The Old Town

Over 200 houses from the mid-18th to the early 19th century, with narrow and short cobblestone streets, add a sense of romance to the Old Town. This is also the place where almost all of the city’s cultural and historical landmarks are concentrated. It encompasses the entire territory of the Skamniy Peninsula, one of the three peninsulas on which present-day Sozopol is located.

Since 1974, the Old Town has been transformed into the Ancient Sozopol Architectural and Archaeological Reserve, encompassing over 180 houses with authentic Renaissance architecture from the 18th-19th century. With their first floor built of stone, second-floor walls made of bricks, exterior wooden cladding, and roofs covered with Turkish ceramic tiles, they are typical representatives of the Black Sea type of Renaissance houses, with some features that link them to the Strandzha and Stara Planina types. In most cases, the ground floor was used for economic purposes.

Perhaps the most famous among them is the house of the fish merchant Dimitar Laskaridis, which currently serves as one of the most renowned art galleries in Sozopol – Laskaridi Gallery.

Other typical representatives of this type of houses are:

• Ana Batinjoti House
• “Thracian Khan” House
• Zagora House
• Ana Trendafilova’s House with the Sun.