Anastasia Island

Anastasia Island - St. Anastasia Island is located in the Burgas Bay in the Black Sea. It is built of volcanic rocks, 12 meters high, in places 17, and its area is nearly 9 acres. Between 1945 and 1990 it was named Bolshevik. The island is shrouded in mystery and hundreds of legends and stories are told about it.

One of the most famous legends is associated with pirates who invaded the island at a time when there was a monastery. The monks locked themselves in the church and prayed to St. Anastasia to help them and save them from the raids. She heard their prayers and sent a terrible storm that tore the pirate ship apart. To this day, the wreckage of the ship is petrified in a rock that can be seen by every visitor to the island. The cause of the pirate raids is believed to be a golden treasure buried on the island, guarded by the ghost of a dead pirate.

According to another story, the Vikings used to reach the island. There is no documented information about this, but there are traces of two fires.

An incident from years ago speaks of the strange forces of the place, when a drunken captain of a tug miraculously survived after falling from a 25-meter sheer rock.

St. Anastasia has three rock phenomena known as the Mushroom, the Dragon and the Petrified Pirate Ship. Some believe that there are two dungeons on the Island, the entrance to which is very well disguised and no one can penetrate their secrets. So far, however, they have not been found.

St. Anastasia is the only Bulgarian island with a church - "Assumption", which was part of a monastery that once existed there. The earliest evidence of the existence of the monastery is from the 15th century. The frescoes in the church are believed to date from the 14th century.The church cloister lasted until 1923, when the monastery was turned into a prison where 132 communists and farmers were exiled.The difficult maintenance of the island prison forced the government to transfer the prisoners in the Burgas police station, and some of them were released.

After the attack on Sofia's Sveta Nedelya Church in April 1925, the island was turned into a prison again. On July 29, 43 of the detainees managed to escape in two rowing boats to Cape Chukalya, from where they hid in the Strandzha Mountains. In their memory, one of the wings of the monastery was turned into a museum. Later it was also used as a hotel.

In the 60's and 80's the island became a favorite place of the creative bohemian of Burgas. His "governor" for many years called the great Burgas poet Hristo Fotev, who spent most of his time there.

The island has a restaurant, a small hotel, a church and a pier.