Skip to content
Menu
Hidden gem2nd – 7th c. ADTicketed

Marcianopolis

Marcianople, Марцианопол

city · Varna Province, Bulgaria

What it is
Marcianopolis was the Roman capital of Moesia Inferior, under modern Devnya near Varna, and its reason to visit is the Museum of Mosaics, built over a rich late Roman house whose mythological floor mosaics are among the finest found in Bulgaria (the Devnya municipality; en.wikipedia).
What you’ll see
The museum stands over the House of Antiope, a house of the late 3rd or early 4th century that filled a whole city block, with 21 rooms around a paved courtyard with a well (en.wikipedia; the municipality).
Worth the trip?
Yes, for the mosaics: they are among the finest Roman floors found in Bulgaria, three of them still in the rooms they were laid for (the municipality), and Devnya is a short drive from Varna.
Getting there & cost
The Museum of Mosaics is at 73 Saedinenie Boulevard in Devnya (the municipality), about 25 km from Varna (de.wikipedia). A car park is mapped beside it; no bus stop is mapped nearby (OpenStreetMap).Ticketed · Museum of Mosaics €4.09 · checked 3 October 2026Hours, tickets and parking
A Roman floor mosaic with a small head of Medusa at the centre of a large circular shield of black and white scales, framed by a broad key-pattern border.
The Medusa mosaic, the emblem of the Museum of Mosaics. · Photo: Vassia Atanassova - Spiritia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A courtyard paved with large stone slabs, with a round stone well-head in the middle, seen from above.
The paved courtyard of the House of Antiope, with its well. · Photo: Rjdeadly · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A Roman street of large worn paving slabs with a drain channel down one side, low walls along it and a visitor walking in the distance.
A paved Roman street near the museum. · Photo: Rjdeadly · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

What is there today

The museum stands over the House of Antiope, a house of the late 3rd or early 4th century that filled a whole city block, with 21 rooms around a paved courtyard with a well (en.wikipedia; the municipality). Five of its rooms and the portico had floor mosaics; three are shown in place and the others, conserved and partly restored, on new supports (the municipality). The best known shows the head of Medusa on the shield of Athena; others show Zeus as a satyr carrying off Antiope, Ganymede taken up by the eagle, and the Seasons, of which Autumn survives (en.wikipedia). The museum building covers the western part of the house; its eastern wing and courtyard are open, a Roman street passes under the building, and several ancient walls stand around it (en.wikipedia).

The museum also shows a hoard of 20 gold coins of Theodosius II, found in 2019–2023 in a building burned during the Hun invasion of 447, and the bronze fittings of a folding chair from a tomb of the late 2nd or early 3rd century (the municipality). The amphitheatre, a few hundred metres north, has been excavated, and the remains of a church were found in its eastern part (the municipality; bg.wikipedia); today its outline shows as low stone footings in a grassy field (the photograph).

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, for the mosaics: they are among the finest Roman floors found in Bulgaria, three of them still in the rooms they were laid for (the municipality), and Devnya is a short drive from Varna. The house and a few walls around the museum are most of what survives of the ancient city (en.wikipedia), so there is little else to see.

Getting there

The Museum of Mosaics is at 73 Saedinenie Boulevard in Devnya (the municipality), about 25 km from Varna (de.wikipedia). A car park is mapped beside it; no bus stop is mapped nearby (OpenStreetMap).

From May to September the museum is open daily, 10.00 to 16.00; from October to April 10.00 to 16.00, closed on Saturdays and Sundays. A ticket is €4.09, or €2.05 for pensioners, children and students, and a family ticket €8.18 (the municipality, published July 2025). A full renovation of the building was announced for 2024 (BTA, January 2024), so telephone before a long trip.

Visiting details

Opening hours
Museum of Mosaics: May to September daily 10.00–16.00; October to April 10.00–16.00, closed Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets
Museum of Mosaics €4.09; €2.05 for pensioners, children, students and visitors with disabilities; family ticket (up to three children under 18) €8.18.
Parking
A car park is mapped beside the museum, about 60 m from the point (OSM way/1238930829).
On foot
About 1 min from the parking

Before you go

  • A full renovation of the museum building was announced for 2024 (BTA, 16 January 2024); the municipality's page, published July 2025, gives regular opening hours. Telephone the museum before a long trip (0519 34440).
  • No bus stop is mapped near the museum.

Hours and prices checked 3 October 2026 on the operator's own site. Confirm before travelling.

History

Trajan named the town after his sister Ulpia Marciana after the Second Dacian War, which ended in 106 (en.wikipedia; de.wikipedia); en and bg.wikipedia say it was earlier called Parthenopolis, which de.wikipedia calls a mistaken identification. It stood where roads from the Danube to Adrianople and Constantinople crossed the road from the west to Odessos (de.wikipedia). The Goths attacked it in 248 and again in the late 260s, and both times were driven off (de.wikipedia; en.wikipedia). Under Diocletian it became the capital of Moesia Secunda, and in 366–369 the emperor Valens made it his base in his war with the Goths (en.wikipedia; de.wikipedia).

Attila’s Huns destroyed the city in 447, and Justinian I restored and fortified it. The Avars took it in 587, but it was retaken at once, and the army gathered there in 596 before crossing the Danube; an Avar raid finally destroyed it in 614–615 (en.wikipedia).

More photographs

A grassy field with lines of low squared stone blocks marking out foundations, trees along the edge and a house behind a fence.
The site of the amphitheatre, its outline marked by low stone footings. · Photo: Rjdeadly · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

  • A tall, ragged mass of Roman masonry with a brick arch at its foot rising above low walls of brick and stone, with a grassy floor between them, trees and a red-roofed house behind.

    Photo: Dina Rogatnykh · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    27 km · bath · Varna Province

    Odessos

    The large Roman baths lie in the south-east of the modern city, near the port.

Straight-line distances.

Sources

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

SourceLicence
Pleiades 216878CC BY
Wikidata Q431280CC0
Devnya municipality — Museum of Mosaics (hours, prices, collection)licence not recorded
Wikipedia (en) — MarcianopolisCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (bg) — МарцианополCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (de) — MarcianopolisCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Museum of Mosaics, DevnyaCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (bg) — Музей на мозайките, ДевняCC BY-SA 4.0
BTA (Bulgarian News Agency) — Devnya, Museum of Mosaics (photographs and captions, 16 January 2024)licence not recorded