Tsarevo (Bulgarian: Царево) is a small town and resort on the southern Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. It's one of Bulgaria's four official ports of entry, and the largest town in the southernmost part of the coast.
Understand
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Tsarevo is about 50 km (31 mi) south-east of the province centre Burgas, and 20 km (12 mi) north of the Bulgaria-Turkey border. With a permanent population of about 6,000 (2021), the town is the administrative centre of Tsarevo Municipality, which includes a number of other small resorts: the town of Ahtopol and the villages Varvara, Sinemorets (at the mouth of the Veleka), and Rezovo on the border itself. A large part of the municipality's area is in Nature Park Strandzha.
Originally, the town was a village named Vasiliko (Greek: Βασιλικόν). It used to be a part of the Ottoman Empire and its population was predominantly Greek. After the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), the area was ceded to Bulgaria, and most of the Greek population left. Bulgarian refugees from Eastern Thrace settled in the area. It was mostly a fishing port, but the locals also tried to make use of Strandzha's timber resources by developing a shipbuilding industry. In the 1930s, Tsar Boris III financed the construction of a modern port, and the town was renamed in his honour to Tsarevo - a translation of the Greek name (approx. "king's place" or "king's village"). After World War II, the Communists couldn't leave the place with a "monarchist" name, so it was changed to Michurin in 1950, presumably after Russian plant breeder Ivan Michurin (1855-1935). The name was reverted in 1991, after the regime fell.
Modern Tsarevo has the approximate shape of an E, or right-facing number 3, with Cape Limnos as the middle prong and the bulk of the town in its base. At the southern prong is the outlying Vasiliko Quarter, the oldest surviving part of town (a large fire destroyed most of it in the 1880s, so it was rebuilt in its modern place).
Get in
[edit]By bus
[edit]As it's a seaside resort, bus connections are more limited off-season, in the colder half of the year.
The ubiquitous amalgamation Union Ivkoni/Etap Address/Group Plus has a direct line from Sofia to the resorts south of Burgas, including Tsarevo - at least once daily, more frequently in the warmer months. Options from Plovdiv and Yambol might be seasonally available, so it's best to check their website. A number of smaller companies operate shuttle buses to Burgas and the nearby settlements along the coast. In Burgas, buses to Tsarevo start at Bus Station South (Avtogara Yug). Despite the geographical closeness, there's no direct line between Tsarevo and Malko Tarnovo - you have to backtrack to Burgas and take a bus from a different bus station.
- 1 Bus Station (Автогара, Avtogara) (at the main entrance of the town, south-west of the city centre). Surprisingly, it has a website with timetables in English.
By car
[edit]From the north (Burgas and the rest of Bulgaria): Road 99 branches off Road 9 south of Burgas and follows the coast east and south, passing through Sozopol and Primorsko (and a number of smaller places) before reaching Tsarevo. By road, Tsarevo is about 65 km (40 mi) from Burgas, 38 km (24 mi) from Sozopol, and 17 km (11 mi) from Primorsko.
From the south-west (Eastern Thrace in Turkey): European Route E87 crosses the border at the Dereköy - Malko Tarnovo border crossing and follows National Road 9 to Burgas. At Malko Tarnovo, Road 99 splits off Road 9 and crosses the woods of Strandzha to reach the coast at Tsarevo.
The coastal road continues south of Tsarevo as Road 9901, passing through Varvara, Ahtopol, and Sinemorets before reaching the border at Rezovo, but there's no border crossing there.
By boat
[edit]Tsarevo is one of Bulgaria's four official ports of entry on the Black Sea (the others are Burgas, Varna, and Balchik). Because it's the closest port to the border, yachts coming from Turkey sometimes choose to stop here first rather than sail directly to the much larger Burgas.
- 2 Port Tsarevo (southern side of the Cape Limnos peninsula, east of the city centre). Yachting marina and fishing port.
Get around
[edit]It's a small town, so you can get around on foot, though getting to the outlying beaches would not be very convenient. Unless you book a place right next to them, but then getting to the centre would not be convenient. There's a bicycle lane running along the road to Arapya.
Tsarevo's single bus line runs between the bus station, the city centre, and the Vasiliko Quarter, on an irregular schedule with large intervals (see the bus station's website for a timetable).
See
[edit]Tsarevo is mostly a resort and fishing town, so unsurprisingly the sights are modest.
- 1 History Museum, u. "Peneka" 12 (eastern side of the main square). Jul 1 - Sep 14: M-F 9:00-18:00, Sa-Su 9:00-13:00, 14:00-18:00; Sep 15 - Jun 30: M-F 8:00-17:00, closed Sa-Su. Modern building referencing traditional architecture. Exhibits include the Sinemorets Thracian gold and silver treasure, artefacts recovered from the sea floor, and the usual ethnographic stuff. One of the (more than) 100 National Tourist Sites of Bulgaria (No. 86). Adults: 5 лв, various discounts apply; guide/lecture: 10 лв for groups of 10 or less (Bulgarian only?).
- Sea Garden (Morska gradina). The town park, at the tip of Cape Limnos; a street leads directly north-east from the main square to the entrance of the park.
- Statue of a young woman. On the main alley of the park, holding aloft some kind of an astronomical model.
- Remnants of the Goryanin. Outdoor display of what's left of the largest wooden ship built in Bulgaria, in Tsarevo's shipyard, using timber from Strandzha's forests; launched in 1947, sank in 1993 by Varna, remnants recovered 2005. The name means "woodman, forest dweller".
- Observation point (at the very tip of the cape). The floor is a mosaic of a compass rose. Good view of the sea, and connection to the beach alley.
- Submariners memorial. Simple memorial to the crew of Soviet submarine S-34 (Russian: С-34) that sank in 1941, presumably after hitting a mine; two bodies washed up on the shore by Tsarevo.
- 2 Port Tsarevo entrance light (at the end of the eastern breakwater of the port). On top of a 5.5-metre (18 ft) bronze statue of a woman rather than an utilitarian tower. Claimed to be based on the caryatids of the Sveshtari Tomb, the statue was erected in 2014 after the original was destroyed by a storm two years earlier. Sculptor Pavel Koychev.
- 3 Main Square (Central Square, Tsentralen ploshtad). Pedestrianised, there's a fountain in the shape of a sailboat. Some of the Communism-era wall art on the surrounding buildings has been preserved, but the statue that can be seen in some older promotional materials was demolished during the square's renovation in 2018.
- Georgi Kondolov Cultural Centre (chitalishte) - old building overlooking the square.
- 4 Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (Uspenie Bogorodichno) (in the Vasiliko Quarter, on Cape Kastro). Functioning Orthodox church. One of Tsarevo's landmarks. Built in the 1810s, and one of the few buildings that survived the 1880s fire. Pseudo-basilica type (no dome). Elevation gives it good views of the sea, there's a small playground outside.
- 5 Fish Statue (park area by the seaside alley south of the port). Naturalistic statue of a school of fish or a bait ball.
- 6 Tsarevo Light Mark. Automated navigation light on a rock in the sea, about 500 m (1,600 ft) from the shore. Best visible from the Vasiliko Quarter, can be reached by a boat.
Off the beaten track:
- Abandoned hotel complex construction site - on the northern prong of the E.
If you travel by car, you can also have a day trip to nearby Thracian ruins in Strandzha or visit the border at Rezovo, the south-easternmost point of the European Union.
Do
[edit]- 1 Dive Center Arapya (Водолазен център "Арапя") (field office by Arapya Beach), [email protected]. The local SCUBA diving club. Website also in English and Russian.
Beaches
[edit]Most of the sand beaches in Tsarevo itself are... unexceptional, to put it mildly, as they tend to be rather small. You need to get further afield if you want something larger. North to south:
- 2 Arapya Beach (halfway between Tsarevo and Lozenets, about 2.5 km (1.6 mi) north of Tsarevo's centre; road runs parallel to Road 99, you need to get off 99 at Lozenets, or reach Tsarevo's centre and then backtrack). Improved beach by Cape Arapya, with hotels, bungalows, and camping sites.
- Northern Tsarevo Beach - small beach at the base of the north prong of the E, next to Camping Tsarevo. About 1 km (0.62 mi) north of the town centre.
- 3 Central Tsarevo Beach. Narrow beach at the base of the Cape Limnos peninsula, on the northern side.
- "Pontoon" Beach - small beach at the base of the same peninsula, but on the southern side, close to the Port. Its namesake is long gone.
- Vasiliko Beach - tiny beach at the base of the promontory with the church in the Vasiliko Quarter, about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) south of the town centre.
- 4 Southern Tsarevo Beach (Nestinarka Beach). Improved beach surrounded by hotels, on the eastern side of the Vasiliko Quarter, across the mouth of a stream, about 2 km (1.2 mi) south-east of the centre. ("Nestinarka" means "female fire dancer", after the Strandzha tradition of dancing on hot embers.)
Buy
[edit]There are several local supermarkets scattered across town. As usual, retail is concentrated mainly in the central area, as well as around the port. International chains are represented by a Lidl supermarket at the main entrance of the city, right by the bus station.
Eat
[edit]Drink
[edit]Sleep
[edit]Multiple hotels and guest houses in central Tsarevo and the outlying Arapya, Vasiliko, and Nestinarka. Camping sites around Arapya and north of central Tsarevo.
Connect
[edit]The area code for landline numbers is 590 (0590 if you are dialling from another area in the country).
Tsarevo is covered by the networks of all three mobile operators in Bulgaria, which also means that there's also at least 4G coverage. All three also have offices in town.
Tsarevo's post code is 8260. The post office is on the western side of the main square, next to the Municipality building.
Go next
[edit]- To the north: historic Sozopol and Burgas, the fourth largest city in Bulgaria, as well as a number of smaller resort settlements similar to Tsarevo, such as Primorsko and Kiten.
- Along the coast, to the south-east: more small resort settlements - Ahtopol, Sinemorets at the mouth of the Veleka (a protected natural area), and Rezovo at he border, the most south-eastern point of the continental EU.
- To the south-west: the woods and Thracian ruins of Strandzha, small Malko Tarnovo, and Turkey