Varna

Varna, is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous province and Varna Municipality.
Commonly referred to as the marine (or summer) capital of Bulgaria, Varna is a major tourist destination, business and university centre, seaport, and headquarters of the Bulgarian Navy and merchant marine, as well as the centre of Varna Province and Bulgaria's North-Eastern planning region (NUTS II), comprising also the provinces of Dobrich, Shumen, and Targovishte.
In April 2008, Varna was designated seat of the Black Sea Euro-Region (a new regional organization, not identical to the Black Sea Euroregion) by the Council of Europe.


Economy




The economy is service-based, with 61% of net revenue generated in trade and tourism, 16% in manufacturing, 14% in transportation and communications, and 6% in construction. Financial services, particularly banking, insurance, investment management, and real-estate finance are booming. As of December 2008, the fallout of the global financial crisis has not yet been hard. The city is the easternmost destination of Pan-European transport corridor 8 and is connected to corridors 7 and 9 via Rousse. Major industries traditionally include transportation (Navibulgar, Port of Varna, Varna International Airport), distribution (Logistics Park Varna ), shipbuilding (see also Oceanic-Creations), ship repair, and other marine industries.
In June 2007, Eni and Gazprom disclosed the South Stream project whereby a 900 km (559 mi)-long offshore natural gas pipeline from Russia's Dzhubga with annual capacity of 31 cubic kilometers is planned to come ashore at Varna, possibly near the Galata offshore gas field, en route to Italy and Austria.
With the nearby towns of Beloslav and Devnya, Varna forms the Varna-Devnya Industrial Complex, home to some of the largest chemical, thermal power, and manufacturing facilities in Bulgaria, including Varna Thermal Pover Plant and Sodi Devnya, the two largest cash privatization deals in the country's recent history. There are also notable facilities for radio navigation devices, household appliances, security systems, textiles, apparel, food and beverages, printing, and other industries. Some manufacturing veterans are giving way to post-industrial developments: an ECE shopping mall is taking the place of the former VAMO diesel engine works and the Varna Brewery is being replaced by a convention centre.
Tourism is of foremost importance with the suburban beachfront resorts of Golden Sands, Holiday Club Riviera, Sunny Day, Constantine and Helena, and others with a total capacity of over 60,000 beds (2005), attracting millions of visitors each year (4.74 million in 2006, 3.99 million of which international tourists ). The resorts received considerable internal and foreign investment in the late 1990s and early first decade of the 21st century, and are environmentally sound, being located reassuringly far from chemical and other smokestack industries. Varna is also Bulgaria's only international cruise destination (with over 30 cruises scheduled for 2007) and a major international convention and spa centre.
Real estate boomed in 2003–2008 with some of the highest prices in the nation, by fall 2007 surpassing Sofia (this still holds true in April 2009). Commercial real estate is developing major international office tower projects.
In retail, the city not only has the assortment of international big-box retailers now ubiquitous in larger Bulgarian cities, but boasts made-in-Varna national chains with locations spreading over the country such as retailer Piccadilly, restaurateur Happy, and pharmacy chain Sanita.


Honour


Varna Peninsula on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after Varna.
Varna, Illinois, a small town of 400 people, was named in this city's honour. The War of Varna was going on at the time.
The settlement and district centre of Varna in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia is named in commemoration of the taking of Varna by the Russian army during the 1828–1829 Russo-Turkish War.




Varna was Count Dracula's "transportation hub"—the point of origin of the ship Demeter and the initial destination of the Czarina Catherine—in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, and the place where the vampire's annihilation was planned to be carried out.
British spy 07 kidnapped Soviet physicist Konstantin Trofimov from a villa in Varna in Andrei Gulyashki's novel Avakoum Zahov versus 07.
"The monastery at Varna" in the novel The Hills of Varna by Geoffrey Trease is a fictional place in the Balkans, not related to the real city.
An early mention of modern Varna in English literature is found in Charles Dickens' All the Year Round (Vol. 30) in 1873. Dickens visited the city as a war correspondent in the Crimean War in 1854.