Burgas

Luckily for Bulgaria, it rarely makes its way into international headline news. One such instance, unfortunately, was on 18 July 2012. 

In the afternoon of that day an airplane carrying Israeli tourists landed at Bulgaria's busiest airport at the Black Sea. The visitors collected their luggage and headed toward three buses that were supposed to bring them to their hotels at the Sunny Beach resort, a few miles to the north. The buses were still parked as a bomb went off, at 5.23pm. 

Seven people were killed, including the Bulgarian driver of one of the buses, and 35 were injured. 

Investigators were quick to converge on Burgas. Security cameras revealed the bomb was planted in one of the buses' holds by a man carrying a backpack. That man had lingered on in the terminal and later mingled with the tourists as they headed outside. He was killed in the blast. 

The investigation concluded three men were responsible for the attack. They lived in Lebanon and travelled on Australian and Canadian passports. Years later the Bulgarians conceded the attack had been masterminded by Hezbollah, a claim the Israeli government had held throughout. Iran, another culprit fingered by Israel, has not admitted any responsibility. The two surviving perpetrators were never arrested. 

A curious Jewish touch to the history of Burgas was added by Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855). Born in what is now Belarus, Mickiewicz lived in what is now Lithuania, and is considered to be one of the greatest poets of what is now Poland. He is buried in Krakow's Wawel Cathedral, the burial site of Polish kings. 

Mickiewicz fiercely opposed the Russian Empire's invasion of his homeland and vowed to fight the Russians to the end. During the Crimean War in 1855 he went to Stamboul in an attempt to put together a Polish legion to fight against the Russians. He was not very successful with the Poles, but managed to gather a few hundred Jews, the "Hussars of Israel," who were ready to go into battle. The expedition never materialised. Mickiewicz travelled on to what was then Burgas, where he spent just 10 days (8-18 October 1855) in a military tent, probably stricken with malaria. He then returned to the Bosporus where he died. In the Burgas Maritime Park there is a monument to Mickiewicz, though the inscription on it is misleading. 

In the early 1900s, Isaac Presenti, was considered one of the richest Jews in Bulgaria at the turn of the 19th century, donated a plot of land in the centre of Burgas for the construction of a synagogue, which was promptly erected in 1905 or 1909 (accounts vary). It was exquisitely bedecked with a Moorish façade and two internal balconies in its prayer hall. After a few years the Jewish school was built next to the synagogue. 

The original plans for the synagogue have not been preserved, prompting local historians to contest its origins. Many believe that the synagogue was designed and constructed by Ricardo Toscani, an Italian architect who came to Burgas, married there, and built most of the old city. But others claim the Burgas synagogue was the work of Austrian Friedrich Grünanger, who is credited with the Sofia Synagogue. 

Like most other synagogues in Bulgaria, the Burgas synagogue closed in the late 1940s as, one after another, the Jews left. It did, however, have more luck than its counterparts elsewhere as, after being used as a warehouse and a non-Jewish community hall, it was converted into an art gallery in the 1960s. It remains so to this day (24 Mitropolit Simeon Street) and the local Shalom organisation is next door, in the building of the former Jewish school. 

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One result of its preservation, ironically, was its destruction as a synagogue. The tall prayer hall was divided into three floors and its intricate ornaments and paintings were whitewashed. 

Events took another ironic turn in the 2000s, at the time of a further renovation. As the roof needed repair, contractors started scraping off the whitewash. Old Hebrew letters and Stars 

of David were quick to reappear from under the layers of paint and mould, a selfstyled palimpsest standing evidence to the building's turbulent past. 

Fortunately, they are still there, and can be seen watching over the collection of Christian Orthodox artwork on display in the art gallery. The combination of the two evokes the days when Burgas was a truly cosmopolitan city. 

Burgas has a small Jewish plot in the local cemetery, crammed between the Armenian Christian Apostolic and the Turkish sections. It is unfenced and unguarded but in good condition. It contains just a few dozen Jewish tombstones, all mid- to late-20th century. Its main problem seems to be encroachment by the adjacent Muslim section.