The swamp in the middle of the abandoned building site on Troikata square in central Burgas is gone. So is the wild vegetation that had grown there over the past decades.

Two weeks ago, even machines could barely reach the middle of the site. Now workers are still breaking up the concrete foundations of the unfinished building, which went up in the mid-1980s. The spot locals call "the Hole" has not disappeared completely.

Burgas council will use the site for events around Eurovision in spring 2027. It says it is not yet clear how the space will look by then. Tenders for a full makeover of the site are expected to start after the competition.

The southern part of the plot is private land that the investor is preparing for a future building. Heavy machinery is digging there and shaping the ground. A safety net fences off the edge of the pit, and work on the site continues.

The spot got its nickname, "Frog Pond", from the frogs that lived in the swamp. They croaked loudly on summer nights, and people in the centre could hear them for years.

In spring, rain flooded the whole site and the water was at its deepest. That was when the frogs laid their spawn in the swamp. As the weather warmed, tadpoles hatched, and in early summer the tiny froglets left the water and scattered in all directions.

Early this summer, thousands of tiny froglets spread across the square and nearby streets.