Bulgaria’s Naval Museum in Black Sea City Varna Sees 10% More Visitors in 2015 after Reopening of Drazki Museum Ship
The Drazki torpedo boat, the most famous vessel of the Bulgarian Navy because of its naval victory against the Ottoman Navy in 1912, has been reopened for visitors as a museum ship on static display since August 2015. Photo: Bulgaria’s Naval Museum Facebook Page
Bulgaria’s Naval Museum in the Black Sea city of Varna has seen a 10% increase in the number of its visitors in 2015, its director Mariana Krasteva has announced.
Krasteva has told Radio Focus Varna that at the beginning of 2015, the management of the Naval Museum did not expect the growth in tourist numbers because of the relatively difficult year for Bulgaria’s Black Sea resorts.
She has added that a precise figure of the total number of visitors that the Naval Museum in Varna has seen in 2015 will be provided after December 31.
In her words, the increase in tourist numbers is not limited to the Naval Museum but is part of a trend in all cultural sites in Varna.
Krasteva did remind, however, that in August 2015, the Naval Museum reopened for visitors the Drazki (“Intrepid”) ship museum – Bulgaria’s most famous naval vessel, a torpedo boat from the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, which is on static display in Varna’s Sea Garden.
The Drazki had been temporarily closed for visitors for repair works of the foundation on which it is exhibited. The repairs were funded by Bulgaria’s National Museum of Military History in Sofia.
It was one of a total of six torpedo boats built for the Tsardom of Bulgaria by the French producer Schneider et Cie in Chalon-sur-Saone in 1904-1907, which became part of the Bulgarian Navy in 1908.
The Drazki and its crew made history on November 20, 1912, during the First Balkan War in which Bulgaria fought the Ottoman Empire, by torpedoing the Turkish cruiser Hamidiye, thus rescuing the garrison and the city of Varna from bombardment by the Ottoman Navy.
The Drazki and the other five Bulgarian torpedo boats also saw active service in World War I, and carried out coast patrols in World War II.
The torpedo boat was made into a museum in 1957 when it turned 50, and has been part of the Naval Museum in Varna ever since.
The Naval Museum Director has also announced that the institution has recently received donations such as uniforms of Bulgarian naval and military police officers, photos from different periods of the country’s naval history, models of naval and commercial vessels, and artifacts from Danube river ships.
The dawn of Varna‘s history dates back to the dawn of human civilization, the Varna Chalcolithic Necropolis being especially well known with the discovery of the world’s oldest find of gold artifacts dating back to the 5th millenium BC.
***
Ancient Odessos is considered the precursor of the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna. It was founded by Miletian Greek colonists at the end of 7th century BC, the earliest Greek archaeological material dating back to 600-575 BC.
However, the Greek colony was established within an earlier Ancient Thracian settlement, and the name Odessos had existed before the arrival of the Miletian Greeks and might have been of Carian origin. Odessos as the Roman city of Odessus became part of the Roman Empire in 15 AD when it was incorporated in the Roman province Moesia. Roman Odessos is especially known today for its well preserved public baths, or thermae, the largest Roman single structure remains in Bulgaria, and the fourth largest Roman public baths known in Europe.
The First Bulgarian Empire (680-1018 AD) conquered Odessos (Varna) from Rome‘s successor, the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium, in the late 7th century. It is even believed that the peace treaty in which the Byzantine Empire recognized the ceding of its northern territories along the Danube to Bulgaria was signed in Odessos.
The wall (rampart) that the first ruler of Danube Bulgaria, Khan (or kanas) Asparuh built at the time as a defense against future Byzantine incursions is still standing. Numerous Ancient Bulgar settlements around Varna have been excavated, and the First Bulgarian Empire had its first two capitals Pliska (681-893 AD) and Veliki (Great) Preslav (893-970 AD) just 70-80 km to the west of Varna.
It is suggested that the name of Varna itself is of Bulgar origin. In the Middle Ages, as a coastal city, Varna changed hands between Bulgaria and Byzantium several times. It was reconquered for the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396 AD) by Tsar Kaloyan (r. 1197-1207 AD) in 1201 AD.
