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Sozopol beach
Terace near Hotel Diamanti , Old Sozopol
Sozopol's moments
Local Industry!History
The town of Sozopol is situated 31 km southeast of Bourgas, and 421 km southeast of Sofia.The town lies on a small peninsula in the farthest southern part of the Bourgas Bay. A one hundred-meter long strip of land connects it to the mainland. The first settlements belonged to the Thracian tribes of Nipsei and Skirimian. In 7th century BC, Greek colonisers settled there and named the town after Apollo. Apolonia developed mainly as a trading centre for honey, wax, corn, wine, olive oil, olives, textiles.Much earlier in 13th century BC, the argonauts led by lazon, Heraklitis and Orpheus came ashore. The love for travelling and discovering made the inhabitants of Apolonia in those times travel, trade and found new colonies. So were founded the settlements of Anhialo and Pirgos, Termopolis and Aetos. The town was included in the union of sea town-states founded by Percales. Apolonia was frequently in economic and political dispute with the Doric inhabitants of Messembria; wars were even waged. At the time, the island of Kirik was mainly inhabited. Apolonia sought help from Philip of Macedonia against the attacks of the Scythians. It was included in the territory of the Macedonian State at the time of Alexander the Great and was constantly subject to invasions but it struggled against the attacks of a number of Nomadic tribes flowing from north and west. The town fell under Roman domination in 1st century BC and was ruined several times by the armies of Marcus Lucul. It is an interesting fact that the Romans quickly restored the ruins, built new temples, and ordered a thirteen-meter high statue of Apollo by the sculpturer Kalamis. The statue was sent to Rome as an example of the arts of this particular Roman province. As early as 6th century Apolonia minted coins of its own. The Roman domination provided three centuries of peace until the invasion of the barbarian tribes. It was only in 5th century that the town was included in the territory of Byzantium.
