St. Ivan Island (, ''ostrov Sveti Ivan'') is the largest

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 ...

n island in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

, with an area of . It lies off the

Bulgarian Black Sea Coast The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast (), also known as the Bulgarian Riviera, covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of ...

near

Sozopol Sozopol ( ; ) List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. One of the major seaside resorts in the country, it is known for the ''Apollonia'' art and film ...

, a town with rich history and a popular tourist place, and is separated by a strait several hundred metres long from the small neighbouring St. Peter Island. Standing at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

, it is also the highest of the Bulgarian sea islands. It lies from the Stolets peninsula, the location of Sozopol's Old Town.

History

Around the 7th-4th century BC, the island was populated by

Thracians The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared betwee ...

. After Sozopol (Apollonia) was conquered by the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

in 72 BC, a lighthouse was built on the island. Next to the Thracian sanctuary, the locals built a temple of

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

featuring a bronze statue by Calamis standing in height, making it easy to see from the city. A complex of buildings was constructed around the temple in the southeastern part of the island, including health stations, inns, etc. After the conversion to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

, a monastical complex was built in the 5th-6th century on top of the ruins of the old Roman temple, including the Basilica of the Mother of God. Towards the 7th-9th century, the

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

was abandoned only to be reconstructed in the 10th century. The Monastery of John the Forerunner and the Baptist grew into an important centre of Christianity in the region; the buildings of the monastery and the church were reconstructed in 1262-1310. Archaeological research was carried out after 1985 for a couple of years, so today the remains of two churches, a royal residence, a library, part of the fortified wall with the gate and several monastic cells can be seen. The monastery was a

stauropegic A stauropegion, also spelled stavropegion (from , in turn from σταυρός ''stauros'' "cross" and πήγνυμι ''pegnumi'' "to affirm"), is a monastery or a parish which depends directly on the Primate (bishop), primate or on the Holy Sy ...

monastery of the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed ...

, and two former patriarchs may have been buried there after being sent into

exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...

. Sozopol was conquered by the

Ottomans Ottoman may refer to: * Osman I, historically known in English as "Ottoman I", founder of the Ottoman Empire * Osman II, historically known in English as "Ottoman II" * Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empir ...

together with

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

, in 1453, and the monastery was completely destroyed, but later reconstructed in 1467-1471. In the 1620s it was a refuge for

Cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

s raiding the western Black Sea coast. Archaeologists have even discovered the remains of a Cossack feast in the church. The Ottomans destroyed the remaining buildings on St. Ivan Island in July 1629 in order not to be used by the pirates. It also played a part in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, when it was used as a field hospital for

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n soldiers suffering from cholera and also had a Russian graveyard. Until the mid-19th century, when a

natural phenomenon A natural phenomenon is an observable event which is not man-made. Examples include: sunrise, weather, fog, thunder, tornadoes; biological processes, decomposition, germination; physical processes, wave propagation, erosion; tidal flow, and na ...

most likely separated them, the small St. Peter Island to the east of St. Ivan was most likely adjoined to it. Two small islets or large rocks also existed to the east of St. Peter, known by the names of Milos and Gata; they were last described by Russian war correspondents in the 1820s. There is also a lighthouse constructed by French engineers in 1884 and pointing to the

Burgas Bay Gulf of Burgas or Burgas Bay (, ''Burgaski zaliv'') between the coastline and the straight line joining Cape Emine and Cape Maslen nos is the largest bay of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and one of the largest in the Black Sea. The length of the ...

still standing on the island. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there was a project to build a large

Balkantourist Balkantourist () is the oldest existing Bulgarian tour operator, established on 6 January 1948 as a state-owned government monopoly in what was then the People's Republic of Bulgaria. Privatised in 1995, it has continued to exist in the post-19 ...

hotel on St. Ivan, but

Todor Zhivkov Todor Hristov Zhivkov ( ; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarians, Bulgarian communist statesman who served as the ''de facto'' leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1954 until 1989 as General Secretary of the Cen ...

's intervention prevented that. In August 2010 the BBC reported that remains of

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

had been found on the island. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the bones belonged to a man who had lived and died in the Middle East in the middle of the first century.

Nature

Apart from its historical significance, the island is also a protected area since 1993, with 72 species of birds nesting on the rocks and around the coast, 3 of which are

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

in the world and 15 in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. St. Ivan and the adjacent St. Peter Island host Bulgaria's largest colonies of

Yellow-legged gull The yellow-legged gull (''Larus michahellis'') is a large gull found in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Cas ...

(''Larus michahellis'').. The rocks on the island are covered with black

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and Freshwater bivalve, freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other ...

s.The island is the only place in Bulgaria where underground rabbits live.

Gallery

File:Ivanpetarkirik.jpg, St. Ivan with St. Peter Island and St. Cyricus Island in the Bay of

File:SvetiIvan.jpg, St. Ivan Island File:Sozopol, wyspa świętego Iwana (MW) - DSC 0289.jpg, St. Ivan and St. Peter Island

References

Bibliography

External links