Burgas

Burgas stands at the western end of a broad Black Sea bay, among coastal lakes and wetlands. Its name is associated with an old tower, called pyrgos in Greek and burgus in Latin. The sea and the neighbouring lakes offered fishing grounds, while the sheltered bay gave the growing settlement a harbour for the trade of the surrounding country.

Under Ottoman rule Burgas belonged to the district of Aytos for much of its early history. Trade and grain exports helped the town grow in the seventeenth century, and its harbour also served ships carrying iron towards Constantinople. In 1786 the Austrian traveller Wenzel von Brognard described it as a market town of some eleven to twelve hundred houses. During the Russo-Ottoman War, Russian troops occupied Burgas in 1829; many Bulgarians left the region after the war.