Kaliakra is a cape in the Southern Dobruja region of the northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, which ends with a long and narrow headland 12 kilometres east of Kavarna. There is a folk tale of how the long and narrow headland formed, reaching two kilometers into the sea. When the Turks were chasing St Nicholas of Myra (celebrated on 6 December and 9 May) he ran to the sea and God extended the land beneath his feet. Finally the saint was caught and died a martyr’s death at the exact spot where the St Nicholas chapel stands today – at the very end of cape Kaliakra.
Of course, this story does not correspond to the saint’s hagiography, as he died quietly, at an old age and of natural causes in 342 AD; furthermore, a thousand years have passed between his passing and the Turks’ arrival in these lands. But the beauty of the legend is part of the beauty of the “Beautiful cape” (Kaliakra in Greek). Another part of this beauty is the legend of those 40 virgins that preferred death to dishonor. When the Turks devastated the region, they captured 40 pretty girls who were to be given to the bravest warriors as a reward. They gathered them at the end of the cape, whence there was no escape. The maidens didn’t know each other and were of different mindset. When they decided to throw themselves over the cliff, so that the infidels don’t violate them, some were hesitant. So they decided to braid their hair together. The bravest jumped and dragged all the rest after them. Not a single one survived. The sea dragged them away, but even now they come back at night, led by the love for their birthplace. The fortress Kaliakra is located at Cape Kaliakra,near village of Balgarevo. The coast there is very steep with vertical cliffs with a height of about 70 m. which is the reason the fortifications were built on the cape in ancient times.
The earliest finds were dated to the IV cent. B.C., when the cape was inhabited by the Thracian tribe "Tirizis", which gave the first name of the fortress - Tirizis. During the late antiquity the settlement was called Acre Castellum. The name Kaliakra (from Greek - "good cape") was mentioned for the first time in the historical sources in XIII century A.D. The period of greatest prosperity of Kaliakra is the second half of XIV century, when it is a capital of the principality Karvuna leaded by Bulgarian rulers Balik and Dobrotitsa. Kaliakra is one of the last Bulgarian lands fell under the Ottoman yoke.
The remains of the fortress are mostly from the period of the Dobrotitsa Despoty. Some of the finds are exhibited in a small museum situated in a cave on the cape.
