View source for Sozopol

==History==
{{Expand German|topic=geo|Apollonia Pontica|date=April 2018}} 
===Bronze Age===
[[File:Sozopol TodorBozhinov 2009 (8).jpg|left|thumb|upright|A reconstructed gate part of Sozopol's ancient fortifications]]
Sozopol is one of the oldest towns on [[Bulgarian Thrace]]'s [[Black Sea]] coast. The first settlement on the site dates back to the [[Bronze Age]]. Undersea explorations in the region of the port reveal relics of dwellings, ceramic pottery, stone and bone tools from that era. Many anchors from the second and first millennium BC have been discovered in the town's bay, a proof of active shipping since ancient times.

===Iron Age===
The town was founded in the 7th century BC by [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] [[Greek colonisation|colonists]] from [[Miletus]] as [[Antheia (Thrace)|Antheia]] ({{langx|grc|Ἄνθεια}}).<ref name="d739">{{cite book | last=Isaac | first=B. | last2=Isaac | first2=P.C.B. | title=The Greek Settlements in Thrace Until the Macedonian Conquest | publisher=Brill | series=Classical Studies - Book Archive pre-2000 | year=2023 | isbn=978-90-04-67244-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Otj7EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA244 | access-date=2024-05-17 | page=244}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Minchev |first=Alexander |title=Ancient Theatres and Theatre Art of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and Thracian Hinterland |date=2019 |work=Ancient Theatre and Performance Culture Around the Black Sea |page=195 |editor-last=Braund |editor-first=David |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/ancient-theatre-and-performance-culture-around-the-black-sea/ancient-theatres-and-theatre-art-of-the-bulgarian-black-sea-coast-and-thracian-hinterland/FE58543D28375B1D2CF4E672909A872E |access-date=2024-09-25 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781316756621.010 |isbn=978-1-107-17059-9 |editor2-last=Hall |editor2-first=Edith |editor3-last=Wyles |editor3-first=Rosie|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The town established itself as a trade and naval centre in the following centuries and became one of the largest and richest Greek colonies in the Black Sea region. Its trade influence in the [[Thrace|Thracian territories]] was based on a treaty dating from the fifth century BC with the [[Odrysian kingdom]], the most powerful Thracian state. The town's name was changed to '''Apollonia''',<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus: Res gestae 22, 8, 43.</ref> on account of a temple dedicated to [[Apollo]] in the town. Apollonia became a legendary trading rival of another Greek colony, Mesembria, today's [[Nessebar]].

There were two temples of Apollo Iatros ({{langx|grc|Ἀπόλλων Ἰατρός}}), meaning healer in Greek. One was from the Late [[Archaic Greece]] and the other from the Early [[Classical Greece]].<ref>[http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2021/03/28/slab-with-marching-ancient-greek-warriors-discovered-at-apollo-temples-on-ancient-black-sea-island-in-bulgarias-sozopol/ Slab with marching ancient Greek warriors discovered at Apollo temples on ancient black sea island in Bulgaria’s Sozopol]</ref>

[[File:Frieze plaque hoplites Louvre CA1748.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|Terracotta plaque of ancient Greek hoplites (Louvre)]]
It kept strong political and trade relations with the cities of [[Ancient Greece]] – [[Miletus]], [[Athens]], [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]], [[Heraclea Pontica]] and the islands [[Rhodes]], [[Chios]], [[Lesbos Island|Lesbos]], etc.

The city managed to keep its independence during the wars of [[Philip II of Macedon]] (342–339 BC) and [[Alexander the Great]] (335 BC).

In 72 BC it was conquered and sacked by the Roman legions of [[Marcus Lucullus]], with the latter ordering its devastation.<ref name=":0" /> Lucullus transported the statue of Apollo to Rome and placed it in the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitol]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} Apollonia did not recover from the disaster, remaining a small town without any significant trade or cultural importance during the Roman period (1st to 3rd centuries AD).<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Apollonia Pontica tetradrachm.jpg|thumb|left|4th century BC Apollonia Pontica tetradrachm showing Apollo and an upright anchor]]

Apollonia Pontica started minting its own coins at the end of the 6th century BC, the anchor appearing on them as the symbol of the polis present on all coins minted since the sixth century BC, proof of the importance of its maritime trade. Coins from the fourth century BC bear the name Apollonia and the image of Apollo. The Roman imperial coins continue to the first half of the third century AD.

The ''[[Tabula Peutinger]]'' shows Apollonia; but the "[[Periplus Ponti Euxini]]", 85, and the ''[[Notitiæ episcopatuum]]'' have only the later name Sozopolis.

===Later periods===
In 1328 [[Cantacuzene]] (ed. Bonn, I, 326) speaks of it as a large and populous town. The islet on which it stood is now connected with the mainland by a narrow tongue of land. Ruled in turn by the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]], [[Second Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian]] and [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] Empires, Sozopol was assigned to the newly independent [[Principality of Bulgaria]] in the 19th century. A group of [[Armenians in Poland|Polish Armenians]], expelled by the Ottoman occupiers from [[Kamieniec Podolski]] in 1674, stayed in the city for a single winter before returning to Poland.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Agopsowicz|first=Monika|title=Ormianie kamienieccy w ostatniej ćwierci XVII wieku – próba rekonstrukcji spisu imiennego|magazine=Lehahayer. Czasopismo poświęcone dziejom Ormian polskich|language=pl|issue=6|year=2019|page=6}}</ref>

At the outbreak of the [[Greek War of Independence]] (1821) prominent local personalities like [[Dimitrios Varis]] were arrested and executed by the Ottoman authorities due to participation in the preparations of the struggle.<ref name=Svetla>{{cite web|last=Doncheva|first=Svetlana|title=Sozopol|url=http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=11606|publisher=Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος|access-date=26 October 2011}}</ref>

[[File:BASA-526K-1-1416-10-Sozopol.JPG|thumb|Sozopol in 1931]]
According to the [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] jurist and politician Vasil Mitakov (1881–1945), the town was almost entirely ethnically [[Greeks|Greek]] in the first decade of the 20th century, with the exception of a few dozen Bulgarians in the whole city who were either current or retired officials.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mitakov |first=Vasil |date=2001 |title=Дневник на правосъдния министър в правителствата на Георги Кьосеиванов и Богдан Филов |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wn1fL2MV2EAC |publisher=TRUD Publishers |pages=23–24 |language=bg|isbn=9545282932 }}</ref> After the anti-Greek pogroms in Bulgaria in 1906, Greek institutions in the city were closed and expropriated, including the churches, the library and the Greek school.<ref name="EHW">{{cite web|title=Artikel Sozopol|periodical=Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Black Sea|publisher=|url=http://blacksea.ehw.gr/forms/fLemma.aspx?lemmaId=11606|url-status=|format=|access-date=2012-06-06|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Svetlana Doncheva|date=|year=|language=en|pages=|quote=}}</ref> Almost all of its remaining [[Greeks in Bulgaria|Greek population]] [[Population transfer#Balkan population exchanges, 1913|was exchanged]] with Bulgarians from [[Eastern Thrace]] in the aftermath of the [[Balkan Wars]]. In the 1920s, the former Greek population then settled in [[Chalkidiki]] founding a town also named Sozopolis. In 2011 the remainings of an ancient Greek settlement, part of Apollonia, were excavated in the small island of St. Kirik (Saint Cerycus) off Sozopolis.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/09/12/1154450_archaeology-remains-of-ancient-greek-settlement-studied-on-island-off-sozopol |title=Archaeology remains of ancient Greek settlement studied on island off Sozopol|website=www.sofiaecho.com. |date=2011-09-12 |access-date=2012-01-10}}</ref>

Since 1984 Sozopol hosts the ''Apollonia'' art festivities every September, which include theatre shows, exhibitions, movies, musical and dance performances, book presentations and other cultural events.<ref name=Svetla/>

===Colossal statue of Apollo===
The city erected, in 5th century BC, a colossal statue of the god Apollo which was {{convert|13|m|ft|abbr=on}} tall. It was created by the sculptor [[Calamis (5th century BC)|Calamis]]. In 72 BC, the Romans under Marcus Lucullus captured the city and moved the sculpture to Rome on the [[Capitolium]].<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0099.tlg001.perseus-grc1:7.6.1 Strabo, Geography, 7.6.1]</ref><ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0551.tlg012.perseus-grc1:5.30 Appian, Illyrian Affairs, 5.30]</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] wrote that the statue cost 500 [[Attic talent|talent]]s.<ref>[https://latin.packhum.org/cit/PlinSen/Nat/34.39#2475 Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 34.18.1]</ref> It was lost during the [[Early Christianity|Early Christian period]].

The municipality of Sozopol launched a proposal in 2011 to rebuild the Colossus of Apollo. The proposal was revived in 2016 by the now deceased director of [[National Historical Museum, Bulgaria|Bulgaria’s National Historical Museum]] in [[Sofia]], [[Bozhidar Dimitrov]] (himself a native of Sozopol), with the intention of boosting tourism. The initiative was criticized by the [[Bulgarian Orthodox Church]], with the Metropolitan of [[Sliven]], Yoanikiy (1939-2024), arguing that restoring the statue would [[Hellenism (modern religion)|resurrect paganism]] in Sozopol. However, the project has not had any concrete progress materialized to date.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2016/01/05/bulgarias-sozopol-to-restore-ancient-statue-of-apollo-colossus-of-apollonia-pontica-not-unlike-greeces-plans-to-rebuild-colossus-of-rhodes/|title=Bulgaria’s Sozopol to Restore Ancient Statue of Apollo, ‘Colossus of Apollonia Pontica’, Not Unlike Greece’s Plans to Rebuild Colossus of Rhodes|website=archaeologyinbulgaria.com. |date=2016-01-16 |access-date=2026-04-06}}</ref>

===Archaeology===
Recent excavations have revealed parts of the ancient city including:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bhfieldschool.org/program/ancient-greek-excavtions-apollonia-pontica|title=Apollonia Pontica Archaeology Field School|website=www.bhfieldschool.org}}</ref>
* A temple complex (late 6th - early 5th century BC) presumably belonging to the famous temple of Apollo;
* An oval altar and a temple from the Hellenistic period (4th century BC);
* A tholos
* A copper foundry

In addition, archaeologists discovered a Greek [[bucranium]] amulet from the 5th century BC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2015/06/15/bulgarian-archaeologists-discover-ancient-greek-bucranium-amulet-in-black-sea-town-sozopol/|title=Bulgarian Archaeologists Discover Ancient Greek Bucranium Amulet in Black Sea Town Sozopol - Archaeology in Bulgaria|date=15 June 2015}}</ref>
A shrine of goddesses [[Demeter]] and [[Persephone]] from the 6th century BC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2016/09/20/archaeologist-discovers-ancient-greek-shrine-of-demeter-persephone-in-bulgarias-black-sea-resort-sozopol/|title=Archaeologist Discovers Ancient Greek Shrine of Demeter, Persephone in Bulgaria's Black Sea Resort Sozopol - Archaeology in Bulgaria|date=20 September 2016}}</ref>

Many objects from antiquity, included imported luxury ceramics, red-figure pottery, [[sgraffito]] pottery, pottery lamps, loom weights, spindle parts, coins, amphora seals, arrow coins, ceramic game pieces, adornments. One of the most impressive finds was an [[Attica]] [[red-figure pottery]] [[krater]], depicting the myth about [[Oedipus]] and the [[Sphinx]]. The krater is dated to the second quarter of the 5th century BC.
Excavation teams also discovered, a ceramic [[Askos (pottery vessel)|askos]] dated back to the second half of the 6th century BC, and was “made in the tradition of grey monochrome Aeolian pottery", a 6th-century BC home and other antiquity buildings, pottery and coins from both the antiquity period and the [[Middle Ages]]. Furthermore, have also identified the ruins of a medieval Christian chapel and have discovered several graves from a medieval necropolis that was used in two time periods – in the 11th century AD and then again in the 13th – 14th century AD. In a grave from the 11th century, the researchers have found two small crosses – one made of bronze and another one made of bone. They have also discovered three pits hewn into the rocks from the Classical Period of [[Ancient Greece]] containing materials from the 5th – 4th century BC.<ref>[http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2018/04/10/archaeologists-find-6th-century-bc-home-red-figure-pottery-krater-depicting-oedipus-and-the-sphinx-from-apollonia-pontica-in-bulgarias-sozopol/ ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND 6TH CENTURY BC HOME, RED-FIGURE POTTERY KRATER DEPICTING OEDIPUS AND THE SPHINX FROM APOLLONIA PONTICA IN BULGARIA’S SOZOPOL]</ref>

Later, they discovered an ancient metallurgical plant from the 6th century BC located at an antiquity copper mine. While the ancient copper mining near Sozopol has been well researched, for the first time archaeologists have discovered ceramic kilns for melting the copper ore right on the edge of the mine in what resembles an Antiquity metallurgy facility.<ref>[http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2018/11/02/2500-year-old-metallurgical-plant-at-ancient-copper-mine-discovered-near-bulgarias-black-sea-town-sozopol/ 2,500-YEAR-OLD ‘METALLURGICAL PLANT’ AT ANCIENT COPPER MINE DISCOVERED NEAR BULGARIA’S BLACK SEA TOWN SOZOPOL]</ref>

In 2021, archaeologists discovered a terracotta relief fragment, depicting marching Greek [[hoplites]]. The relief is a piece of a larger depiction, other parts of which were discovered in 2018 and 2019.<ref>[http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2021/03/28/slab-with-marching-ancient-greek-warriors-discovered-at-apollo-temples-on-ancient-black-sea-island-in-bulgarias-sozopol/ Slab with marching ancient Greek warriors discovered at Apollo temples on ancient black sea island in Bulgaria’s Sozopol]</ref>

===Ecclesiastical history===
[[File:Sozopol TodorBozhinov 2009 (22).jpg|left|thumb|220px|Traditional wooden architecture dominates the Old Town]]
Sozopol was Christianized early. Bishops are recorded as resident there from at least 431. At least eight bishops are known:<ref name="Le Quien">{{Oriens Christianus|volume=21|article=Ecclesia Sozopolis|at=cols. 1181–1184}}</ref> [[Athanasius]] (431), Peter (680), [[Euthymius]] (787) and Ignatius (869); Theodosius (1357), Joannicius, who became [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]] (1524), Philotheus (1564) and Joasaph (1721).

From being [[suffragan]] to the [[archbishopric]] of [[Adrianople]], it became in the 14th century a [[metropolitan see]] without suffragan sees; it perhaps temporarily disappeared with the Turkish conquest, but reappeared later; in 1808 the [[Greek Orthodox Church]] united it to the see of [[Agathopolis]]. The titular resided at Agathopolis.

[[Eubel]] (''Hierarchia catholica medii ævi'', I, 194) mentions four Latin bishops of the 14th century.
[[File:Sozopol-boats.jpg|thumb|Fishermen's boats in Sozopol]]

The bishopric is included in the [[Catholic Church]]'s list of [[titular see]]s as ''Sozopolis in Haemimonto'' and as a suffragan of ''Hadrianopolis in Haemimonto''.

Art flourished in the Christian era. The ancient icons and magnificent woodcarving in the [[iconostases]] are a remarkable accomplishment of the craftsmanship of these times. The architecture of the houses in the old town from the [[Bulgarian National Revival|Renaissance period]] makes it a unique place to visit today.

===The vampire of Sozopol===
During archaeological excavations in 2012 the remains of a skeleton pierced with an iron bar in the heart were found. It is believed that those are the remains of the local nobleman Krivich (or Krivitsa), ruler of the fortress of Sozopol (castrofilax). Believed to be a very cruel person, the locals made sure that he would not come back to haunt the city after his death by piercing him with an iron bar in the chest. There are more than 100 medieval funerals similar to that of Krivitsa found all over Bulgaria. The remains were pierced with either an iron or a wooden bar through the chest to make sure that the dead will not rise from the grave as a [[vampire]].