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Hidden gem1st – 6th c. ADTicketed

Deultum

Develtos, Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium, Деултум

city · Burgas Province, Bulgaria

What it is
Deultum was a colony of Roman veterans founded under Vespasian on the western shore of Lake Mandra, 10 km west of Burgas, and its excavated baths, gate, streets and temple lie beside a modern museum at the village of Debelt (bg.wikipedia; en.wikipedia; BTA).
What you’ll see
Excavations since the 1980s have fully uncovered the town's east gate and part of its main street, with niches on the inner side of the gate for statues of the town's guardian gods (bg.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
If you are in Burgas, yes: it is a short drive, and the museum's finds, above all the bronze head of Septimius Severus, make up for remains that are mostly low walls and foundations.
Getting there & cost
Deultum is at the village of Debelt, about 10 km west of Burgas on the road to Sredets (bg.wikipedia). A car park is mapped about 265 m from the site and the museum about 230 m away; no bus stop is mapped nearby (OpenStreetMap).Ticketed · €3.07 · checked 2 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
An excavation of stone foundations, paving slabs and stone-lined channels, with column bases and drums scattered among the walls and grassy ground behind.
Excavated buildings and drains in the Roman town. · Photo: Камен Ханджиев · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A broken block of pinkish stone carved with large Latin capitals beginning "C IVLIVS", lying on another inscribed fragment.
A Latin inscription found at the site. · Photo: Камен Ханджиев · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

What is there today

Excavations since the 1980s have fully uncovered the town’s east gate and part of its main street, with niches on the inner side of the gate for statues of the town’s guardian gods (bg.wikipedia). Roman baths, a temple and the fortifications have been explored; the temple, of Asclepius and later of the imperial cult, in the north-east of the town, can still be seen (en.wikipedia; bg.wikipedia). The open-air site shows baths of the 1st century, walls, ancient streets and a medieval customs house (BTA).

The museum, opened beside the site in 2016, shows the finds: inscriptions, pottery, coin hoards, a fine glass bottle with mythological scenes, and the bronze head of the emperor Septimius Severus from a statue damaged by fire (en.wikipedia; BTA).

Is it worth the trip?

If you are in Burgas, yes: it is a short drive, and the museum’s finds, above all the bronze head of Septimius Severus, make up for remains that are mostly low walls and foundations.

Getting there

Deultum is at the village of Debelt, about 10 km west of Burgas on the road to Sredets (bg.wikipedia). A car park is mapped about 265 m from the site and the museum about 230 m away; no bus stop is mapped nearby (OpenStreetMap).

It is open daily, 09.00 to 17.00 in winter and to 18.00 in summer. A ticket is €3.07, or €1.02 for pupils, students and pensioners, and a family ticket €6.14 (BTA’s museum directory, May 2026). The museum has no website of its own and posts current information on the reserve’s Facebook page.

Visiting details

Opening hours
Daily 09.00–17.00 in winter and 09.00–18.00 in summer.
Tickets
€3.07; €1.02 for pupils, students and pensioners; family ticket €6.14; free under 7 and for visitors with disabilities. A guided talk is €5.11 in Bulgarian and €10.23 in another language.
Parking
A car park is mapped about 265 m from the point (OSM node/5366541244); the museum is about 230 m away (OSM way/556334570).
On foot
About 4 min from the parking

Before you go

  • The museum has no website of its own; it posts current information on the reserve's Facebook page. Hours and prices here are from the Bulgarian news agency's museum directory (May 2026), which names the museum's own contacts.
  • No bus stop is mapped near the site.

Hours and prices checked 2 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

There was a Thracian settlement nearby, Develt or Debelt, before the Romans, and the colony took its name: Colonia Flavia Pacis Deultensium, founded under Vespasian in the 70s AD for veterans of the legion VIII Augusta, who were probably given land between the lakes of Burgas and Mandra (bg.wikipedia). The “peace” in its name probably refers to the end of the civil war of 69 (en.wikipedia). Around 200 the town covered about 25 ha, with temples of Asclepius and Cybele, and it minted coins from Caracalla to Philip the Arab (en.wikipedia).

The Goths sacked it in the second half of the 3rd century, and again after defeating a Roman army outside the town in 377; each time it was rebuilt, the second time on a smaller scale, and new walls were built in the second half of the 5th century. Slavs and Avars destroyed them at the end of the 6th century (en.wikipedia). In the Middle Ages Develtos was a frontier fortress between Byzantium and Bulgaria, taken by Khan Krum in 812 (en.wikipedia).

Nearby

  • Excavated walls of rough stone laid out below raised metal walkways, with a modern two-storey museum building with a small lantern tower behind them under a cloudy sky.

    Photo: Galileo01 · CC BY 4.0 · Commons

    27 km · bath · Burgas Province

    Aquae Calidae

    The ruins of the town walls, the Roman baths with their warm and cold pools, and medieval rooms are shown from raised walkways, and a museum displays the finds: gold coins and jewellery, lead seals, bathing tools, pottery, carved marble and inscriptions (the museum).

  • A panorama of ruined fortress walls of stone with bands of brick, a tall round tower on the left and a broken gate tower in the middle, with a paved path, lawns and visitors in front.

    Photo: B0rder at en.wikipedia · Public domain · Commons

    48 km · city · Burgas Province

    Mesembria

    Be clear about what is Roman: most of what Nesebar is famous for, its churches of the 11th to 14th centuries, is medieval, and the town's earliest remains are Thracian and Greek (en.wikipedia; the museum).

Straight-line distances.

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 216788CC BY
Wikidata Q1201664CC0
OpenStreetMap way/231373863ODbL
Wikipedia (bg) — ДеултумCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — DeveltosCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (de) — DeultumCC BY-SA 4.0
BTA (Bulgarian News Agency), BG Museums — Archaeological exhibition "Deultum", Debeltlicence not recorded