Varna

Varna occupies a sheltered bay on the western Black Sea, on the site of the ancient Greek city of Odessos. Under Roman rule the port served Moesia, and its great baths bore witness to the wealth of the city. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Varna was visited by Genoese, Venetian and Ragusan merchants, whose ships connected the Bulgarian coast with the wider Black Sea trade.

On 10 November 1444, an army led by King Władysław of Poland and Hungary and the commander John Hunyadi met Sultan Murad II's Ottoman forces near Varna. The crusaders were defeated and the young king was killed. The battle ended a campaign intended to challenge Ottoman power in the Balkans, leaving the port within the empire's Black Sea world.