Tsarevo

Tsarevo (Bulgarian: Царево, also transliterated Carevo or Tzarevo) is a town and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, an administrative centre of the homonymous Municipality of Tsarevo in Burgas Province. In the past, it was known as Vasiliko (Greek: Βασιλικόν) and Michurin (Bulgarian: Мичурин). It lies on a cove 70 km southeast of Burgas, on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast at the eastern foot of Strandzha mountain, at a few kilometers from Strandzha Nature Park. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 5,884 inhabitants.

History

Underwater archaeological surveys have discovered amphoras from the Late Antiquity (4th–6th century) and import red-polished pottery made in Constantinople, Syria and North Africa, which indicates prospering trade in the area at the time. The city's southern peninsula has remains of a medieval fortress.

The town was first mentioned as Vasiliko by the 12th-century Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi. Whether it existed during the First Bulgarian Empire is unknown. In the 15th and 16th century, Vasilikoz was an Ottoman port. According to 17th-century traveller Evliya Çelebi, in 1662 the town Vasilikoz Burgas comprised a square fortress on a ridge overlooking the Black Sea surrounded by plenty of vineyards. Although its cove was suitable even for the largest of ships, it was usually avoided by the seamen because it offered little protection from the powerful eastern winds.