St. Anastasia Museum

On the second floor of the large monastery building you can find interactive museum exhibition, which represents the rich history of Saint Anastasia Island. The Island’s past is revealed as pirates’ treasury, monastery, prison cells and inspirational place for many writers and poets.

Interesting part of the museum is the successful combination of traditional exhibition and interactive methods of visualization. The museum gives you the opportunity to feel unique experience, immersing in the history of the island.

The museum exhibition includes six separate rooms and each one of them reveals different stage of the history of Saint Anastasia Island.

Treasury

The first room of the museum recreates the most distant past of the Island. It combines exposure of artifacts found in the waters of the island over the years with stories and legends about pirate attacks in the past. Island’s “treasure” includes Spanish, Venetian and Turkish coins. The interior is enhanced by attractive lighting.

“Ekamos”

The Burgas poet Hristo Fotev had called the bioluminescent effect of the plankton “ekamos”. Room “ekamos” recreate this magical natural phenomenon and it seems like we are immersing in one virtual romantic night swimming in the sea.

The monastery Island

This room is connected with the monastic past of the Island. Here you can see the authentic life of monks presented by various objects – icons, books, letters, plates, cups. The picture of monastic life becomes alive in front of the visitors due to video projectors.

Prison cell

Sounds, videos and pictures represent the prison period of the history of Saint Anastasia, when the island was called Bolshevik. The room is designed as prison cell. Portraits and archive footage round out the picture of the lives of those who served their sentences in the Island.

Saint Anastasia

This part of the museum is dedicated to the saint whose name the Island bears today – Saint Anastasia Farmakolitriya. Icons and images from different schools and periods acquaint visitors with the saint. How did Saint Anastasia live and die and where her name Farmakolitriya comes from – the answers of these questions are given in this room.

Plus Ultra

Plus Ultra (from Latin – “From now on”) is an inscription on Spanish coins, minted during 17th century. This signs gives the name of the last room of the museum. The recent history of Saint Anastasia Island is presented here by events and personalities from the 70s of the last century until nowadays.