Forget beach bars and banana boats. Bulgaria’s Anastasia Island, a speck in the Black Sea just off Burgas, doesn’t serve you sunshine and selfies—it serves you shivers. With its pirate-haunted cliffs, a monastery-turned-prison-turned-hotel, and ghost stories thick in the air, this is not your ordinary sun-kissed beach escape. The small island lacks in mojitos and luxury, but it makes up for it with its legends, mystery, and eeriness—enough to make you sleep with an open eye and a proven spell to ward off ghosts.
A volcanic hiccup floating off the coast of Burgas, the island as small as the size of a ship, but big enough to squeeze in centuries of sacred legend, herbal remedies, and enough ghost stories to warrant its own horror franchise.
The island’s volcanic cliffs have eroded into natural rock formations with names that sound less like geography and more like a prophecy: The Dragon, The Gate of the Sun, The Mushroom, and—cue ominous music—The Petrified Ship.
Legend has it that the “Petrified Ship” is the fossilised remains of a pirate vessel smashed by a divine storm. Apparently, the monks inhabiting the island’s 15th-century monastery were under siege by treasure-hungry pirates. Desperate, they prayed to their patron saint, Anastasia, to intervene who conjured a storm so ferocious that it wrecked the pirates’ ship, turning it to stone.
Today, you can stare at the jagged outcrop on the coast and, with enough imagination (and possibly a glass of strong rakia), make out the contours of a doomed ship—or at least the spine of a sea monster that forgot how to swim.
The island’s history is equally fascinating. The 15th-century Monastery of St. Anastasia, which served as a religious sanctuary, was looted repeatedly for its gold and rare herbs. Later on, in the 1920s the monastery was converted into a prison only to witness Bulgaria’s most cinematic jailbreaks in 1925—when 43 political prisoners escaped from the island in two tiny rowboats. This great escape is still commemorated in a small but surprisingly high-tech museum within the old monastery.
If you’re into unique stays—and don’t mind possible paranormal encounters—Anastasia Island has a five-roomed boutique hotel with an atmospheric view of Burgas Bay. Guests are treated to minimalist monk-chic interiors, and the kind of stillness that could either soothe your soul or send you running for a nightlight. It's not for the weak-hearted.
Next door is the island’s only restaurant, cheerily called 100 Years Ago, housed in a former monk’s cell. Think dishes crafted from monastic recipes going back centuries— grilled fish seasoned with monastery herbs, plum rakia and fig jam so good that it nearly justifies sainthood.
Sip the herbal magic of Lekarna—a charming apothecary cum café. It offers herbal teas and tinctures based on Saint Anastasia’s healing legacy. She was
nicknamed Pharmakolitriya, or “Saviour from Suffering,” and the Lekarna lives up to the hype. A sturdy, 19th-century lighthouse, build by French, casts its beam across the bay like a sleepy sentinel. By day, it’s a postcard-perfect relic; by night, it’s a beacon for lonely souls—human or otherwise.
Anastasia Island isn’t your typical sunny escape. It’s history with a pulse. It’s a ghost story with a sea breeze. It’s a spiritual retreat for the slightly skeptical. Come for the saints. Stay for the stories. And whatever you do, don’t disrespect the petrified ship. You never know who’s still listening!