation and the excavations conducted since 1966 have revealed no settlement there from that early period \u2014 the remains date from a much later time, when these lands formed part of the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n
The scant archaeological material sheds no further light either. Early finds have been made in various places and on various occasions: underwater surveys in the bay in front of the present-day town have yielded stone anchors from the second half of the 2nd millennium BC, stone and lead anchor stocks used in navigation from the end of the 7th century to the end of the 1st millennium BC, amphorae from the 4th\u20133rd century BC and others.<\/p>\n
The fate of the settlement during the turbulent 1st century BC is likewise unclear, when the coast fell within the campaigns of the Roman commanders Marcus Lucullus (the winter of 72\/71 BC, when Apollonia was conquered, burned and plundered), Gaius Antonius Hybrida (62\/61 BC) and Marcus Licinius Crassus (29\/28 BC), after which the coast passed definitively under Roman rule.<\/p>\n
The fortress wall, destroyed in the war between Mesambria and Apollonia, was rebuilt. When, in AD 9, on his way to exile in Tomis (present-day Constan\u021ba), Ovid \u2014 one of the three great poets of the “Golden Age of Roman poetry” \u2014 sailed past Anchialos, he noted it as a settlement with a fortress wall. Clearly, the “little town” continued to be one of the significant settlements on the Western Pontic coast.<\/p>\n
A Thracian town under a Greek name<\/h2>\n
During the first decades of the 1st century AD Anchialos was the centre of a strategia \u2014 a fact attested by several inscriptions, which casts its early history in a different light. The system of strategiai was probably introduced into the administration of Thrace as early as the Hellenistic period, and by the middle and second half of the 1st century BC it certainly existed. When the Romans turned Thrace into a province, it was divided into some 50 strategiai.<\/p>\n
The conquest of Thrace itself was a long and painful process. The last independent Thracian kingdom retained its independence in a friendly alliance with Rome as a vassal state. In this final period (11 BC \u2013 AD 45) it covered a broad territory \u2014 from the Sea of Marmara along the Maritsa to the Struma and along the Black Sea coast to the Danube \u2014 and preserved the old division into strategiai, whose bounds also included the Black Sea towns.<\/p>\n
From this period comes the record of a strategos of Anchialos named Apollonius, son of Eptaikent<\/strong>, known from a series of inscriptions from Anchialos itself and from places both nearer and further afield. He came from the ancient Thracian city of Bizye (today Vize, not far from Edirne) \u2014 capital of the last Thracian dynasty of Rhoemetalces I. He took the Greek name Apollonius, but his father retained the Thracian name Eptaikentos; his wife also bore a Greek name \u2014 Leonto, but her father bore the Thracian name Aulouzenes, a family also known from another inscription from Anchialos. It may therefore be assumed that the son of the Thracian from Bizye became the son-in-law of the Anchialos family of Aulouzenes and was thus accepted as strategos of the Anchialos region.<\/p>\nThe choice of Anchialos as the centre of a strategia within the Thracian kingdom seems odd at first glance \u2014 a Greek town, according to Strabo, serving as the seat of a Thracian regional governor. No other such case is known in the Thracian state. Evidently Anchialos was a stronghold of the Thracian rulers because of the significant Thracian element within it.<\/p>\n
The Thracian population remained a distinctive feature of the town later on as well, when it was already Roman \u2014 the early Byzantine historian Procopius (6th century) expressly emphasises: “Thracians inhabit a coastal town on the Euxine Pontus, named Anchialos.” The numerous Thracian mounds in the immediate vicinity of the old town, within the territory of the urban necropolis, leave no doubt as to the Thracian identity of the population. Beneath the embankment of one such mound lies the famous Pomorie Tomb<\/strong> \u2014 in fact a Thracian heroon of a later date.<\/p>\nDating from the time of the strategos Apollonius or a little later are three Thracian burial mounds, excavated in the third quarter of the last century, containing exceptionally rich grave goods. In one of them a burial of a wealthy Thracian woman with many gold ornaments was discovered; on one of them her name was engraved \u2014 Leseskepra<\/strong>. The cult objects accompanying her into the afterlife show that the old Thracian traditions were preserved among the Thracian aristocracy of Anchialos.<\/p>\nIt thus becomes clear that Anchialos had a different origin \u2014 a Thracian settlement, probably later ceded to the territory of Apollonia. Another explanation of the name also points to its Thracian character: from the Thracian (or pre-Greek Thracian) “Akhelon”, from “akhel” \u2014 water, as the nearby river Acheloy was called, later altered through assimilation to the Greek Anchialos. What the layout of the settlement was in this early period can for now only be guessed at \u2014 and new discoveries awaited.<\/p>\n
Ulpia Anchialos \u2014 the largest Roman port of Thrace<\/h2>\n
The site of the town \u2014 the seat of Apollonius \u2014 is still unknown. In AD 45 the Romans put an end to the independence of the Thracian kingdom and turned it into a province headed by a Roman governor. The Thracian aristocracy adapted and was drawn into the administration of both the province and the settlement. Granted autonomy, Anchialos was proclaimed a city under Emperor Trajan (AD 98\u2013117), together with four other old Thracian settlements \u2014 Serdica (Sofia), Pautalia (Kyustendil), Nicopolis ad Nestum (near Gotse Delchev) and Topirus (today in ruins at the mouth of the Mesta). Trajan’s act legitimised a process that had already taken shape in the preceding era. The new cities received the right and the obligation to bear the emperor’s family name \u2014 Ulpia<\/strong>.<\/p>\nThe city was granted the same constitution as the other West Pontic cities: all free citizens sat in the Popular Assembly (Demos), which elected the governing Council (Boule). Anchialos was also given its own territory, which after Emperor Hadrian bordered to the west on the territory of Augusta Traiana (Stara Zagora) and reached the Tundzha River, to the north on Mesambria, and to the south extended to the southern shore of today’s Burgas Lake, where the territory of Deultum (present-day Debelt) began. This extensive territory set Anchialos apart from the other western Black Sea cities, whose lands diminished during Roman times.<\/p>\n
After being proclaimed a city, Anchialos was laid out on a generous scale, like the other Roman cities, following the so-called Hippodamian plan<\/strong>. The backbone of the layout was formed by the two main streets \u2014 the cardo maximus (north\u2013south) and the decumanus maximus (east\u2013west) \u2014 with narrower streets running parallel to them.<\/p>\nRoman Anchialos stood at the edge of today’s Pomorie plain, outside the peninsula, some 3 km west-north-west of the centre of the modern town, in the locality of Paleokastro. Excavations and geophysical surveys show that the city occupied an area bounded to the east and north by the Salt Lake, to the west roughly by the junction of the Pomorie \u2013 Sunny Beach and Burgas \u2013 Sunny Beach roads, and to the south by the line between St George’s Monastery and the sea. Anchialos covered over 120 hectares<\/strong> \u2014 the largest city by area from the Roman period in ancient Thrace.<\/p>\nThe city was encircled by a solid fortress wall, with gates at the four ends of the two main streets. Judging by one coin issue, a statue of the sea god Poseidon stood above the gate leading to the harbour \u2014 upright, holding a trident in one hand and a hippocampus (a mythical creature, half horse, half fish) in the other: the so-called Poseidon Propylaios, protector of the gates. Water was brought from far away \u2014 from the springs near the present-day village of Rudnik \u2014 along a masonry aqueduct.<\/p>\n
The necropolis lay outside the walls. So far it can best be traced to the north-west and west, on the high plateau, where the numerous Thracian burial mounds are also to be found \u2014 evidence of the active involvement of wealthy Thracians in the political, economic and cultural life of the city. Traces of burial mounds greatly flattened by ploughing can also be seen north of Paleokastro, beside the road to Sunny Beach.<\/p>\n
Anchialos was adorned with statues of deities and deified emperors \u2014 the coins point to statues of Poseidon, Hades-Sarapis and Concordia. The city also erected statues of the emperors Caracalla and Alexander Severus, probably in honour of their visits.<\/p>\n
In the 2nd\u20133rd centuries Anchialos enjoyed great prosperity, thanks to its convenient harbour and its position at the crossroads of the routes linking Thrace with Moesia along the coast and the interior with the sea. Its harbour was the largest import and export point in the province of Thrace<\/strong> and supplied the Roman armies during Trajan’s eastern trans-Balkan campaigns. Its importance was emphasised time and again on the city’s coinage.<\/p>\nThe city reached a particular peak under the Severan dynasty. Probably in honour of the visit of Emperor Septimius Severus (around AD 209\u2013211), festivities were organised that are recorded on several coin issues as “Severeia Nymphia”<\/strong> \u2014 athletic games modelled on the famous Pythian Games at Delphi. They were held periodically and probably continued right up to the reign of Emperor Gordian III (AD 238\u2013244). Their staging implies a stadium, which has yet to be discovered.<\/p>\nThe name “Nymphia” was no accident \u2014 it comes from the great reverence shown in Anchialos to the nymphs, personifications of springs, forests and mountains. The Three Nymphs, patronesses of mineral springs, were especially venerated. The territory of Anchialos included Aquae Calidae, famous in antiquity (today the Burgas mineral baths), then also known as the Anchialos Baths; it seems the sanctuary of the Three Nymphs stood at the baths themselves. Agriculture and viticulture held an important place in the local economy \u2014 even then the people of Anchialos were renowned as fine vine growers and winemakers, a reputation that stays with them to this day.<\/p>\n
Goths, Avars and emperors<\/h2>\n
The city’s peaceful life continued until the middle of the 3rd century. From then on, great masses of Goths, Sarmatians and Carpi began to cross south of the Danube. In AD 250 the Goths passed through Thrace and laid siege to Philippopolis (Plovdiv); in 254 and 255 Goths, Carpi and Burgundians again crossed south of the Haemus; in 257\u2013258 Tervingi and Carpi sailed along the western coast of the Black Sea and reached as far as Asia Minor. According to one account, the Goths attacked Anchialos \u2014 probably in 270 \u2014 and “swiftly took it”. They remained there “many days and enjoyed the baths of hot water, which lie at the twelfth milestone from the city of Anchialos and gush forth from the depths of their fiery spring”.<\/p>\n
The exact fate of Anchialos at that time is unknown, but nearly thirty years of northern peoples marching through Moesia and Thrace brought about major economic, political and cultural changes, which found expression in the reforms of Emperor Diocletian. There is a record that Diocletian visited Anchialos and stayed there from 28 to 30 October AD 294.<\/p>\n
With the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine the Great, Anchialos became part of the new province of Haemimontus, with Adrianople (today Edirne) as its capital, and played a significant role within it. After the capital was moved to Constantinople, the city became important for supplying it with food and occupied a key place in the struggles of the Eastern Roman Empire against the peoples from the north. The 5th and 6th centuries brought a succession of events that did not pass Anchialos by:<\/p>\n
\n- AD 476<\/strong> \u2014 the Gothic leader Theodoric set out from Marcianopolis, crossed the Haemus (the Balkan Range) and Anchialos, and headed for Adrianople.<\/li>\n
- AD 513\u2013515<\/strong> \u2014 the senior Byzantine commander Vitalian the Thracian rose in revolt against Emperor Anastasius, briefly subdued the Black Sea coast and captured Odessos (Varna) and Anchialos. Some 200 ships from the harbours of Odessos, Anchialos and Sozopol took part in the operations against Constantinople. The revolt lasted until 515, when the defeated Vitalian withdrew to Anchialos.<\/li>\n
- 584 AD<\/strong> \u2014 during the great invasion of the Avars and Slavs, many towns in the interior of the peninsula were captured, Anchialos among them. The walls of the fortress were destroyed and the town and its surroundings laid waste. The Avar khagan Bayan, however, ordered that the walls of the Anchialos baths be spared and made Anchialos his residence for several months. It was here that he concluded yet another peace with the Byzantine emperor in return for a tribute of 100,000 gold coins.<\/li>\n
- 585 AD<\/strong> \u2014 the Byzantine commander Comentiolus assembled an army at Anchialos and formed three detachments for the war against the Avars and the Slavs.<\/li>\n
- 591 AD<\/strong> \u2014 Emperor Maurice, preparing for a campaign, reached Anchialos and spent around 15 days here.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Anchialos between Bulgaria and Byzantium<\/h2>\n
After the founding of the Bulgarian state in 681 AD, the role of Anchialos as an intermediate hub in relations between Byzantium and Bulgaria grew:<\/p>\n
\n- 708 AD<\/strong> \u2014 Emperor Justinian II broke the peace concluded three years earlier with Khan Tervel and set out by land and sea against the young Bulgarian state. He reached Anchialos, anchored his fleet and encamped his cavalry in the plain. The Bulgarians attacked and routed the Byzantines. The emperor took refuge behind the fortress walls and, after three days, hamstrung his horses and sailed secretly back to Constantinople.<\/li>\n
- 30 June 763 AD<\/strong> \u2014 before the walls of Anchialos the Bulgarian forces led by Khan Teletz suffered a defeat; Emperor Constantine V Copronymus celebrated the victory with a great triumph.<\/li>\n
- 21 June 766 AD<\/strong> \u2014 the same Constantine V organised a new campaign and sent 2,600 heavy warships (chelandia) with an enormous army towards Anchialos. As they anchored, a storm broke out, a large number of the ships sank and most of the soldiers drowned. On 17 July the emperor was forced to return to the capital. Finding the remains of this vast flotilla is a temptation for any underwater archaeologist.<\/li>\n
- May 783 AD<\/strong> \u2014 the Byzantine empress Irene, regent for the underage Constantine VI, made a demonstrative progress through Thrace and rebuilt Anchialos, which had been destroyed in the earlier battles.<\/li>\n
- 812 AD<\/strong> \u2014 for the first time Anchialos, together with the other southern Black Sea towns, passed into Bulgarian hands under Khan Krum. It was probably then that it received the proto-Bulgarian name Tuthon, which never took hold. Krum settled a considerable number of Slavs and proto-Bulgarians in the town. Byzantium regained this part of the coast in 864 AD.<\/li>\n
- 20 August 917 AD<\/strong> \u2014 the great battle between the Bulgarians led by Tsar Simeon and the Byzantines under commander-in-chief Leo Phokas, fought in the plain before Anchialos. The Byzantines suffered a catastrophic defeat, and the commander himself barely escaped behind the walls of the Nesebar fortress.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
These events demonstrate the great importance of the Anchialos fortress for supremacy along the Black Sea coast and in the interior of the country during the early Middle Ages (7th\u201310th centuries).<\/p>\n
After 971 AD, when Bulgaria was conquered by Byzantium, Anchialos once again became Byzantine. For two centuries the town remained a Byzantine possession, and its importance as a major port centre grew. After Bulgaria’s liberation the town continued to be a bone of contention, but its significance gradually gave way to that of neighbouring Nesebar. The constant change of rulers \u2014 the town passing temporarily into one set of hands and then another \u2014 had an adverse effect on its economic position. In October 1366 Anchialos, along with the other towns of the western Black Sea coast, fell into the hands of the Venetian knights of Amadeus VI of Savoy, allies of a weakened Byzantium.<\/p>\n
To stand at the centre of these constant conflicts, Anchialos was heavily fortified. Where was the medieval town situated? It has been suggested that it was moved to the tip of the peninsula, where Pomorie stands today, during Irene’s fortification works in 783 AD. Observations to date, however, do not confirm this \u2014 the settlement most likely moved onto the peninsula no earlier than after the 12th century. So far, traces of this new Anchialos exist only at the eastern end of the peninsula: the remains of fortress walls from the 13th\u201314th centuries beneath the so-called Yavorov Rocks.<\/p>\n
The last refuge of Byzantium<\/h2>\n
And so the Black Sea towns south of the Haemus awaited the first appearance of the Ottoman conquerors in October 1396. For half a century Anchialos passed alternately into Byzantine and Turkish hands, until in 1453, with the capture of Constantinople, it finally fell under Ottoman rule.<\/p>\n
The town became the centre of a kaza (district) with three nahiyas \u2014 those of Anchialos, Sozopol and Ahtopol \u2014 and grew into the largest administrative centre in south-eastern Bulgaria. Within these boundaries, together with the Karnobat region, Anchialos also became the seat of a large diocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its importance as an economic, administrative and cultural centre remained unchanged right up to the beginning of the 19th century.<\/p>\n
After the fall of Constantinople, Anchialos became the last refuge of a number of representatives of the Byzantine aristocracy \u2014 the Palaiologos, Doukas, Kantakouzenos, Chrysoverges, Vatatzes and other families. Some of them, such as Michael Kantakouzenos, played a major part in the economic and cultural flourishing of the Black Sea town.<\/p>\n
Source: pomorietown.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From a Thracian settlement and the “town of the Apollonians” to the largest Roman port in Thrace, the battles of Khan Krum and Tsar Simeon, and the final refuge of the Byzantine aristocracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":97105,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1622],"tags":[1868,1928,1876,2034,2118],"class_list":["post-96162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting-en","tag-anchialo-en","tag-antiquity-en","tag-pomorie-en","tag-pomorie-en-2","tag-tradition-en","post-with-thumbnail","post-with-thumbnail-icon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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