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Burgas
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259,985
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15122005
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30
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8000
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056
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42° 30'
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27° 28'
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Yoan Kostadinov
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(also transliterated as '''Bourgas'''; . It is also the fourth-largest by population in the country, after
Sofia ,
Plovdiv and
Varna . It is the capital of
Burgas Province and an industrial and tourist centre. The
Burgas Lakes are located around the city.
Burgas International Airport is a connecting point to major
Black Sea resorts in
Bulgaria such as
Sunny Beach ,
Nesebar ,
Sozopol ,
Dyuni ,
Elenite .
coin celebrating the ''Flavian colony of Deultum'']]
Bourgas is a successor of the
Greek city of ''Pirgos'' (Πύργος), founded by colonists from
Apolonia as a military and observational post against the other important settlement in the region –
Mesembria .
Besides Pirgos, the present-day city expands over the area of three other ancient settlements: ''Kastiacion'', ''Skafida'' and ''Rossokastron''.
In the
Middle Ages , a small fortress called ''Pirgos'' (Πύργος being
Greek for "tower") was erected on the place and was most probably used as a watchtower. It was only in the
17th Century that a settlement named ''Ahelo-Pirgas'' grew in the modern area of the city. It was later renamed to ''Bourgas'' and had only about 3,000 inhabitants, most of them
Greeks at the time of the Liberation.
Soon it became a major centre on the southern
Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and a city of well-developed industry and trade. A number of oil and chemical companies were gradually built. Salt and iron are also mined and traded abroad.
In
1903 , the railway station in Burgas opened, giving an additional boost to the city's expansion. Burgas, unlike many other Bulgarian cities, was not much affected by Communist-type urbanization and has kept many of its 19th and early 20th century architecture.
