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Kavarna ( bg, Каварна ; ro, Cavarna), is a Black Sea coastal town and
seaside resort A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the Germ ...
in the
Dobruja Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
region of northeastern
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
. It lies northeast of Varna, from Dobrich on the international road E87 and south of the border with
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
. It is the principal town of
Kavarna Municipality Kavarna Municipality ( bg, Община Каварна) is a municipality ('' obshtina'') in Dobrich Province, Northeastern Bulgaria, located on the Northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in Southern Dobruja geographical region. It is named after its ...
, part of
Dobrich Province Dobrich Province ( bg, Област Добрич, , former name Dobrich okrug) is a province in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Southern Dobruja geographical region. It is bounded on east by the Black Sea, on south by Varna Province, on west by ...
. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 11,397 inhabitants.Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - towns in 2009

/ref> A little yacht port, a fishing base, a spacious beach and a resort complex exist in the town. The landmark Cape
Kaliakra Kaliakra ( bg, Калиакра; ro, Caliacra) is a cape in the Southern Dobruja region of the northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, which ends with a long and narrow headland east of Kavarna, northeast of Varna and southwest of Mangalia. Th ...
is located a few kilometers to the east, as is the tiny beachfront resort of Rusalka. Three 18-hole
golf courses A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
with villa communities and marinas are being developed nearby, two of the courses are designed by
Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...
and one by
Ian Woosnam Ian Harold Woosnam (born 2 March 1958) is a Welsh professional golfer. Nicknamed 'Woosie', Woosnam was one of the "Big Five" generation of European golfers, all born within 12 months of one another, all of whom have won majors, and made Europe ...
. During the 2000s, the town became famous with the annual Kaliakra Rock Fest featuring famous rock bands from around the world.


Etymology

With the Bulgarian conquest in the 7th century AD, the name ''Karvuna'' replaced the similarly-sounding ancient Greek ''Krounoi'' as the then name of the neighboring modern town of
Balchik Balchik ( bg, Балчик ; ro, Balcic) is a Black Sea coastal town and seaside resort in the Southern Dobruja area of northeastern Bulgaria. It is in Dobrich Province, 35 km southeast of Dobrich and 42 km northeast of Varna. It spr ...
; the names ''Karvunska Hora'' and ''Principality of Karvuna'' were related to that town, which was also mentioned on 14th-century Italian portolan charts with the Italianized form ''Carbona''. The name ''Kavarna'' as referring to this city was first mentioned in the 15th century; perhaps it was a new name influenced phonetically by the preexisting names of Karvuna (which town was already known as Balchik) and Varna.


Geography

The lay of the land is flat and the seacoast of Kavarna is long. Along it there are small beaches, including an artificial one. Gore Chirakman with its almost sheer slopes towers above the seacoast. Remains of stronghold walls, moats, buildings, churches and necropolises can be found on the flat
plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...
. The region is rich in mineral waters. The area around Kavarna offers opportunities for developing ecotourism and specialized tourism — examination and photography of plants, dolphins and various kinds of fish in the coastal waters. The variety of birds attracts tourists from all parts of the world and contributes to Kaliakra and Yaylata becoming one of the most preferred places in Bulgaria for the development of ornithological tourism.


Population


History

The town was founded in the 5th century BC by
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
colonists who settled on the Chirakman Plateau in the colony Byzone (or ''Bizone'') ( grc, Βιζώνη). During the 3rd and 2nd century BC, the town played an important mediating role between the local
Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...
settlements and the Greeks. Despite being unsuitable for wharfing because of its rugged cliffs, this part of the
Bulgarian Black Sea Coast The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast (), also known as the Bulgarian Riviera, covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coast ...
was an attractive centre due to the fact that the local people produced and traded with high quality grain. During the second part of the 1st century BC the ancient town fell in the sea because of a disastrous earthquake. The frontal part of the Chirakman broke off and together with the richest citizens fell into the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
's waters. According to the leader of the finished first part of the underwater archaeological expedition Kavarna 2005, Asen Salkin, the Roman town of Bizone has sunk two times in the sea. For that evidence the located form skin-divers borders of a sunk residential district of the town of Bizone in Kavarna's coast. For the presence of residential buildings the archaeologists judge by the found ashlars and parts of brick walls. The finds date from the 2nd century AD. According to the leader of the expedition this residential district has nothing in common with the disastrous earthquake from the 1st century BC. The underwater finds evidence for other phenomenon, for which the scientists express only suppositions, such as transgression and regression of the strata. It has started to transgress during the 1st century AD and this has continued to the 2nd century. It is possible that during this period the coast had risen by four metres and one day it suddenly fallen through. During
Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
the town was restored under the same name and quickly flourished, the settlement revived and the port brightened up. In the 7th century AD the Slavs and
Asparuh Asparuh (also ''Ispor''; bg, Аспарух, Asparuh or (rarely) bg, Исперих, Isperih) was а ruler of Bulgars in the second half of the 7th century and is credited with the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681. Early life ...
's Bulgars destroyed the
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
town and later founded a new settlement, which entered the First Bulgarian Empire. In the late Middle Ages the settlement grew and was subject to
Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary
is an umbrella term for different
raids; in the 14th century it became part of the
Principality of Karvuna The Despotate of Dobruja or Principality of Karvuna ( bg, Добруджанско деспотство or ; ro, Despotatul Dobrogei or ) was a 14th-century quasi-independent polity in the region of modern Dobruja, that split off from the Secon ...
, which de facto broke away from the Second Bulgarian Empire under the rule of the despots Balik and
Dobrotitsa Dobrotitsa ( bg, Добротица, ; ro, Dobrotici or ; in contemporaneous Byzantine documents; ''Dobrodicie'' in contemporaneous Genoese documentsM. Balard, ''Actes de Kilia du notaire Antonio di Ponzo, 1360'' in ''Genes et l'Outre-Mer'', II ...
of the Bulgarian royal Terter dynasty. In 1397, the Ottoman Turks nearly destroyed the city, which was abandoned but resettled again and rebuilt by the early 17th century. Its present name was documented for the first time in the early 15th century. The town was considered an economical and cultural centre during Antiquity and the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
with rich and various remains – stronghold walls, early- Christian
basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...
,
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...
es, and public buildings. Notable works of art, such as coins from different historical epochs, golden adornments, a golden Thracian treasure of applications, have been found in the area. Between the 15th and 19th century the town becomes popular under the name Kavarna, as a Christian settlement and port for grain export. From that time remain a Turkish bath, a medieval necropolis, a bridge, fountains, Christian churches and many inscriptions. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 Kavarna's Christian inhabitants, Bulgarians and Gagauz alike, rebelled against the
bashi-bazouk A bashi-bazouk ( ota, باشی بوزوق , , , roughly "leaderless" or "disorderly") was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman army, raised in times of war. The army chiefly recruited Albanians and Circassians as bashi-bazouks, but recruits ...
s and Circassian hordes. After the liberation the town became part of the Principality of Bulgaria. From the beginning of 20th century Kavarna achieved a rapid progress as an economical and cultural centre. The town renamed ''Cavarna'' came under
Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
n rule after the
Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 ( O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies r ...
in 1913 and again after the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in 1919. This however, was met with resistance by the local Bulgarian population and its
Internal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation The Internal Dobrujan Revolutionary Organisation ( bg, Вътрешна добруджанска революционна организация; ro, Organizația Revoluționară Internă Dobrogeană) or IDRO was a Bulgarian nationalist and revol ...
. In 1940 the town was ceded back to Bulgaria by the
Treaty of Craiova The Treaty of Craiova ( bg, Крайовска спогодба, Krayovska spogodba; ro, Tratatul de la Craiova) was signed on 7 September 1940 and ratified on 13 September 1940 by the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Kingdom of Romania. Under its te ...
.


Monuments and museums


Dobruja and the Sea Display

The Dobruja and the Sea Display is a small maritime museum. It is situated in an approximately restored Turkish bath, the Hamam. It was built in the beginning of the 15th century and represents a massive beehive bath from stone, situated in the beginning of the valley leading to the port, and half a kilometre apart from the town centre. Many stone anchors, amphorae and ceramics found during the underwater archaeological expeditions are exposed there. Coins from different epochs and a golden Thracian treasure can be seen in the Treasure House Hall The ancient and mediaeval colour painting expend our concepts for the ancient navigation around Dobruja's coasts.


Town Museum

The Town Museum can be found in the building of the local library. Materials, revealing the thousand-year old history of the town are displayed in its exposition. Evidence for the life of the people in the region since ancient times are represented here. A model of prehistoric cave-dwellings, many tools, guns, rifles and pistols from the War of Liberation, as well as ethnographic materials — clothing, finery, folk-style cloth, are also exhibited


Ethnographic Museum

The Ethnographic Museum represents an old house from the end of the 19th century that belonged to a rich family. Its interior reveals the customs and culture of the people inhabiting that part of the country; premises typical for Dobruja houses, tools from the culture and the daily round of the people. The building is surrounded by a garden full of mulberry trees, peonies and tulips.


Churches

There are two churches in the town both located in the town centre. The Church of
Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...
was built in 1836 and the Dormition of the Theotokos Church in 1860. Both churches played an important role during the Ottoman rule and after the Liberation as educational and cultural centers.


The old fountains

These were 12 spring fountains situated along the valley to the port. Some of them were destroyed and the rest were restored recently. The great amount of spring water forms a small river.


Culture

Since 2004 the town has turned in one of the centres of musical life in Bulgaria. Kavarna has been the host to several
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...
concerts. In 2005 the most popular band to play in the town's stadium was Deep Purple. The other notable performers were mostly legends of German rock and heavy metal music, such as
Scorpions Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...
, Axel Rudi Pell,
Gamma Ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically ...
, Masterplan and
Destruction Destruction may refer to: Concepts * Destruktion, a term from the philosophy of Martin Heidegger * Destructive narcissism, a pathological form of narcissism * Self-destructive behaviour, a widely used phrase that ''conceptualises'' certain kin ...
. On 27 August 2005 Accept, another German band, played here its last show with original lead vocalist
Udo Dirkschneider Udo Dirkschneider (born 6 April 1952) is a German singer and songwriter who rose to fame with German heavy metal band Accept. After leaving the band in 1987, he formed U.D.O., with which he has also enjoyed commercial success. Biography F ...
. There is also a mural of
Whitesnake Whitesnake are an English hard rock band formed in London in 1978. The group was originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their own en ...
singer David Coverdale. 2006 saw the start of the Kaliakra Rock Fest - A Metal festival (renamed to
Kavarna Rock Fest Kavarna Rock Fest was a Bulgarian rock festival that took place every year at the Kavarna Stadium in Kavarna. Until 2010 the festival's name was Kaliakra Rock Fest. 2006 The first edition of the festival was on the 25 August 2006. The festival ...
in 2010) including many metal bands. The same year followed the tradition with concerts of more metal bands as well as some pop and dance musicians. In 2007, performers included Heaven and Hell, John Lawton Band, Manowar,
Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a precu ...
, Robert Plant, and Ronnie James Dio. The next year saw the return of Manowar within Kaliakra Rock Fest with a 5-hour attempt to set a world record for the longest heavy metal concert. The next two days
Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...
, Slayer and In Flames held concerts. In July 2009, Mötley Crüe headlined the rock-fest, with Scorpions,
Blind Guardian Blind Guardian is a German power metal band formed in 1984 in Krefeld, West Germany. They are often credited as one of the seminal and most influential bands in the power metal and speed metal subgenres.Dream Theater also participating.
Sonata Arctica Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current lineup c ...
also performed in 2008 and 2011. The 2013
Volvo World Match Play Championship The Volvo World Match Play Championship was an annual match play men's professional golf tournament which was staged from 1964 to 2014. The World Match Play Championship was a limited field event, originally contested by just eight players before ...
was held at the Thracian Cliffs Golf Course.


International relations


Twin towns and sister cities

Kavarna is twinned with: *
Podolsk Podolsk ( rus, Подольск, p=pɐˈdolʲsk) is an industrial city, center of Podolsk Urban Okrug, Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Pakhra River (a tributary of the Moskva River). History The first mentions of the village of Podol, ...
, Russia * Prizren,
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...


Honour

Kavarna Cove Kavarna Cove ( bg, залив Каварна, zaliv Kavarna, ) is a 2 km wide cove indenting for 1.2 km the south coast of Livingston Island (in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica) that is entered between Elephant Point and Bond Po ...
in
Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...
in the
South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1 ...
,
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...
is named after Kavarna.


Gallery


References


External links


Official homepage

Guide to Kavarna municipality

Interactive map of Kavarna
{{Authority control Towns in Bulgaria Seaside resorts in Bulgaria Populated places in Dobrich Province Populated coastal places in Bulgaria Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast