History of the Nessebar region
Due to the unique natural surroundings and the well-preserved monuments from various historic periods, at the 7th session of the World Heritage Committee in Florence in 1983, the Old Town of Nessebar became the only Bulgarian town included in the World Cultural Heritage list of UNESCO.
The Nessebar peninsula – the ancient Messambria, called during the late Middle Ages Messemvria, and later Nessebar, was first settled over three millennia ago, at the end of the Bronze Age. The anciant Thracians use to call it Melsambria, which meant the town of Melsa, the legendary founder of the settlement. Messambria had two convenient harbors – a northern and a southern one, where even today pieces of equipment from ancient ships can still be found.
In the late 6th century BC, the first Greek colonists arrived – Doric in origin. The town gradually grew; temples, a gymnasium and a theater were built.
Messambria began to mint its own coins around the year 440 BC. It reached its peak in 3th – 2nd century BC, when gold coins were first minted. The town maintained good commercial contacts with the polises along the Black Sea, the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The material testament of the rich economic, cultural and spiritual life of the town are the many finds form this period, exhibited at the Archaelogical museum of the town.
In 72 BC town was captured without any resistance by the Roman armies. After a short occupation, it became part of the Roman Empire in early 1st century AD. Messemvria as it was called at the time, with its fortress walls and large public buildings preserved intact, continued to mint its own bronze coins and remained an important commercial and cultural center along the Black Sea coast of Roman Thrace.
The town first became part of the Bulgarian state in 812, when Khan Kroum stormed and conquered it, and Slavs and the Bulgarians settled here. Nessebar as Slavs called it remained in Bulgarian hands for a longer period of time during the reign of Tsar Simeon The Great.
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