Current Time in Varna, Bulgaria

Varna stands on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Bulgaria, at the point where a wide bay opens between wooded hills and a long lake connected to the sea by a canal. The city climbs gently from the harbour towards the plateau behind, and its centre is compact, walkable and shaded by plane trees. Beaches run north from the port towards the resorts of Golden Sands and Saint Constantine.

With around three hundred and thirty thousand residents, Varna is the third largest city in Bulgaria and is universally described as the country's maritime capital. It is home to the largest Bulgarian seaport, to shipbuilding and ship repair yards, to the naval forces and their academy, and increasingly to software companies, while in summer it becomes the hub of the entire Black Sea holiday coast.

Greek colonists from Miletus founded the city as Odessos in the sixth century before Christ, and it prospered under Hellenistic and Roman rule. Long before that, however, the area produced something extraordinary: excavations of a necropolis on the edge of the city uncovered graves from the fifth millennium before Christ containing worked gold objects that are the oldest processed gold ever found anywhere in the world. Varna later became Bulgarian, Byzantine and eventually Ottoman. In 1444 a crusading army led by the young Polish and Hungarian king Władysław, remembered ever since as Warneńczyk, was defeated outside the walls, and the king died in the battle. A memorial park and mausoleum on the site commemorate him.

The Archaeological Museum, which displays the prehistoric gold treasure, is the essential visit. The Roman Thermae, among the largest bath complexes surviving in Europe, occupy a whole block near the old harbour. The domed Cathedral of the Assumption dominates the main square, and the Sea Garden, an enormous seaside park laid out in the nineteenth century, contains a dolphinarium, an aquarium, a planetarium, a naval museum and endless shaded paths. Just outside the city lie the rock-cut Aladzha Monastery and the strange natural stone columns of the Pobiti Kamani.

Culture runs deep here. The Varna Summer festival, first held in 1926, is the oldest in Bulgaria, and the International Ballet Competition founded in 1964 is one of the most prestigious in the world, launching many celebrated careers. The city has an opera house, a puppet theatre and a busy calendar of film and jazz events, while the pedestrian streets fill with cafés and street musicians from spring to autumn.

Varna Airport connects the city to much of Europe, motorways and trains link it to Sofia and Burgas, and trolleybuses and buses serve local routes. Several universities operate here, including the Technical University, the Medical University, the Naval Academy and the University of Economics, giving the city a substantial student population.

Varna combines seven thousand years of history, a beautiful seafront and a lively cultural calendar, making it the natural centre of the Bulgarian Black Sea.