Historical Museum of Pomorie

Worth a detour

A well-kept small-town museum in a building with its own story: a Greek girls' school put up between 1885 and 1895 on the bequest of a local woman, burned in 1906 and restored in 1918. Five sections cover archaeology, ethnography, the town's Christian heritage and its modern history. It is about €2.50, or €10 for a ticket to all five of the museum's sites.

Story

Background

The building went up between 1885 and 1895, paid for out of the estate of Fotini Kariandy, as a school for the Greek girls of Anchialos. The town was then largely Greek-speaking, and that ended abruptly in 1906 when it burned in the anti-Greek violence of that summer. The school burned with it, was restored in 1918, and taught until 1960. It was listed as a cultural monument in 1979, and the museum opened in it on 31 July 1997.

The expositions run archaeology, ethnography, the Christian heritage of the town, and modern history, with a temporary gallery. The Christian section is the distinctive one, because Anchialos was a metropolitan see and the material reflects it.

The museum is the parent of four other sites in and around Pomorie and sells a combined ticket for all five: the salt museum and the lake visitor centre on the lagoon shore, the ancient domed tomb on the Burgas road, and the fisheries and maritime centre in the converted water tower in the old town, which holds underwater finds from the bay, ship models, fishing gear and a reconstruction of night fishing with the long alaman nets. Five sites for about €10 is the sensible purchase; buying them one by one costs half as much again. Note the winter regime closes the main museum on Sundays.