Mesembria

Mesembria was an old Greek city on a narrow peninsula, and in early Byzantine times one of the towns of the province of Haemimontus together with Anchialos. The ruins of many churches and monasteries, most of the fifth and sixth centuries, together with tombstones, inscriptions and treasures, speak of its rich Christian past. Greeks had lived in the city without a break since its foundation as a colony, and this would leave its mark on its medieval history as well.

In the Middle Ages the city was famed for its churches, whose façades, like those of Tarnovo and Cherven, were decorated with ornamental ceramics. Especially rich is the decoration of the church of St John Aliturgetos (the Unconsecrated), beneath whose "Lombard" arches acanthus leaves and two lions facing each other are carved in relief. In the 1070s, at the same time as the Paulician Leka rose in revolt at Sredets, a certain Dobromir stirred up unrest in Mesembria; the two even planned a joint rising against the empire.

In the strife that followed the murder of Michael II Asen, the royal son-in-law Mitso, married to the murdered tsar's sister, laid claim to the throne. The boyars set Constantine Tikh against him; Mitso lost the struggle and withdrew to his domain at Mesembria, where he set up a small separate principality in south-eastern Bulgaria. From there he continued to harass Constantine, who on one occasion, hard pressed at Stanimaka, was saved only by Byzantine troops.

In late 1262 or early 1263 Constantine Tikh resolved to get rid of his rival and besieged Mesembria. Mitso sought help from Byzantium, which was just preparing a great campaign against Bulgaria. In 1263 the first Byzantine army marched along the coast, drove off the besieging Bulgarians and negotiated with Mitso, who handed over Mesembria in exchange for estates in Asia Minor. Pachymeres writes that this happened at the same time as the second Byzantine army took Philippopolis — which is why the events are now dated to 1263 rather than 1260.

The loss of Mesembria and Anchialos was Bulgaria's chief grievance against Byzantium. In 1268 Michael VIII offered peace: the widowed Constantine Tikh was to marry his niece Maria, who would bring the two Black Sea towns as her dowry. The wedding was celebrated probably in 1269, but the towns remained a bone of contention. During the turmoil of Ivaylo's rising it was at Mesembria that Ivan Asen III found a ship when he fled secretly from Tarnovo to Constantinople at the end of 1279.

In 1304 Theodore Svetoslav defeated a Byzantine army in south-eastern Thrace and probably recovered Mesembria and Anchialos — if not then, the following year. During the interregnum after the death of George II Terter in 1322–1323 the Byzantines obtained, by voluntary submission of the local people, a long strip of land from Sliven to Mesembria — largely because of the Greek character of the population. When Ivan Alexander recovered the coast in 1331, only Mesembria remained in Byzantine hands; only with the peace of 1332 did the empire recognise Bulgarian possession of the two Black Sea towns.

Under Ivan Alexander Mesembria was a Bulgarian city with an important place in trade. The Venetians had had a colony here since the late thirteenth century, and the treaty with Venice of 1346–1347 regulated their relations with the tsar. Ivan Alexander issued several Greek charters concerning Mesembria, among them the chrysobull for the monastery of St Nicholas near the city. His name also appears in the Greek inscription on the icon of the Virgin Eleousa from Nesebar. Here too served his enigmatic uncle Theodore Komnenos Doukas Synadenos Palaiologos, known as commander of Mesembria before he held posts in Constantinople, Epirus and Thessaloniki.

In 1364 John V Palaiologos launched a surprise campaign along the coast: the Byzantines took Anchialos and besieged Mesembria from the land, where they raised a siege tower, and with ships from the sea. Ivan Alexander replied with a weapon the Byzantines already knew — he sent "his own army" and "the barbarians in Thrace", hired for money, that is, Turks, under the walls, and the siege failed.

Two years later the Bulgarian tsar held John V up at Vidin. The answer came from the West: on 4 October 1366 Count Amadeus VI of Savoy set out with 14 ships against the Bulgarian coast, took Agathopolis, Sozopol and Skafida, and on 21 October entered Anchialos and Mesembria. The negotiations that followed the failed siege of Varna led not only to the emperor's release but also to the cession of the two ports to Byzantium. From Mesembria southwards the Black Sea towns passed for good under Byzantine rule.

The city remained Byzantine in the following century too, when it formed part of the coastal appanage of imperial relatives. In April 1441 Paul Asen, one of the last descendants of the Asens, came here secretly with his daughter Theodora, who in Mesembria married the despot Demetrios Palaiologos against the wishes of the imperial family.