St. Kliment Ohridski Base (, ) is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

base on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetland Islands, South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands north of the ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...

. The base, originally known as ''Sofia University Refuge'' or ''Hemus Base'', was named in 1993 for medieval Bulgarian scholar St. Clement of Ohrid (840–916). The name is often shortened by non-Bulgarians to Ohridski Base, and sometimes misspelled as ''Ohridiski''.

Location

The base is located at an elevation of 12 to 15 m on Bulgarian Beach, 130 m inland from the shore of Emona Anchorage, between Pesyakov Hill and Sinemorets Hill, overlooking the Grand Lagoon. The base area is crossed by the melt-water Rezovski Creek in the summer, providing a water supply.

History

Following an unsuccessful landing attempt at Cape Vostok on the northwestern extremity of

Alexander Island Alexander Island, which is also known as Alexander I Island, Alexander I Land, Alexander Land, Alexander I Archipelago, and Zemlja Alexandra I, is the largest island of Antarctica. It lies in the Bellingshausen Sea west of Palmer Land, Antarcti ...

, two prefabricated huts—the Lame Dog Hut and Russian Hut—were assembled on Livingston Island between 26 and 28 April 1988 by a four-member Bulgarian party supported logistically by the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Research Ship '' Mikhail Somov'' under Captain Feliks Pesyakov. The facilities were later refurbished and inaugurated as a permanent base on 11 December 1993.L. Ivanov
General Geography and History of Livingston Island.
In: ''Bulgarian Antarctic Research: A Synthesis''. Eds. C. Pimpirev and N. Chipev. Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, 2015. pp. 17–28. An expansion programme at St. Kliment Ohridski including the construction of a new multi-purpose building was carried out between 1996 and 1998. The St. Ivan Rilski Chapel built in 2003 is the first

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

edifice in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

and the southernmost Eastern Orthodox building of worship in the world. A post office of the Bulgarian Posts has been in operation at St. Kliment Ohridski since 1994/1995. The base is visited regularly by representatives of the institutions responsible for Bulgaria's activities in Antarctica, including President Georgi Parvanov of Bulgaria in January 2005.

Description

Personnel and cargo from supply ships are offloaded by Zodiac boats at the southwestern extremity of the beach, 300 m away from the main base facilities. A designated helipad site is located on the northern side of the Grand Lagoon. St. Kliment Ohridski enjoys the exceptional advantage of several convenient overland routes leading from Bulgarian Beach to a variety of internal and coastal areas of Livingston Island including the

Balkan Snowfield Balkan Snowfield (Plato Balkan \'pla-to bal-'kan\) is an ice-covered plateau of elevation ranging from in eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, situated south of lower Perunika Glacier, northwest of Huntress Glacier ...

, Burdick Ridge and

Pliska Ridge Pliska Ridge (, ) is a three-peaked ridge rising to in eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Its central and highest summit, ''Pliska Peak'', is located east-northeast of Willan Nunatak (), southeast of Burd ...

Tangra Mountains Tangra Mountains (in Bulgarian ''Тангра планина'', 'Tangra planina' \'tan-gra pla-ni-'na\) () form the principal mountain range of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The range had been nameless until ...

and the glaciers Perunika, Huntress, Huron and Kaliakra, and Saedinenie Snowfield. The Spanish base

Juan Carlos I Juan Carlos I (; Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 November 1975 until Abdication of Juan Carlos I, his abdic ...

is situated 2.7 km to the south-southwest, and is reached either by sea or by a 5.5 km route, while the central location of Camp Academia site is 11 km due east in the Tangra Mountains. The base is used by scientists from Bulgaria and other nations for research in the field of

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

glaciology Glaciology (; ) is the scientific study of glaciers, or, more generally, ice and natural phenomena that involve ice. Glaciology is an interdisciplinary Earth science that integrates geophysics, geology, physical geography, geomorphology, clim ...

topography Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the landforms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

and geographic information. St. Kliment Ohridski is visited by

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s from Hannah Point, one of the most popular

tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity on ...

destinations in Antarctica situated but 12 km to the west. Lame Dog Hut, the 1988 principal building of the base (the oldest on the island since the renovation of the Spanish base started in 2009) hosts the Livingston Island Museum, a branch of the National Museum of History in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

since October 2012. The hut and its associated artefacts are considered part of the cultural and historic heritage of the island and Antarctica, designated a Historic Site or Monument of Antarctica.ATCM Measure V (2015). Annex: Revised List of Historic Sites and Monuments.
ATCM Sofia, 1–10 June 2015. pp. 21–42.Proposal to add the Lame Dog Hut at the Bulgarian base St. Kliment Ohridski on Livingston Island to the List of Historic Sites and Monuments.
Working Paper CEP WP017. ATCM Sofia, 1–10 June 2015. Under a joint Bulgarian-Mongolian project, a Monument to the

Cyrillic Script The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...

was erected on Pesyakov Hill in March 2018.B. Lazarov
The Three Monuments of the Cyrillic Alphabet.
EUSCOOP ''News from Bulgaria'', 13 March 2018

Maps

Isla Livingston: Península Hurd.
Mapa topográfico de escala 1:25 000. Madrid: Servicio Geográfico del Ejército, 1991. * L.L. Ivanov. St. Kliment Ohridski Base, Livingston Island. Scale 1:1000 topographic map. Sofia: Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, 1996. (The first Bulgarian Antarctic topographic map, in Bulgarian) * L.L. Ivanov et al. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands (from English Strait to Morton Strait, with illustrations and ice-cover distribution). Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Sofia: Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, 2005. * L.L. Ivanov
Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands
Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2009.
Bulgarian Base (Sheet 1 and Sheet 2): Antarctica, South Shetland Islands, Livingston Island.
Scale 1:2000 topographic map. Sofia: Military Geographic Service, 2016. (in Bulgarian, map images on slides 6 and 7 of the linked report)
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).
Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Since 1993, regularly upgraded and updated. * L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Smith Island. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2017.

Gallery

File:St.-Kliment-Ohridski-Base-2003.JPG, Bulgarian base in 2003 File:Ohridski-Livingston.jpg, Main Building with Friesland Ridge in the background File:Rilski.jpg, The old St. Ivan Rilski Chapel File:Cyrillic monument.jpg, Cyrillic Script Monument File:Livingston-Island-Map-2010-15.png, Topographic map of Livingston Island with the bases and base camps on the island File:Ohridski-Map.PNG, Base area and facilities in 1996 File:Bulgarian-Base-Map-EN.PNG, Base area and facilities in 2014

References

Bibliography

* J. Stewart

Jefferson, N.C. and London: McFarland, 2011. 1771 pp. * L. Ivanov and N. Ivanova. St. Kliment Ohridski base. In
''The World of Antarctica''.
Generis Publishing, 2022. pp. 158–162. {{Bulgarian-named Antarctic place Buildings and structures completed in 1988 Bulgaria and the Antarctic Geography of Livingston Island Outposts of the South Shetland Islands South Shetland Islands Sofia University 1988 establishments in Antarctica