WorldTravelGate.net® - The History of Varna,Bulgaria

Varna - History

Ancient as the sea and new as the sunrise, Varna stands out against a background of sea and sky that meet and mingle in a vast expanse of bleu. It was born 26 centuries ago, when sea-farers frin the town of Miletus came to the lands of the Thracian tribe of Crobisi and after long struggles found their colony named Odessos, circa 580 B.C. The Ionic civilization was not the first to leave traces of an advanced material culture on the high coast. Excavations of the Varna necropolises have revealed monuments of older civilizations, which can vie in antiquity and splendour with the Sumerian civilization.

The small Ionic colony warmly welcomed the peace-loving Pericles; the aggressor Phillip II of Macedon, however, encountered such stubborn resistance that he was forced to lift the siege he had laid to the city. In 341 B.C. he triumphantly entered Odessos, coming that time not as a conqueror but as a friend and ally.

Roman remnants are numerous in the city; the Roman thermae are the most remarkable.

When the Romans conquered Moesia, Odessos lost its political independence, preserving only an appearance of self-administration; but it kept its military, economic and cultural importance. This is witnessed by the fortress wall of the city and the thermae which were built at that time. Their ruins, rising to a height of between three and 18m, are of considerable architectural interest.

After the establishment of the Eastern Roman Empire, the city became a busy trade center. In 536 Emperor Justinian I declared Odessos the centre of an administrative region covering a large territory. Construction continued in the city. Remnants from Christian basilicas have survived from that time to this day in the vicinity of Varna.

In the late 6th and early 7th century compact Slav masses settled in the Balkan Peninsula. The ethnic character of the coastal region changed. The Slavs gave the city the name of Varna. In 680 the Proto-Bulgarians, who came from the East, defeated the Byzantine army and alliance with seven Slav tribes founded the Slav-Bulgarian state, officially recognised by Byzantium in 681. The most important defence facility built by the Proto-Bulgarians in the Dobroudja, called Asparoukh's Rampart, is associated with the name Khan Asparoukh, the founder of the Bulgarian State. In the 8th century Varna was won back from the Byzantine Emperor Constantine V, Copronymus, to crush the young Bulgarian state.

Varna suffered a decline during the years of Byzantine domination (1018-1187), but in 1201 Tsar Kaloyan liberated it, taking its fortress with the help of a big turret. in the course of two centuries the city was a major centre of the Second Bulgarian State. Its heyday coincided with the reign of Ivan Assen II (1218-1241).

The Mausoleum of Vladislav Varnenchik is in the vicinity of the city. It was built to commemorate the Polish King Vladislav III Jagelo, later called Varnenchik, who lost his life in 1444 fighting against the Ottoman enslavers. A monument to his army comander Janos Hunyadi rises in front of the Mausoleum.

In the 13th century the Varna fortress withstood the siege of the Byzantine army commander Michael Glava, who had set out on a campaign against the troops of Ivailo, the leader of a mass peasant anti-feudal uprising in Bulgaria. The srusaders of Amadeus of Savoy in the 14th century also had to retreat from its walls. In 1372 Varna remained within the boundaries of the brea-away Karvouna Principality of Dobrotitsa and in 1391 it fell under the yataghan of the Ottoman Turks. The battle at Varna in 1444 extinguished the last spark of hope. The crusaders' army, made up of Polish and Hungarian knights, Czechs, Wallachiands and Serbians, led by the young Polish and Hungarian King Vladislav III Jagelo and the Transylvanian commander Janos Hunyadi, lost the battle against the Ottoman Turks. Today there is a park-museum of comradeship-in-arms near Varna on the scene of the fighting, to commemorate this battle and heroic Polish and Hungarian king who lost his life in it.

During the centuries of Ottoman domination the town assumed an oriental appearance. Thanks to the thriving trade and handicrafts, Varna began to revive from its economic decline. More than 500 ships cast anchor in its harbour every year, and 43 countries had consulates in the city.

The national self-awareness of the Bulgarian people awakened in the early 19th century, giving rise to a rapid patriotic upsurge. A Bulgarian municipality was set up in Varna. The first Bulgarian school in the city was opened on July 25, 1862. Sava Dobroplodni, an eminent Bulgarian enlightener and man of letters taught in it.

In 1828 a Russian squadron commanded by Admiral Grieg blockaded the fortress. In a brave attack during the night the Russian sailors boarded the Turkish fleet. After a siege of two months, Varna fell. The chief of the Turkish garrison handed over the keys to the city to the Russian Emperor Nicholas I. The citizens of Varna had also kept alive for many years memories of the battle at Cape Kaliakra in 1791, when the Russian Admiral Ushakov defeated the Turkish fleet. After the victorious end of the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation of 1877-1878, the long awaited day of freedom finally came for Varna, as it did for most of Bulgaria.


The delegates of the Bulgarian Communist Party G. Dimitrov, V. Kolarov, H Kabakchiev and Dr. N. Maximov, set out for the USSR to take part in the Second Congress of the Communist International from Karantinata locality near Varna in June 1920. A monument has now been erected on the site.

The first socialist group was founded in Varna in 1893. At the same time Georgi Bakalov also engaged in socialist propaganda in the city, and in 1895 the Ouchenicheski Glas (Students' Voice) newspaper started publication, edited by Vassil Kolarov and Georgi Bakalov.

The Great October Socialist Revolution - In spite of police terror and the presence of occupation troops of the Entente the communists of Varna organised a clandestine channel to maintain contact with the land of the revolution across the Black Sea. It was this channel that Georgi Dimitrov, Vassil Kolarov, Hristo Kabakchiev and Nikola Maximov used when they set out ot take part in the Second Congress of the Communist International.

On December 29, 1919 the working people of Varna won a great victory - the Varna Commune was proclaimed. The communist Dimiter Kondov stood at the head of the commune. The Varna Commune was crushed by the police but a memory of it as an example of people's self-governement left indelible traces in the working people's minds.

For a short time the city was renamed Stalin. After 1956 its previous name was reinstated. Varna became a centre of the North Black Sea coast and a starting point for the design and building of the numerous resorts around it. Marine business developed - from fishing to the transfer of goods between the East and the West. Nowadays Varna is an industrial city - the third biggest one in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv.

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