Burgas


Burgas, sometimes transliterated as Bourgas, is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a population of 210,646 inhabitants, while 226,137 live in its urban area. It is the capital of Burgas Province and an important industrial, transport, cultural and tourist centre.
The city is surrounded by the Burgas Lakes and located at the westernmost point of the Black Sea, at the large Burgas Bay. LUKOIL Neftochim Burgas is the largest oil refinery in southeastern Europe and the largest industrial enterprise. The Port of Burgas is the second largest port in Bulgaria, and Burgas Airport is the second most important in the country. Burgas is the centre of the Bulgarian fishing and fish processing industry.

Names

The city's name is similar to Burgos in Spain, as well as numerous cities containing the Germanic 'burg' suffix, meaning "castle,"
such as Hamburg.
It is widely considered, including by the city's official website, that the name of the city is derived from the Latin word "burgus", meaning a "tower", after a local ancient Roman travel post, which used to be in the area of today's Burgas Port. Fifteen centuries later, the settlement was mentioned by the Byzantine poet Manuel Philes as "Pyrgos", a word identical in meaning with the Greek word for tower. The name passed to Bulgarian through the Turkish Burgaz.
There are several alternative explanations for the name's origin. One of them states the city's name comes from Gothic name "baurgs", meaning "signified consolidated walled villages". According to Bulgarian prof. Kiril Vlahov, the name of the city comes from the Thracian word "pyurg", meaning "fortification of wooden beams".

Geography

Topography

Burgas is situated at the westernmost point of the bay by the same name and in the eastern part of the Burgas Plain, in the east of the Upper Thracian Plain. Burgas is located some from Sofia, from Plovdiv, from Varna, and from Istanbul. To the west, south and north, the city is surrounded by the Burgas Lakes: Burgas, Atanasovsko, and Mandrensko, which are home to several hundred bird species. Pan-European corridor 8 passes through the city, the European routes E87 and E773, and the longest national rout I/6. The St. Anastasia Island is a part of the city.

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, Burgas has a humid subtropical climate. The summertime in Burgas lasts about five months from mid-May until late September. Average temperatures during high season is. Summertime sea temperatures stay around at sunrise and go up to by dusk, averaging. Winters are milder compared with the inland part of the country, with average temperatures of and below during the night. Snow is possible in December, January, February and rarely in March; however, it can quickly melt. The highest temperature was recorded in June 2007, at and the lowest at in January 1942.

Flora and fauna

The Burgas Wetlands are highly recognized for their significance to biodiversity and as a resource pool for products used by people.
Lake Burgas is Bulgaria's largest lake and is in the middle of the city. It is important for migrating birds. Over 250 species of birds inhabit the lake area, 61 of which are endangered in Bulgaria and 9 globally, attracting keen birdwatchers from all over the world. The lakes are also home to important fish and invertebrates. In the site have been recorded several IUCN Red-Listed species of animals – 5 invertebrates, 4 fish, 4 amphibians, 3 reptiles, 5 birds and 3 mammals. Situated along the second largest migration path of birds in Europe, the Via Pontica, the site is an important stopover and staging site for a large number of water-birds, raptors and passerines. Yearly during migration and wintering more than 20,000 waterbirds congregate there.
The Atanasovo Lake is one of two salt-water lakes in the Black Sea region and contains rare and representative examples of wetland habitats. It is a hot spot for biodiversity, with many Red-Listed species of plants and animals. It is a well-known bottleneck site for migratory birds, with around 60,000 raptors and 240,000 storks, pelicans and cranes passing over the site and often landing in large numbers for staging. The highest numbers in Europe of migrating Great white pelican, Dalmatian pelican, Western marsh harrier and Red-footed Falcon have been recorded here.

Protected areas

Burgas is divided into the following neighbourhoods:
With a decision from the Counsel of Ministers in 2009, the villages of Banevo and Vetren were incorporated into Burgas.
Currently a new city plan is being considered which will open the city to the sea and includes several residential neighbourhoods and a new highway junction.

History

The earliest signs of life in the region date back 3,000 years, to the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age. The favorable conditions on the fertile plain, around the sea, have brought people here from early antiquity. The biggest mark was left by the Thracians who made the region rich in archaeological finds. This includes their sanctuary at Beglik Tash along the south coast and a burial mound near Sunny Beach. They built the mineral baths of Aquae Calidae and the fortress Tyrsis.
Under Darius I, it became part of the Achaemenid Empire, before the Odrysian kingdom was established. Greeks from Apollonia built a marketplace to trade with the Thracians, in what is now the neighborhood of Pobeda.
During the rule of the Ancient Romans, near Burgas, Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium was established as a military colony for veterans by Vespasian in AD 70. The Romans built this colonia on the main road Via Pontica. It was the second most important city in the province Haemimontus.
In 376 the Goths destroyed an elite Roman company near Develtum at the Battle of Dibaltum.

Bulgarian and Byzantine Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, there were important settlements in the area: the fortress Skafida, Poros, Rusokastron, the Baths called Aquae Calidae and used by Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman Emperors; a small fortress called Pyrgos was erected where Burgas is today and was most probably used as a watchtower. Under the Byzantine Empire it became an important city on the Black Sea coast. The Bulgarian ruler Krum built the Erkesiya, a -long border wall from the Black Sea to the Maritsa River.
In 1206, the Latin Emperor Henry of Flanders destroyed Aquae Calidae, which was known as Thermopolis at this time, The baths were later rebuilt by the Byzantines and Bulgarians. Poros was mentioned in a 1270 document of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Close to Poros took place the Battle of Skafida in 1304, when the Bulgarian Tsar Todor Svetoslav defeated the Byzantines and conquered the southern Black Sea coast.
At the beginning of the 14th century, the region was sacked by the Catalan Company. In the 13th century Burgas is mentioned by the Byzantine poet Manuel Philes in his works as Burgas.

Ottoman rule

Like many of the towns surrounding it, Burgas was conquered by the Ottomans with the rest of Bulgaria in the late 14th century, only to be returned to the Byzantine Empire during the Ottoman Interregnum and retained by the Byzantines until the fall of the Empire to the Ottomans in 1453. It was only in the 17th century that a settlement renamed to Ahelo-Pirgas grew in the modern area of the city. It was later renamed to Burgas again and had only about 3,000 inhabitants. In the early 19th century Burgas was depopulated after raids by kurzdhali bandits. By the mid-19th century it had recovered its economic prominence through the growth of craftsmanship and the export of grain. The city was a small town in İslimye sanjak in at first Rumelia Eyalet, after that in the Silistra Eyalet and Edirne Eyalet before the liberation in 1878.
In the 17th and 18th centuries Burgas became an important port for cereal and possesses its own grain measure, the Burgas-Kile. The town was the regional centre of trade and administrative centre of the Burgas Kaaza.
In 1865 the port of Burgas was after Trapezunt the second most important Ottoman port in the Black Sea. Burgas was at this time the major centre on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.

From liberation to 1945

It was a department centre in Eastern Rumelia before incorporated in the Principality of Bulgaria in 1885.
From the late 19th century Burgas became an important economic and industry center. The first development plan of the city was adopted in 1891 and the city's layout and appearance changed, especially through the newly constructed public buildings. In 1888, the city library was founded, in 1891 the sea garden was created and in 1897 the Cathedral of the Holy brothers Cyril and Methodius was built. In 1895 Georgi Ivanov opened the first Printing house in Burgas, followed by the house of Christo Velchev in 1897, which changed in 1900 his name in Velchevi Brothers Printing house.
The opening of the railway line to Plovdiv on 27 May 1890 and the deep water port in 1903 were important stages of this boom and led to the rapid industrialization of the city. In the period after 151 factories were founded. Among them were the Sugar refinery founded by Avram Chaliovski, the Great Bulgarian Mills of Ivan Chadzipetrov and the oil and soap factory Kambana. In 1900 the mineral springs by the ancient Aquae Calidae were included in the urban area. In 1903, the new building of the Burgas Central railway station opened.
Founded in 1924 in Burgas Deweko was the first pencil factory in Southeastern Europe and became in 1937 official supplier to the Bulgarian Monarchy. 1925 opened in Burgas a specialized high school for mechanics and technologies. The following year, a large covered market was opened. Because of the cold wave in winter 1928/29 the Black Sea iced in late January and early February, so that the island of Sveta Anastasia could be reached on foot. 1934, Burgas already had 34,260 inhabitants.