Tyulenovo is a village in the municipality of Shabla, Dobrich region.
How to get here?
The village is located in the direction Kaliakra cape, and in the center of the village of Balgarevo turn left.
You will pass successively through the villages of St. Nicholas and Kamen Bryag.
Near the arch there is a separate wide parking lot where you can leave your car.
There is also a good dirt road that will take you to the arch itself.
Both options are OK.
Most Bulgarians associate the village with the first oil field in Bulgaria, discovered on May 31, 1951.
To this day, the annual village fair continues to be held in Tyulenovo on this date.
The oil
Forecasts predicted that the deposits would be sufficient for mining to continue for at least twenty years. However, intensive mining continued from 1955 to 1970.
Even today, rusty oil barrels, trucks and protruding oil wells can be seen along the surrounding area.
In Tyulenovo, very close to the sea, an "Monument of Oil" was erected, at the place where oil gushed for the first time in Bulgaria. The monument is hidden behind a fence and the inscription is difficult to read, but it is interesting and can be visited if desired.
Why "Tyulenovo" (in Bulgarian language it means the village of the seals)?
"Dad, where are we going today?" The children asked me that Sunday morning.
"To the botanical garden in Balchik, to Cape Kaliakra and we will also see an arch in a rock near the village of Tyulenovo."
"Will we see seals there?" They asked me.
The story goes that seals did live here.
Here is what the legend says.
The old name of the village is Kalach kyoi (comes from Turkish and means "village of the sickle").
In the middle of the nineteenth century in the whole of Dobrudzha, as well as in this village, Bulgarians from the interior of country settled additionally.
After the Inter-Allied War, also called the Second Balkan War (armed conflict between Bulgaria, on the one hand, and Serbia, Greece, Montenegro, Romania and the Ottoman Empire, on the other, in the summer of 1913), Bulgaria was forced to sign the Bucharest Peace Treaty. ceded to its former allies most of Macedonia, and to Romania - South Dobrudzha.
Queen Maria of Edinburgh of Romania liked the newly conquered land with its beautiful climate, warm sea water and picturesque rocks near Balchik.
One day, the Romanian Queen Maria received a strange and very interesting gift - a pair of seals.
The unusual family lived in a fenced area near her palace in Balchik.
The queen later decided to release them.
Attracted by the special relief near Tyulenovo, the low rocks and the underwater caves, the pair of seals settled near the village and started a colony.
For this reason in 1942 the village was renamed Tyulenovo.
Nowadays, only the name is a memory of the former seal colony.
They disappeared in the late twentieth century, a victim of industrial fishing, but the name remains.
The underwater seal cave, which is said to have been home to seals, can only be reached by water and in calm seas.
I haven't had the pleasure of seeing it live, but they say she's amazingly beautiful!
Underwater, one-storey and branched, 107 meters long, which makes it the longest on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
And yes, in 1978, the remains of Mediterranean monk seal seals (Monachus monachus) were actually found there.
The Arch
That's why we came here for!
A true arch in the cliffs by the sea! Like from fairy tales!
Extremely popular, it attracts amateur photographers from all over the country.
And not only this!
The great jump
This is an event organized by enthusiasts on social networks, and, as shared in the description, the organizers have the desire to make this event a tradition and guaranteed fun.
The "Great Leap Forward" has been held since the summer of 2016.
The motto of the event is "Jump over yourself" or "Challenge your fears" and his idea is for everyone to jump from a chosen high place from the rocks into the sea.
In addition to the arch, you will see a lonely rock nearby called the Lonely Man or the Lonely Rock.
It is interesting that each place around has a specific name: "Martina", "Dupkata", "Ashalak", "Kipria".
I wish you an exceptional and impressive walk!