Rimski termi

Worth a detour

In the centre of Obzor, sixty-odd kilometres north of Burgas, are the excavated remains of Roman baths, left open in a public space with no gate and no ticket. They take twenty minutes. Obzor is not otherwise a place anyone recommends, but if you are driving the coast road north this is a legitimate reason to stop, and the town's clock tower is a two-minute walk away.

Story

Background

Obzor stands on the site of ancient Heliopolis and later Templum Iovis, on the coastal road between Mesembria and Odessos, and Roman material turns up under the town regularly. The baths are the one thing that has been excavated and left visible: walls, hypocaust pillars and drains at the level the Romans built them, set into the fabric of a modern resort town.

There is no interpretation on the site in any language, no fence and nobody collecting money, which is either refreshing or negligent depending on your view. What it does give you is scale: this was a substantial provincial settlement on a road that mattered, at a point where the coastal route had to climb round the end of the Balkan range.

Obzor itself is a mid-range resort of apartment blocks, with a long beach and the usual apparatus, and the reasons to be there are the beach and the road. Immediately south the coast runs into the undeveloped stretch at Irakli and the Emine headland; immediately north is Byala, with its own small antique complex and the white cliffs. The clock tower in Obzor is a short walk from the baths. Taken together those make a reasonable two-hour stop on the drive between Burgas and Varna — which is more than the coast north of Nesebar usually offers.