Bourgas is more than two thousand years old. It was founded as a Roman settlement under the name of Kulata. The first books about its history are found with the Byzantian poet Manuel Phill (13th c).
Later additional data was provided by the Turkish historian Hadji Kalfa (17th c). He gave the town two different names - Bourgos and Pirgos.
The name of the town is derived from the Greek words "pirgos" or "bourgos", meaning fortress, or tower, provoked by the numerous fishing towers - "bourgs" in the vicinity.
In the Turkish register from 1676 the settlement was entered as a town for the first time, and later in another document from 1730 - as the port of Bourgas.
Burnt down in the 19th century, it was brought back to life again and turned into an important administrative, economic and cultural centre of Bulgaria.