Durankulak

Durankulak ( ) is a village in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Shabla Municipality, Dobrich Province. Located in the historical region of Southern Dobruja, Durankulak is the north-easternmost inhabited place in Bulgaria and the northernmost village of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, although the village itself is slightly inland. Durankulak lies north of the town of Shabla, with the only places to the north along the coast being the formerly exclusively Czechoslovak camping site Kosmos and the Kartalburun and Sivriburun headlands. Durankulak is also the name of the nearby border checkpoint on the Bulgarian-Romanian border; just north of the border is the Romanian seaside resort Vama Veche.

The village lies on an elevation of 26 metres above mean sea level, on the E87 littoral road, 6 kilometres south of the Romanian border. Durankulak lies 100 km from Varna, 68 km from Dobrich and 60 km from Constanţa.

The coastal Lake Durankulak is located to the southeast and the Durankulak Swamp or Eagles' Swamp (Орлово блато, ''Orlovo blato'') is to the northeast, towards the Black Sea the two are connected by an artificial but overgrown marshy canal. To the northeast of the village is also the Anna Maria beach that continues up to Sivriburun and the border. There is another beach south of the village which extends to Krapets.

The village has a cultural centre ('' chitalishte'') with a big hall and a small hall, a museum of local history, a small art gallery and a library. There are several monuments dedicated to the peasant revolt of 1900 built in the 1970s and 1980s. The local Bulgarian Orthodox church was built in 1942.

History

The Durankulak settlement commenced on a small island approximately 7000 BC and lasted for a thousand years. ''Иван Вайсов. Дуранкулак-Големия остров'' The first inhabitants were the Hamangia culture, dated from the middle of the 6th millennium to the middle of 5th millennium BC, and were the first manifestation of the Neolithic life in Dobruzha. Hamangia people were small-scale cultivators and plant collectors who built houses made pottery and herded and hunted animals. Around 4700/4600 BC stone architecture was already in general use and became a characteristic phenomenon that was unique in Europe. The settlement in Durankulak was a well-organized aggregation of buildings of substantial size with several rooms. They were coherently laid out according to a plan that was repeated over successive generations of house reconstructions. Buildings were rectilinear and large, narrow paths separated individual houses, which stood alone or abutted by other buildings. The structures were robust and made of large wooden posts sunk into foundation trenches and joined with wooden planks or branches covered with mud or clay. In all building horizons, except for the earliest ones, buildings were internally divided into separate, mainly rectilinear, rooms.
Stone structures and bases from the houses are well preserved and there is a cave and some cisterns to see. Durankulak is one of the few monuments left from early farming societies in Europe and tells us about daily life.
The excavation in Durankulak took part between 1974 and 1997 when 1204 prehistoric burials were carefully recorded and the remains of 21 houses were found.

The oldest attested village in the area was the small village of ''Kartalii'' to the northeast of modern Durankulak. It was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century and had around 200–300 residents, but its location meant the danger of malaria made it unsuitable for living in the summer. Some of the population of Kartalii founded Durankulak, which used to be an Ottoman farm inhabited by a few Bulgarians. The bulk of Durankulak's residents were, however, settlers from the eastern Balkan Mountains who arrived in the early 19th century. After the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, it became part of the Principality of Bulgaria and, as the largest village in the region, was a municipal centre of 12 villages. On 1 June 1900, the village was the centre of an peasant revolt against the government of Todor Ivanchov and as a result, 90 people were killed by the national cavalry.

Between 1913 and 1940, it was under Romanian rule along with all of Southern Dobruja and was renamed to ''Răcari'', but it was returned to Bulgaria according to the Treaty of Craiova. According to the terms of that treaty, the native Bulgarian population of Northern Dobruja was exchanged with the Romanian and Aromanian colonists sent in the south during the period of Romanian rule. As a result, some Northern Dobrujan Bulgarian refugees (преселци, ''preseltsi'') settled in Durankulak. Most of them were from Nuntaşi not far from the Danube Delta and today form around half of the village's population. From its return to Bulgaria to 1963, the village was known as ''Blatnitsa'' (Блатница, "marshy place"), but its historic name was reinstated to commemorate the revolt of 1900. The name is of ancient origin meaning the place where the taurus knocked with his fist (hoof) and gushed water surrounded the two isles in the lake. It's like a legend of the chosen land forever giving life and prosperity. The barelefs and golden
ornamentations of tauruses were found in Thracian tombs, Romans burial barelefs, and in Varna Necropolis

Lake Durankulak

The freshwater Lake Durankulak is separated from the Black Sea by sand dunes and a beach strip, it has an area of around 4 square kilometres and features two islands in its western part, the Big Island (0.02 km²) and the Small Island (0.0053 km²). As the habitat of 260 rare and endangered species, the lake is one of the most important and well-preserved coastal wetlands in Bulgaria. Among the important birds in the area are the little bittern, ferruginous duck, mute swan, western marsh harrier, paddyfield warbler. The greater white-fronted goose, red-breasted goose and mallard spend the winter there, and there are large populations of the pygmy cormorant and great white pelican.

The lake is also an archaeologically important area. Pithouses of the oldest known inhabitants of Dobruja, dating to 5100–4700 BC, have been unearthed near the west shore, as well as 3500–3400 BC mound burials and a Sarmatian necropolis from Late Antiquity. The Big Island of Lake Durankulak is particularly important, as it is the site of an Eneolithic settlement of 4600–4200 BC, a cultural monument of national importance. The island also features a 1300–1200 BC fortified settlement, a Hellenistic rock-hewn cave sanctuary of Cybele (3rd century BC) and a Bulgar settlement from the 9th–10th century AD. Because of its age and importance, the archaeological complex has been dubbed the "Bulgarian Troy".

Durankulak Bird Ringing Camp

Lake Durankulak hosts Bulgaria's largest citizen science project, the Durankulak Bird Ringing Camp. Established in 2019, the camp is dedicated to studying bird migration along the Via Pontica, a key migratory route over the West Black Sea. Bird ringing, one of the most effective methods for tracking bird movements, is at the heart of the camp's research. The camp is located within a protected area, part of a NATURA 2000 site, on the southern edge of Lake Durankulak — a wetland of international importance and the best-preserved stretch of the Black Sea coast .

The Durankulak Bird Ringing Camp is open to anyone with an interest in nature, birdwatching, or bird ringing. Participants can join the camp from August to October to learn from experts and contribute to vital research. Those unable to participate can still support the project through donations .

Both professional environmentalists and citizen scientists have contributed to a range of discoveries at the camp. The project's founders — Chakarov, Bergkamp, Aleksandrov, Tonev, Tomova, Simeonov, Konakchieva, Trendafilova, and Hotinov — have published scientific papers on bird diversity around Durankulak , . In addition to its scientific impact, the camp has gained recognition in the Mapping Sustainable Holidays in Bulgaria ethnographic study by Tatyana Garkavaya, an award-winning project that highlights conservation efforts across Bulgaria. Garkavaya's research, based on interviews with camp participants, resulted in a collaborative travel guide encouraging others to join the camp and support conservation efforts Cultural Insights (2023) Discover Wildlife Holidays in Bulgaria & Download an Award-Winning Birdwatching Guide! by Tatyana Garkavaya https://artnatureinsights.github.io/tg/holidaysinbulgaria.html.

During the ringing season, participants have the opportunity to observe over 100 species of birds and assist in ringing more than 15,000 birds.

References

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{{Shabla

Villages in Dobrich Province
Seaside resorts in Bulgaria
Bulgaria–Romania border crossings
Populated coastal places in Bulgaria
Populated places established in the 6th millennium BC
Populated places disestablished in the 5th millennium BC
Prehistoric sites in Bulgaria
History of Dobrich Province