Park Kapkata

Worth a detour

A small municipal park on the Pomorie peninsula with trees, benches and paths, sitting between the old town and the beach. It is not a destination and nobody should make a journey for it, but in a town where the streets are narrow and the peninsula is exposed on three sides, twenty minutes of shade in the middle of the afternoon has a value of its own.

Story

Background

Pomorie is built on a rock spit three and a half kilometres long, with sea to the south, east and north-east and the salt lagoon behind. There is very little soil and almost no natural tree cover, which is why the town's parks were planted and are looked after.

Kapkata sits on the northern side of the peninsula, within a few minutes of both the beach and the old houses. What it offers is what a Bulgarian town park offers: shade, benches, a playground, a café at the edge, and in the evening the local promenade. In a resort strip where almost every square metre near the water is either a sunbed concession or a restaurant terrace, free places to sit are worth knowing about.

The practical value is as a link. Coming off the beach in the middle of a July afternoon with the sand at its hottest, this is the shaded route back towards the old town, the museum and the water tower. Combine it with the Nativity church and the reserve of old houses and you have a reasonable hour out of the sun. Nothing in it is ticketed, nothing in it closes, and the open-air summer cinema Pomorie runs on the rock above the beach is nearby.