Ranuli, also known as Valchan's Fortress and Vatrohi, is an ancient fortified town above the mouth of the Ropotamo river, inside the Ropotamo nature reserve. It is one of the biggest and oldest fortified towns in south-east Bulgaria, and one of the most mysterious.
People lived here for thousands of years, from the Thracians to the outlaws of Valchan voivode.
Heavy digging and human activity are banned or strictly limited to protect the wildlife. Most of what is known about the town therefore comes from surface surveys and test drilling.
The fortress stands 3km north of Primorsko, on a hill called Lion's Head that rises about 200m above sea level. The rocky hill is covered with green trees. The rock is 65-70m years old and was formed from syenite of the Rosen palaeovolcano. The reserve is strictly guarded, and the ruins lie hidden in dense forest.
A cobbled ancient road from Anchialo (Pomorie) to Constantinople ran past the town. The fortress covers about 30 decares (30,000 sq m).
Researchers judge from the way the walls were built that the wall and the oldest surviving buildings date to the 16th–14th centuries BC, the Minoan-Mycenaean era, the same period as Perperikon. The Thracians stacked huge stone blocks without mortar.
People lived on the hilltop thousands of years before the big building work, but the construction destroyed much of what they left behind. The earliest pottery found dates from the time of the Trojan War. Researchers say the town grew here because of the favourable climate and terrain.
One theory says the Skirmians founded it. They were a Thracian tribe known as miners in the Strandzha mountains. The town was the seat and castle of the local Thracian ruler. The Begliktash sanctuary is nearby, and its priest probably lived in Ranuli.
Studies point to a cave under Lion's Head, hard to reach and about 5 metres deep. They say it was a Thracian sanctuary for fertility rites, like the Womb in the Rhodope mountains.
In Roman and Byzantine times, Ranuli was a trading and port centre on the coast. In the Middle Ages it remained a strong regional centre. The ruins of a single-apse church and pottery with sgraffito decoration from the 12th–14th centuries date from this period. Italian sea charts from the late 14th and early 15th centuries mark the river mouth as the fortified port of Ropotamo. They also show a fortified port settlement above it.
In Ottoman times, civilians left the town. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Valchan voivode made the fortress his hideout and headquarters. The hill's name, Valchan's Fortress, comes from this.
At the nearby Salihler site, archaeologists found a gold treasure from the time of Alexander the Great. A local legend says the fortress on top of Lion's Head holds a deep secret well, full of gold from a Turkish ship that was lured into the river and set on fire.