The area has been populated at least since the
Neolith and was a major centre of an
Eneolithic culture with unique skills in metallurgy and seafaring, with a developed social structure and religion (see
Varna Necropolis, site of arguably the oldest man-made gold treasure in the world).
Solnitsata, the earliest known European town, was in what is today Varna Province. By the first millennium BC, it was inhabited by
Thracians who dominated it throughout classical antiquity; by the end of the period they were largely Romanized. In the 6th century BC, an ancient Greek trading colony (
apoikia), Odessos (
Varna), was founded, becoming an enduring contact zone between Thracians and Greeks. In the 4th century, the province was included in the empire of
Philip II,
Alexander the Great and his
diadochus Lysimachus. By the first century AD, it was conquered by the
Roman Empire. Under Emperor
Diocletian, Marcianopolis (
Devnya) became the centre of the Roman province of
Moesia Secunda of the Diocese of
Thrace. During Emperor
Valens' wars with the
Goths (366-369), this city was temporary capital of the empire. Both Marcianopolis and Odessus (the Roman name of Odessos) were major early Christian centres. It is believed that
Saint Andrew founded the local Christian church and his disciple
Ampliatus served as bishop at Odessus. In the 6th century,
Slavs' migrations altered the ethnic composition of the then
Byzantine province. Between 680 and 681, it became the heartland of the
First Bulgarian Empire, whose capital was perhaps initially near Varna, before it moved to
Pliska. Two of the most significant
scriptoria of the
Preslav Literary School were at Ravna (near Provadiya) and Varna. The latter two cities were major fortresses and trade emporia of the
Second Bulgarian Empire as well. The peasant war of
Ivailo in the late 13th century started from the region, which at the time was plagued by
Tatar raids and was finally subdued by the
Ottomans in 1389. In 1444, the
Battle of Varna was fought, as were several ground and naval battles of the Russo-Turkish wars of the 18th and 19th century. Under the Ottomans, the population became extremely diverse, with significant number of Turks and other Muslim peoples arriving from
Asia Minor, the steppes north of the Black Sea, and the
Caucasus, along with Orthodox Christian Gagauz,
Armenians, and
Sephardic Jews from
Thessaloniki. Many Bulgarians from the region were forcibly relocated to Asia Minor and, in the wake of the Russo-Turkish wars, up to 250,000 eastern Bulgarians were transferred to Russian
Bessarabia and
Crimea. Compact Bulgarian population persisted throughout the Provadiya Plateau, Devnya Valley, and Eastern Stara Planina. Villagers from places such as Chenge (modern Asparuhovo, municipality of Dalgopol), Gulitsa (modern Golitsa, municipality of Dolni Chiflik), and neighbouring Erkech (modern Kozichino,
Burgas Province) later colonized and returned the Bulgarian ethnic character to dozens of villages throughout northeastern and southeastern Bulgaria, including much of Varna province. After the
liberation of 1878, with the exodus of most Turks and Greeks and the migrations of Bulgarians from other parts of Bulgaria, mostly
Stara Planina, as well as North
Dobruja,
Asia Minor, Bessarabia, and later from
Macedonia and Eastern
Thrace, ethnic diversity gradually gave way to Bulgarian predominance. One of the versions of a folk song, inspired by the
Ruse blood wedding, can be heard in the province. ==Economy==