"100 Tourist Sites of Bulgaria" is a Bulgarian national movement established in 1966 to promote tourism among Bulgaria's most significant cultural, historic, and natural landmarks.
As part of this program, sites of cultural and historical significance have been selected, ranging from historic places and monuments to archaeological and architectural sanctuaries, museums, monasteries, as well as national parks, mountain peaks and other geological phenomena. Each of the chosen landmarks has its own individual seal, which is stamped onto pages of an official passport-like booklet issued by the Bulgarian Tourist Union (BTU). A booklet can be purchased at any tourist union center or on location at any of the sites and it costs a symbolic 1 lev. The booklet comes with a separate map which includes a list of the sites, their addresses and working hours. The maximum number of collectible stamps per booklet is 100 and, contrary to the movement's title, the exact number of official sites exceeds the number 100.
A reward scheme has been developed to encourage collection of as many stamps as possible. Depending on the number of stamps collected, participants may receive bronze, silver or gold badges. 25 stamps earn bronze, 50 stamps earn silver and 100 stamps (a complete booklet) earn gold. The National Organizational Committee of the BTU holds an annual lottery for the previous year's badge earners every August. Prizes include domestic and overseas excursions, bicycles, tents, sleeping bags, and other travel-related items.
Some landmarks in the original program highlighted Bulgaria's Communist government, which collapsed on November 10, 1989. In 2003 the BTU removed many of these sites from the official list. Both the original and current lists appear below. The list has since seen minor changes in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Nesebar (also transcribed as Nessebar or Nesebur, Bulgarian: Несебър, pronounced [nɛˈsɛbɐr], Thracian: Melsambria, Greek: Μεσημβρία, Mesembria) is an ancient town and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, located in Burgas Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Nesebar Municipality. Often referred to as the "Pearl of the Black Sea" and "Bulgaria's Dubrovnik", Nesebar is a rich city-museum defined by more than three millennia of ever-changing history.
It is a one of the most prominent tourist destinations and seaports on the Black Sea, in what has become a popular area with several large resorts—the largest, Sunny Beach, is situated immediately to the north of Nesebar.
Nesebar has on several occasions found itself on the frontier of a threatened empire, and as such it is a town with a rich history. The ancient part of the town is situated on a peninsula (previously an island) connected to the mainland by a narrow man-made isthmus, and it bears evidence of occupation by a variety of different civilisations over the course of its existence. Its abundance of historic buildings prompted UNESCO to include Nesebar in its list of World Heritage Sites in 1983.