A small port on the northwest coast of the Black Sea, inhabited by Romanians, Muslims and Germans, as well by Greek fishermen, seamen and merchants, whose origins were mainly from Kefalonia (Cephallonia). The community, which was established in the middle of the 19th century, founded a church which was demolished in 1959. Today, the city is a notable tourist centre.

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Ancient family with origins in Chios. Members of the family had been distinguished in the economic, cultural and political life of the Ottoman Empire since the end of the 17th century. Several members of the family made their mark as diplomats and governors of the Danubian Principalities, as well as in entrepreneurial activity.

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Family hailing from the Cyclades, members of which migrated in the Danubian Principalities and southern Russia (Odessa, Taganrog), where they excelled in commerce and shipping. Members of the Mavros family married into other notable diaspora families, such as the Melas and Vasileiou ones.

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Both monumental and rock-cut monasteries were founded and functioned along the West Black Sea coast and in its immediate hinterland between the 6th and 17th c. Due to the proximity to Constantinople and the importance of the coast as a contact zone, many of them were under royal, imperial and patriarchal patronage and thus, had the duty and the privilege to act as primary literary and spiritual centers in the Black Sea region.

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The Melas family came from Epirus and was one of the most important families of the region. Members of the family occupied themselves with European trade on the 18th and 19th century. They became relatives with other important families, such as the Vasileiou and the Mavros family, with which they collaborated in trade. A relative of the family was the known scholar Dimitrios Vikelas.

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The ruins of the ancient Doric city of Mesembria are found on the west coast of the Black Sea, in the modern town of Nessebar in Bulgaria. The ancient Greek colonists had chosen the location of the city with particular care, thus building it on the peninsula of Nessebar. The peninsula is protected by natural fortification and enables communication with the mainland through a narrow isthmus 350 m long, while it provides an important harbour for ships directed towards and from the city.

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The surviving churches in Mesembria with their exuberant exterior decoration became a kind of emblem of the coastal town though the well-preserved sectors of the fortress wall and some other monuments deserve attention too. Yet the peculiar fusion of metropolitan and provincial influence on one hand, and local building and decorative approaches on the other, defines the most distinctive characteristic of the architectural appearance of Mesembria.

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