Speedboats will carry tourists from Varna to the relics of John the Baptist in Sozopol

16 May
2011

A regular speedboat service has been set up to carry tourists from the coastal city of Varna to the southern coastal town of Sozopol, where the relics of St. John the Baptist are exhibited. The service will become fully operational as of next month and will connect the coastal city of Varna and the Golden Sands resort with the coastal city of Burgas and the historical coastal towns of Nessebar and Sozopol. The fare from Golden Sands to Sozopol will cost 50 levs (25 euro) one-way. This became clear from an interview of Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov with the national Darik Radio.
The speedboats are brand new and the line will be operated by a private company.  “The speedboats are fast and cool to ride.  I am sure that the newly opened service will cause the number of worshipers and tourists coming to Sozopol to increase” the minister said.

Let’s remind that the remains – small fragments of a skull, bones from a jaw and an arm, and a tooth – were discovered in 2010 embedded in an altar in the ruins of the ancient monastery, on the island in the Black Sea.

A Greek inscription on the stone casque contains a reference to June 24 – the date on which John the Baptist is believed to have been born.

“We found the relics of St John the Baptist – exactly what the archaeologists had expected,” said Bozhidar Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s minister without portfolio and a former director of the country’s National History Museum, who was present when the stone urn was opened.

“It has been confirmed that these are parts of his skeleton.”

Exactly how the relics ended up on the island is a mystery, but Mr Dimitrov said they may have been donated by the Christian Church in Constantinople when Bulgaria was part of the Byzantine Empire.

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