Thracian & RomanBlack Sea Coast

Mesembria, the Ancient City Beneath Nessebar

Mesembria is the ancient city whose remains lie in and around today’s Nessebar, on a small peninsula on the Black Sea coast at the northern end of the Gulf of Burgas. A Thracian settlement became a Greek colony, then a Roman city, and its walls and gate still stand in places. Visitors can read the layers of three thousand years of history in a single walk.

Its name ends in the Thracian word “bria”, meaning town, yet it became the only Dorian Greek colony on the whole Black Sea coast, where all the others were Ionian.

WhereThe Nessebar peninsula on the Black Sea coast, at the northern end of the Gulf of Burgas

TypeAncient Thracian, Greek and Roman city, later fortified by the Byzantines

Best forAncient history lovers, walkers and anyone interested in Black Sea colonies

Getting thereBy road to Nessebar on the Black Sea coast; the old town stands on the peninsula itself

The history of Mesembria

Long before the Greeks arrived, a Thracian settlement stood on the small peninsula that is now Nessebar. Its inhabitants began to fortify it around the eighth century BCE; on the north-western shore a stretch of wall with its gate has been uncovered, built of rubble stone and mud and still standing about two metres high. Ancient authors give the early name as Menebria or Melsembria, after a founder called Menas or Melsas, and explain the ending “-bria” as the Thracian word for “town”. Part of the oldest settlement was later swallowed by the sea.

Greek settlers followed around the turn of the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. Ancient and modern writers disagree on the exact date and on the mother cities, naming Megara, Byzantium and Chalcedon in different combinations. Mesembria became the only Dorian colony on the Black Sea coast, where all the others were Ionian, and one of the cities of the Greek Pentapolis on the Black Sea. With two harbours, one in the north and one in the south, it grew rich on trade. It minted its own bronze and silver coins from the fifth century BCE and gold coins from the third, with a helmet on the front and a wheel on the back as typical designs. In 425/4 BCE it joined the Delian League led by Athens, and its patron god was Apollo, whose temple is mentioned in inscriptions.

A fierce rivalry grew up with Apollonia (today’s Sozopol), a colony founded a century earlier. When Apollonia’s people founded Anchialos and began to trade in salt, war broke out; the men of Mesembria seized Anchialos and its salt pans, but Apollonia, allied with Istria, won the war and drove them back. Around the middle of the fourth century BCE the citizens built a wall around the whole peninsula, which Greeks and Romans repaired many times. In 72/71 BCE the legions of Marcus Lucullus conquered the city, yet it kept privileges such as the right to mint coins.

The agora had temples of Zeus and of Apollo, the city’s protector, and there were also shrines of Asclepius, Hecate, Isis and Dionysus. The Thracians who lived in the city honoured their own god, the Thracian Horseman. Inscriptions point to a theatre built in the late fourth or early third century BCE, whose remains have not yet been found, and there were large baths. With Christianity many pagan temples became churches; at the end of the fifth and beginning of the sixth century the basilica of St Sophia rose on the main square, and the Sea Basilica of the Holy Mother of God Eleusa in the north. In the mid-fifth century the Byzantines raised new walls in opus mixtum, alternating bands of stone and brick. The best-preserved section stands around the city gate on the western side, flanked by two rectangular towers and by half-round and round ones.

In 812 Khan Krum conquered Mesembria and made it part of the Bulgarian state. The walls were torn down and rebuilt in brick at the end of the ninth century, repaired again in the mid-eleventh, and reconstructed for the last time under Tsar Ivan Alexander. Until the end of the fourteenth century the city kept changing hands between Bulgarians and Byzantines; in 1366 crusaders under Amadeus VI of Savoy took it and handed it back to the Byzantines. Between 1961 and 1972 the archaeologist Lyuba Ognenova-Marinova led six underwater expeditions that helped to identify five periods of urban development on the peninsula.

Curious facts about Mesembria

Both Strabo and Stephanus of Byzantium explain the ending “-bria” as the Thracian word for “town”, but they name different founders, Menas and Melsas.
Mesembria was the only Dorian colony on the Black Sea coast; all the rest were Ionian.
Its coins often show a helmet on one side and a wheel, a sun symbol, on the other.
A theatre is known only from inscriptions; its remains have never been found.
The ancient city had two harbours, one in the north and one in the south of the peninsula, and part of the oldest settlement is now under the sea.
The ancient rival Apollonia won the war over the salt pans of Anchialos, helped by an alliance with Istria.

Tours near Mesembria

Experiences in the area that you can book online with Viator:

Transfer services

★ 4.5 (728 reviews) · 1 h

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4-hour Boat Trip with Fishing, Lunch and Unlimited Drinks in Nessebar

★ 4.5 (129 reviews) · 4 h

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VIP Catamaran 4 hour Activity with Snorkeling in Bulgaria

★ 4.6 (118 reviews) · 5 h

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Special History And Wine Tour including Wine Tasting

★ 4.9 (72 reviews) · 1.5 h

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Visiting ancient Mesembria: what to expect

The ancient city lies under the old town of Nessebar, so a walk along the peninsula takes in walls, gate and churches in one go.
Look for the Thracian-period wall with its gate on the north-western shore and the early Byzantine walls around the western city gate.
Hellenistic remains include the acropolis, the temple of Apollo and the agora, according to the sources.
The Nessebar Archaeological Museum is listed among the landmarks; check the current opening hours before you go.
Churches such as St Sophia, the Eleusa basilica and Christ Pantocrator belong to later layers of the same city.

Opening hours, access and conditions can change. Check before you go.

Map: where Mesembria is

Questions

What was Mesembria?

Mesembria was an important ancient city on the Black Sea coast, founded on the site of a Thracian settlement and colonised by Greeks. Today it lies under Nessebar.

Where is ancient Mesembria and how do you get there?

It lies on the Nessebar peninsula on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, at the northern end of the Gulf of Burgas, reached by road to Nessebar.

Who founded Mesembria?

Sources disagree. Settlers from Megara, Byzantium and Chalcedon are named in different combinations, and the colony was built on an older Thracian town.

How old is Mesembria?

The Thracians fortified the settlement around the eighth century BCE, and the Greek colony dates from around 510 BCE according to the Polish source, though dates differ.

What can you see of ancient Mesembria today?

Remains of the acropolis, temple of Apollo and agora, Thracian and Byzantine walls, and a number of early churches, with finds in the Nessebar Archaeological Museum.

Was Mesembria ever Bulgarian?

Yes. Khan Krum conquered it in 812, and during the Middle Ages it passed repeatedly between Bulgarians and Byzantines until the end of the fourteenth century.