The Bridge, Burgas

Worth a detour

Ask anyone in Burgas what to see and they will send you here before they mention a museum. It is a pier, nearly three hundred metres of it, running from the middle of the Sea Garden straight out into the bay, and on a clear evening you can see St Anastasia island from the end. It costs nothing, it takes twenty minutes, and it is the one view of the city that makes sense of it.

Story

Background

A bridge was built here in 1936, next to the new municipal sea baths: a metal frame with a timber deck, joined to the casino and the park's panoramic walk by a stone stair. It came down in the 1980s and was replaced by the present solid concrete pier, which is less elegant and survives the winter better.

Two dates matter to the town. On 6 January, Epiphany, the bishop throws a cross into the water and swimmers go in after it in a January sea. On 6 December, St Nicholas's day, wreaths go into the water for sailors and fishermen who did not come back. Neither is staged for visitors, and both are worth seeing if you happen to be here.

The rest of the year it is simply the promenade. People fish from it, photograph from it, and jump off it — the last of which the municipality has tried to stop with warning signs in four languages and fines of up to €500, because the bottom holds rocks and the remains of old ironwork. Rescue rings with long lines are spaced along the deck for a reason. Go out at dusk when the light is behind the town, and take a windproof: there is no shelter on it at all.