site.btaUPDATED Saint Anastasia Island Celebrates 10th Anniversary as Tourist Destination

The Saint Anastasia Island - Bulgaria's third largest and only inhabited Black Sea island, is celebrating ten years since becoming a tourist destination with a four-day programme of concerts, exhibitions, a swimming marathon, a poetry reading and many more events from August 15 to 18.

Although the island's patron saint is honoured on December 22, the day of the island is celebrated on the Feast Day of the Dormition of the Theotokos, which is also the name of a small stone church built in 1772 as part of the St Anastasia Pharmakolytria (Healer) Monastery, Bulgaria's only partially surviving insular cloister. The earliest information about the monastery dates from the 15th century. It was torched and attacked by pirates on a number of occasions over the years.

The first tourists were welcomed in the summer of 2014, after ownership was transferred to Burgas Municipality and the island was restored under Operational Programme Regional Development 2007-2013. Visitors can tour a seafood restaurant, a bakery with region-specific food products, a restored church from the 14th century, a guest house, a lighthouse, a multimedia museum, and an open stage. The island is open all the year round, but prior request for a visit is needed outside the summer season. It can be reached by one of two catamarans, Anastasia or Burgas. Advance booking for one of five voyages daily during the high season is required.

Saint Anastasia occupies 0.9 ha and is located 6.5 km southeast of Burgas at the centre of Burgas Bay, between Cape Chukalya and Cape Atia. The earliest human presence on the island is evidenced by abundant ceramic material dating from the 4th-6th centuries, which was discovered during underwater explorations carried out in 1973. The island was first charted on a Black Sea map by Dutch cartographer Nicolaes Witsen in the 1690s.

In the 18th century the island was turned into a strategic base for Turkish troops and artillery, stationed there as a safeguard against Russian maritime incursions. Iron cannon found in the adjoining water area bear witness to this period.

After Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman rule in 1879, the island monastery owned and operated a small flotilla of fishing and transport boats, a small shipyard and a wind mill that the monks used for their upkeep.

Following continuous protests, the Patriarchate of Constantinople ceded the St Anastasia Monastery to the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1905.

The monastery existed until 1923, when the compound was converted into a prison. One hundred and thirty-two Communists and Agrarians were confined there, but since the insular penitentiary proved difficult to maintain, some of the names were transferred to the Burgas Police Precinct and others were released. After a Communist bombing attack at Sofia's St Nedelya Church in April 1925, the prison was reopened. Forty-three prisoners escaped by two rowing boats on July 29, 1925 and hid in Mt Strandzha on the mainland. To commemorate this event, the island was named Bolshevik between 1945 and 1991 and a museum display opened in one of the monastery wings in the 1960s. The larger building was turned into a modest hotel.

Traditionally, Saint Anastasia's lighthouse is open to the public on August 16 on an initiative shared by the Varna Hydrographic Service and the Bulgarian Navy. The lighthouse was originally built by a French company in 1889, when it was installed on an iron pole at 40 m above sea level. In fair weather its light could be seen at a distance of 10 miles. A new lighthouse went under construction in the northern part of the island in 1912. It was first lit one hundred year ago, on June 13, 1914, and continues to serve shipping in the area.

In 1975, power supply and running water were installed on the island. A large museum exhibit was opened, partly telling about the old history of Saint Anastasia and partly glorifying the heroes of 1925.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, the place became a favourite haunt for Burgas intellectuals. Poet Hristo Fotev spent a large part of his time there, earning the nickname of "governor of Bolshevik".

In 2001, Saint Anastasia was designated a cultural and historical landmark.

Two Bulgarian films were shot on the island: Rangel Valchanov's On the Small Island (1958) and Kamen Kalev's The Island, starring Laetitia Casta (2010).

Every summer the island hosts an eventful programme of concerts and performances. It is also hired for private celebrations, mostly weddings, baptisms, corporate events, as well as parties and festivals. About 35,000 tourists visited Saint Anastasia in 2023 alone.