St. Ivan Island
Encyclopedia
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n island in the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, with an area of 0.66 square kilometre (0.254827424671073 sq mi). It lies off the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
Bulgarian Black Sea Coast
The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast 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 coastline. White and golden sandy beaches occupy approximately 130 km of the 378 km long coast...
near Sozopol
Sozopol
Sozopol is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Today it is one of the major seaside resorts in the country, known for the Apollonia art and film festival that is named after one of the town's ancient names.The busiest times of the year...
, 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
St. Peter Island, Bulgaria
St. Peter Island is a small Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, with an area of 0,025 square kilometres and a height of 9 metres above sea level. Also known as Bird Island, it is located in the Bay of Sozopol, close to the St. Ivan and St. Cyricus Islands. As it was not mentioned in any sources...
. Standing at 33 metres (108 ft) above sea level, it is also the highest of the Bulgarian sea islands. It lies 920 metre (0.571662917717822 mi) from the Stolets peninsula, the location of Sozopol's Old Town.
History
Around the 7th-4th century BC, the island was populated by ThraciansThracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
. After Sozopol (Apollonia) was conquered by the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
in 72 BC, a lighthouse was built on the island. Next to the Thracian sanctuary, the locals built a temple of Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
featuring a bronze statue by Calamis standing 13.2 metres (43 ft) 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
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, 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
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
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
Stauropegic
Stauropegic, also rendered stavropegic, stauropegial, or stavropegial is a title or description applied to Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christian monasteries subordinated directly to a Patriarch or Synod, rather than to their local Bishop...
monastery of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and two former patriarchs may have been buried there after being sent into exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
.
Sozopol was conquered by the Ottomans
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
together with Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, in 1453, and the monastery was completely destroyed, but later reconstructed in 1467-1471. In the 1620s it was a refuge for Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
pirates 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
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n soldiers suffering from cholera and also had a Russian graveyard.
Until the mid-19th century, when a natural phenomenon
Natural phenomenon
A natural phenomenon is a non-artificial event in the physical sense, and therefore not produced by humans, although it may affect humans . Common examples of natural phenomena include volcanic eruptions, weather, decay, gravity and erosion...
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
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
engineers in 1884 and pointing to the Burgas Bay
Burgas Bay
Burgas Bay is the largest bay of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and one of the largest ones in the Black Sea. It is 41 km at its widest and 25 m at its deepest, reaching 31 km at its greatest innermost extent, approximately where the Bulgarian city and major port of Burgas is located. Other towns...
still standing on the island. In the 1970s and early 1980s, there was a project to build a large Balkantourist
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...
hotel on St. Ivan, but Todor Zhivkov
Todor Zhivkov
Todor Khristov Zhivkov was a communist politician and leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from March 4, 1954 until November 10, 1989....
's intervention prevented that.
Apart from its historical significance, the island is also a nature reserve
Nature reserve
A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...
since 1993, with 72 species of birds nesting on the rocks and around the coast, 3 of which are endangered in the world and 15 in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. St. Ivan Island is also inhabited by other rare species, such as Mediterranean Monk Seal
Mediterranean Monk Seal
The Mediterranean monk seal is a pinniped belonging to the Phocidae family. At some 450-510 remaining individuals, it is believed to be the world's second-rarest pinniped , and one of the most endangered mammals in the world.It is present in parts of the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Atlantic...
s. The rocks on the island are covered with black mussel
Mussel
The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...
s.
In August 2010 the BBC reported that remains of John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
had been found on the island.
See also
- List of islands of Bulgaria
- St. Anastasia IslandSt. Anastasia IslandSt. Anastasia Island is a Bulgarian islet in the Black Sea. It is located 1.5 km off the coast near Chernomorets, at 12 metres above sea level, and embraces a territory of 0.022 km². It is the only inhabited island off the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.The island is supplied with...
- St. Cyricus IslandSt. Cyricus IslandSt. Cyricus Island , also known as St. Cyril Island or Sts. Quiricus and Julietta Island is a Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, situated 150 metres from Sozopol's Stolets peninsula. It has an area of about 0,08 square kilometres and a height of 15 metres. The island is connected to the continent...
- St. Thomas IslandSt. Thomas IslandSt. Thomas Island or Snake Island is a Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, 15 km south of Sozopol. It has an area of 0,012 square kilometres and is the only place in Bulgaria where wild cacti grow, brought from Bratislava, Slovakia and planted on the orders of Tsar Boris III in 1933. They...