A mystical place in the centre of the Sea Garden in the Varna region which excites more with the custom that comes with it, rather than with a spectacular construction, the Bridge of Wishes is a staple for the citizens of Varna.
The small bridge is located near the Alpineum and based on the city legend, if you cross the bridge with your eyes closed (based on some legends you have to be walking backwards too!) and make a wish during the walk – that wish would come true. In the past there has been a small lake full of water lilies underneath the bridge. People who were ill fated in finding love threw coins in the lake, believing that this will help their love to be a shared one.
The Bridge of Wishes, Varna, Bulgaria
If you wish to visit the Bridge of Wishes you can take advantage of My Rent a Car and visit the park by getting a car of your choosing anywhere from Varna Airport, Varna Centre, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.
One of the most important monuments in the Varna region is the Roman Thermae. There are 2 such locations in the Varna centre. The most tourist-friendly one is located on the corner of ”San Stefano” street and ”Han Krum” street. It’s one of the exhibits of the Varna Archeological museum.
The community thermae (bath) of Odessos is one of the most well preserved architectural monuments of the Roman Era in Bulgaria. It’s of the so called “small emperor type” and their foundation is accredited to have happened around the 2nd century AD. The bath is the largest one not only in Varna, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny Day and the Varna region, but also in the whole Balkan peninsula. The Roman bath has a size of 7000 sq.m. and it’s the fourth largest in Europe. It’s only bettered by the thermae in Karakala and Diocletian in Rome and in Trier in Germany. The bath was used up until the end of the 3rd century AD.
The main entrances of the thermae are located in the eastern and western ends of the northern facade. The visitors back in the day entered by climbing 3 steps in the east and western vestibuli. There were two changing rooms, which were the largest ones after the meetings room and the sports hall. The changing rooms themselves were treated as clubs, where the visitors spent a part of their time before and after the wash.
There were other rooms as well which served their own purpose such as the hall for cold water dousing, the hall for warm water dousing, hall for hot water dousing, toilets, boiler room and others. The heating system is a subject of interest until today as it was connected with the double floor and unique cavities, which guided the hot air as high as the roof construction of the bath.
Roman Thermae Varna, Bulgaria
Along with other community buildings the thermae were a vital part of everyday life in Odessos. The Roman thermae were announced as an architectural monument of culture in 1968.
The other Roman thermae is also open to the public and is located on the corner of bul. “Primorski” and “8th of November” street.
The location in the Varna centre makes them easily accessible for tourists visiting the city. There are plenty of parking spaces available where you can park your rent-a-car secure by My Rent a Car. Our pick-up points include Varna Airport, Varna Centre, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.
The natural phenomenon named “Pobiti Kamani” is located both in the north and in the south of the Beloslav lake and it’s a one of a kind location for the Varna region and Bulgaria. It consists of Eocenean sands amidst which stone pillars are erected making the scene look like a stone forest. The planted stones consist of seven big and a few smaller locations.
The most famous group is “Center-South”. It’s located 18 kilometres west of Varna. It consists of around 300 big and small pillars reaching up to 6 metres in height.
The origin of the “Pobiti Kamani” is subject to a number of hipotesis which can be further narrowed to a couple main groups. The first group concerns the non-organic formation of the columns, while the second concerns their organic origin.
The first group claims that the structures were mechanically shaped by erosion under the influence of the atmosphere, water, sea tides, and the infiltration of underground water. The organic origin supporters claim that the stone pillars are remnants of coral reefs, petrified gas springs, or a stone forest. To this day there isn’t any definitive answer found regarding the formation of this phenomenon, however they agree that this has not been due to human interference. That can be clearly seen in the Quarry-Beloslav group where all 4 levels of the stone pillars were found.
The most impressive groups “Centre-south”, “Beloslav-west”, “Slanchevo-southeast” were announced as the first protected territories in Bulgaria in 1938. On a later stage with a few more acts the combined number of protected groups reached 14 with a total size of 253.3 hectares, and with a decree from the Minister of the environment and waters in 2002 the natural phenomenon was recategorized as a protected region.
The location of this natural phenomenon is quite accessible as it’s just off the old road between Varna and Devnya. The Varna Airport is nearby and you can easily rent–a-car from there using My Rent a Car services. Other possible pick-up points include Varna Centre, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.
Varna is known for its history and one of the most important historical places is the Park museum “Vladislav Varnenchik”. The park is located on the battlefield of the Battle for Liberation of the Balkans and southeastern Europe in 1444. In this battle the Polish-Hungarian king Vladislav III Yagelo was killed. His mausoleum was built in 1935 in a thracian mound from the IV-III century BC. The museum itself has a stone replica of the sarcophagus of the 20 year old king, which was sculptured by two bulgarian masons.
The exhibition contains the only knights gear from the era as well as weapons, artillery, and gear such as helmets, crossbows, swords, shields, spears, etc. from the 15th century which were found on the battlefield.
The museum itself was opened in 1964 in honor of the 520 year anniversary of the battle of Varna between the christian army of king Vladislav III and the ottoman army of sultan Murat II. In the same year a monument remembering the transylvanian commander Yanosh Hunyadi was also erected. In 2004 the museum and entire exhibition underwent modernization. In the museum you can find the only permanent exhibition in the country dedicated to the head of the Board of directors of the committee for building the mausoleum – Colonel Petar Dimkov. His family has donated personal belongings, photographs, honors, and documents about the life and activities of the “cosmic Bulgarian” as he is now called.
The park is 30 acres and has a lot of vegetation which creates a great atmosphere for relaxation while exploring. The architect behind the Park museum is Anton Novak, who is also the author for the landscape composition of the Sea Garden.
A great escape from the fast paced atmosphere in the Varna centre, the Park museum offers an alternative experience to most museums as well as an easily accessible location with its own parking and public transport stations nearby. If you wish to visit the Park museum “Vladislav Varnenchik” you can take advantage of My Rent a Car and visit the park by getting a car of your choosing anywhere from Varna Airport, Varna Centre, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.
The Navy Museum of Varna is one of the most visited sightseeing places in Bulgaria. Over 6 million tourists have crossed its doors to take a look at the rich collection of navy armaments and ship technology. It’s located in the Sea Garden near the “Primorski” swimming pool. The exhibition contains over 100 000 items distributed in 12 halls. The most valuable amongst them is the torpedo boat “Drazki” – a hero from the Balkan wars. The “Kor Karoli”
Yacht is also present in the exhibition, captained by Georgi Georgiev – the first bulgarian to circumvent the world alone. There are also over 3000 films related to the navy theme which can be found in the museum as well as a library containing around 10 000 books and over 4000 magazines connected to the maritime theme.
The museum is part of the first of their kind underwater archeological expeditions in Bulgaria in the region of cape Kaliakra. The Navy Museum also became a member of the world organization of navy museums. The museum itself was created in the 1980s by initiative from the russian officers of the Danube fleet.
There are two main expositions, one dedicated to the history of the bulgarian navy fleet, and the second one is dedicated to the maritime transport. The biggest collection of ship models in Bulgaria is also stored here, as well as collections of mines, anchors, cannons, honors, uniforms and even works of art. Amongst the items part of the exhibitions are three battleshis and two helicopters from the Helicopter division of the bulgrian navy.
As many of the landmarks in Varna, the Navy museum is in the Sea Garden which makes it easily accessible by all means of transport. If you wish to visit the Navy museum you can take advantage of My Rent a Car and visit the park by getting a car of your choosing anywhere from Varna Airport, Varna Centre, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.
The Aladzha Monastery is the most famous mediaeval rock monastery along the bulgarian Black sed coast. It was mainly inhabited by monks during the 13th and 14th centuries AD. It’s located very close to the biggest resorts near Varna – Golden Sands, St.St. Constantine and Helena, and Sunny Day which makes it a really popular tourist attraction.
The halls of the monastery are carved on two levels in a rock almost 40 metres high. On the first level there is a monastery church, the monks quarters, a dining room and kitchen, a small burial church, a crypt and the maintenance rooms. The second level is a natural rock alcove, on the easter end of which the monastery chapel is built.
After the fall of the 2nd bulgarian Tsardom under Ottoman rule at the end of the 14th century the monastery slowly deteriorated until it eventually was abandoned in the period between the 16th and 19th centuries. A little less than a kilometre away to the west of the monastery a group of caves known under the name of “The Catacombs” were found. The artefacts found within them include ceramics, coins, graffiti, etc. It’s estimated that “The Catacombs” were inhabited during the early christian era (4th to 6th century AD). On a later stage the caves and the monastery formed parts of a bigger monk palace.
The Aladzha monastery in modern times serves as a museum and tourist attraction. In 1912 it was declared a national antiquity and in 1957 as an architectural monument of culture of national value.
A great escape from the fast paced atmosphere in the Varna centre, the Aladzha monastery offers an alternative experience to most museums as well as an easily accessible location with its own parking and public transport stations nearby. If you wish to visit the Aladzha monastery you can take advantage of My Rent a Car and visit the park by getting a car of your choosing anywhere from Varna Airport, Varna Centre, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.
The Sea Garden, or formally the Seaside Park is Varna’s biggest, oldest and most famous park, also a proud owner of the title: ‘’Largest landscaped park in the Balkans’’.Its vast size makes it possible for visitors to enter it by foot, personal vehicles, rent-a-car, taxi etc. There are parking spaces for your rented car in Varna located at each entrance. There is a small seaside road where you can enjoy the breeze in a convertible or lowered windows with your rented vehicle provided by My Rent a Car. Situated along the coast of the Black Sea,the Sea Garden is a vital tourist attraction and a national monument.
The individual mostly credited with having designed the garden’s modern look is Anton Novák from Czechia, who had specialised at the Schönbrunn and Belvedere palaces in. His fellow countryman Karel Škorpil invited Novak to work in Varna and arrived in 1985.
During his tenure in Varna Novák managed to do a lot of changes to the Sea garden itself: he made tremendous rearrangements to the garden and planted species of plants from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Over time the garden grew to an impressive size of 90,000 m² in 1905. A few fountains were added in the period 1912–1913, as well as partial electrification of the lighting. The central alley was enhanced with monuments of prominent Bulgarians by a special committee. The seaside casino was built in the 1930s and acquired its modern appearance after a partial restoration in 2020.
The 1930s saw the planting of species from the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic and France. The garden had a southern expansion to reach the house of the Italian consul which is nowadays the Varna Naval Museum. The park reached its current borders in the 1950s. The architect Georgi Popov designed the central entrance creating a walkway plaza and tall columns.
The Pantheon of the Perished in the Fight Against Fascism was erected in 1961. An Alley of Cosmonauts was also created in the 1960s. The special guest that planted the inaugural plant was the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. He planted a silver fir on the 26th of May, 1961 in front of a large group of people. The Observatory and Planetarium opened gates in 1968 seven years after the Varna Zoo which opened doors in 1961. The dolphinarium was erected in 1984. Recently, the Exotic Zoo terrarium was added, and plans for expansion of the Natural History Museum and the Aquarium were announced.
The site where today the Sea Garden stands was an open piece of land outside of the city walls. A small garden was created on the orders of the city’s Ottoman mayor in 1862 and after the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, the then mayor Mihail Koloni proposed the creation of a city garden and a seaside park in 1881.
If you are a fan of history you should definitely visit the Retro Museum in Varna. It is a unique establishment for the Varna region and Bulgaria. It was opened on the 1st of May 2015. The exhibits cover a very specific era in Bulgarian history when the communist party was ruling the state in the period after World War II – 1944-1989.
Various items can be seen including artifacts such as cosmetics, household items, cigarettes.
There is a collection of wax figures of famous personalities during that period such as Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Bulgarian president Todor Zhivkov, singers and entertainers like Todor Kolev, Georgi Partsalec, Emil Dimitrov and others. An array of over 50 cars from the eastern block such as “Lada”, ”Volga”, “Moskvich”, “Wartburg”. “Trabant”, etc. The official car of the Politburo of the Communist Party, the “Chaika GAZ-13” is also on display as the crown jewel of luxury automobiles from that era.
The Museum is situated on the parking area level in the Grand mall Varna which has public transport all around and a multistory parking garage. And although you can’t really rent a car such as the ones described above you can easily rent a car in Varna through My Rent a Car with a pick up point from Varna Airport, Varna Centre, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.
The Varna Dolphinarium is located in the Northern part of the Sea Garden in Varna. It’s not only the sole dolphinarium in the Varna region, but also in the whole of Bulgaria. It was founded on the 11th of August 1984 and has 1200 seats. The pools are filled in with sea water using a specialised pump system. The pool itself is 12 meters by 15 meters and a depth of 6 meters. The water is pumped from the Black Sea around 150 meters from the shore at a depth of 3-6m where it’s cleanest and also undergoes additional filtration before reaching the pool. The dolphinarium also features a café with a transparent wall to the aquarium where the dolphins reside. You can get a public transport bus 409 to the dolphinarium from the Varna airport as there is a bus stop nearby and the you can use the same bus to reach it from the Golden Sands, St.St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny Day etc., if you are residing in any of those places near Varna. Parking is also available for your rent-a-car in the neighborhood north of the Sea Garden.
In the Dolphinarium itself there are 5 dolphins – 3 female and 2 male. Kimbo and Dolly (the parents) were brought from the shores of Guatemala and Cuba. while Joanna, Bimbo, and Flipper were born in the dolphinarium itself.
The idea behind creating such a facility on the shores of Bulgaria was introduced for the first time by the zoologist Nikolay Boev. He first proposed a dolphinarium to be created in Southern Bulgaria. For a whole decade Nikolay did not give up on his idea and a plan for the construction was added in the plan for the creation of the Ropotamo National park. The plan however fell apart and the dolphinarium was subsequently built in Varna.
The Varna Dolphinarium makes for a great place to visit with family or friends, and My Rent a Car Varna can easily help in such an endeavor through the selection of rent-a-car family-friendly vehicle options in Varna.
The Dormition of the Mother of God Cathedral (Katedralen Hram Uspenie Bogorodichno) or simply known amongst the population of Varna as: ”The Cathedral”, is the largest church building in Varna and the third largest cathedral in Bulgaria. Its the main point of residence of the bishopric of Varna and Preslav and one of the most popular places in Varna. Its location in the centre part of the city makes it easily accessible by foot, personal vehicles, city transport, rent a car Varna, etc. There is an abundance of walking zones and bus stops in the vicinity, as well as a lot of parking spaces and parking garages suitable for your Varna centre car rental.
Its history begins amidst Russian Knyaz Dondukov-Korsakov’s visitation of Varna. He spotted the need for a cathedral church that would fulfill the increased needs of the population. The construction required significant monetary resources to be built and a vast majority of them were expected to be gathered though donations. The then Metropolitan Simeon forgathered the community to choose a commission with the aim of preparing the construction of a new church, raising money, particularly selecting the spot, and securing timber and building materials.
The Cathedral at nighttime
Mostly materials from the Varna region were used for the construction of the cathedral – from the areas where modern buildings such as the Varna Airport now stands, modern resorts such as Golden Sands and st.st. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day, etc. The exterior columns beneath the windows used stone from Rousse and the arches relied on limy freestone. The Copper plates for the roof delivered from England
The initially chosen name – Dormition of the Theotokos, was in memory of Russian Empress consort Maria Alexandrovna, a benefactress of Bulgaria and aunt of the Bulgarian knyaz.
The knyaz did not like the building place. He fancied a nearby hilly location which could be seen from the whole city. The architect chosen came from Odessa under the name of Maas. Building operations began right after the foundation stone was laid and took a duration of six years. At first, the municipality concluded a 6,000-leva contract with the architect, but he soon asked for more resources, so the commission decided to buy out his plans but not engage him with the construction, but rather appoint the municipal architect P. Kupka.
The Cathedral at daytime
A master builder needed to be selected and talks started in the middle of 1880, but the final decision was finally concluded nearly 4 years later on 15 March 1884. The commission entrusted Gencho Kanchev from Tryavna with the task.
In modern times the Cathedral has been renovated as recently as 2021. The interior of it is a sight to be seen if you have the time. However, if you are in a hurry or just passing by, the exterior is just as impressive and can be viewed easily even while waiting on one of the nearby intersections on a red light in your My Rent a Car vehicle.
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