Journey Bulgaria Guide | Nesebar - An ancient port - Nesebar ...
A few steps to the east lies the ruined Old Metropolitan Church, dominating a plaza filled with pavement cafes, street traders and hawkers. Bar Burgas, Mena 10, is one of the better places to enjoy an evening drink. Completed during the fourteenth-century reign of Tsar Aleksandar, its blind niches, turquoise ceramic inlays and red-brick motifs are characteristic of latter-day Byzantine architecture, although the frieze of swastikas � a symbol of the sun and continual change � is unusual. Diagonally opposite is the now ruined Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, patterned not unlike the Pantokrator. Immediately beyond this is the first of Nesebar�s churches, the Church of Christ the Pantokrator. Just downhill from here there�s the ruined Church of St John Aliturgetos, standing in splendid isolation beside the shore and representing the zenith of Byzantine architecture in Bulgaria. Mitropolitska towards the Church of Sveti Spas (Summer only: Mon�Fri 9 am�1.30 pm & 2�5.30 pm, Sat & Sun 9.30 am�1.30 pm; $1), outwardly unremarkable but filled with seventeenth-century frescoes. Slightly downhill on ul Mitropolitska, St John the Baptist (now an art gallery) also has a cruciform plan, but its undressed stone exterior dates it as a tenth- or eleventh-century building.Overhung by half-timbered houses carved with sun-signs, fish and other symbols,str. The church itself dates back to the fifth or sixth century, and it was here that bishops officiated during the city�s heyday. The old town is crammed with restaurants; the sea-facing Neptun, towards the far end of town, is reasonably reliable, while the Plakamo, just downhill from the New Metropolitan Church at Ivan Aleksandar 8, is family-run and relatively sheltered. Thereafter ownership alternated between Bulgaria and Byzantium until the Ottomans captured it in 1453. You should verify critical information (like visas, health and safety, customs and transportation) with the relevant authorities before you travel.