Where is Bulgaria
Since ancient times, Bulgarian lands have been described by many European travelers as a paradise on earth. It’s a medium sized country in the east part of the Balkan Peninsula. It is a home of 7.8 Million people. Bulgaria is bordered be the Greece and turkey in the south, Romania in the north, Serbia and Macedonia in the west and the Black sea in the east.
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Bulgarian capital is Sofia with a population of 1.2 million people. The official language is Bulgarian and the alphabet is Cyrillic. The most of the Bulgarians are Eastern orthodox Christians (85 %) and the rest Muslims and others religions.
Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic and a member of the European Union since 1st of January 2007. The currency is called LEV (BGN) and it’s fixed to the EUR (1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN)
Bulgaria has a modern transport infrastructure including highways ( Trakia, Hemus, Struma, Maritza), first and second class road network, and railway lines. The larger airports are located in the cities of Sofia, Burgas, Varna and Plovdiv. The main sea ports are Burgas and Varna and the river ports on the Danube River are Rousse, Vidin, Silistra.
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The climate in Bulgaria is four seasons. The spring is beautiful and abundant with flowers, the summer is dry and hot, the autumn is long, lovely and multi coloured, the winter is mild but snowy.
The average temperatures in the summer (from April to September) are 23 C degrees, while during the winter days it falls to about 0 C degrees.
Bulgaria is primarily a mountainous country, with 37 mountains in its territory. The oldest and longest one is the Stara planina, the origin of the name of this entire European region, the Balkan Peninsula. The mountain range crosses the whole country from the west to the east, where its slopes disappear into the waves of the Black Sea. The other big mountains are Rila, Pirin and Rhodopes which are Alpine Style Mountains with modern ski centers such as Bansko, Borovets and Pamporovo. The Black Sea coast has a slightly indented coastline with sheer rocks and spacious beaches covered with fine golden sand. Most of our resort complexes such as Sunny Beach, Duni, Elenite, Russalka, Albena and Golden Sands are well known. However the Bulgarian Black Sea coast has another face known to nature lovers and ornithologist – these are the seemingly “untouched by man” areas with steep, rocky shores and rare plant and animal species. Bulgaria has 9 national natural parks throughout the country with a total area of over 215 000 ha of protected rare plants, extict species and natural landmarks.
The Bulgarian territory has been a cradle of ancient civilizations from prehistoric times. Human presence in these lands dates back to 1 million years BC. Undisputable evidence of this are the prehistoric pictures in the Magura cave the findings from Bacho Kiro cave as well as the gold treasure found in the Varna Necropolis which was the first processed gold in the world. In ancient times for 3 thousand years Bulgarian land was inhabited by the Thracians. The Thracians had unique achievements in the field of constructions, arts, goldsmith’s trade and wine production. The presence of Romans and ancient Greeks in the present territory of Bulgaria has left permanent marks in Bulgarian history. Some of the most visited landmarks of this era are the Roman amphitheater in Plovdiv, the ruins of ancient Serdica (today Sofia) , as well as discoveries dating back to Hellenic times in our seaside towns of Nessebar and Sozopol. For more sightseeings click here:
The founder of today’s Bulgaria is Khan Asparuh who left his land of origin in Middle Asia and reached the delta of the Danube River in 681AD. He was uniting the Thracian and Slavonic tribes inhabiting the territory. Khan Asparuh achieved the recognition of the first Bulgarian State with Pliska as its capital. During the IXth century it becomes one of the three great European monarchies and it felt under Ottoman slavery during XIV century. Today many preserved and restored medieval fortresses, churches and monasteries are part of the world heritage of UNESCO.
The new history of Bulgaria started on the 3rd March 1878. The independence won with the sacrifice of thousands of lives, darkened by the signing of the Treaty of Berlin which divided Bulgaria into parts. In 1885 the Union of Bulgarian Principality and the Eastern Rumelia (modern southern Bulgaria) took place. In the period 1912 -1918 Bulgaria was involved in three wars (Balkan war, Allies war and the WWI) which ended in national catastrophe. During the WWII Bulgaria is the only country that does not allowed Bulgarian Jews to be extradited to the Nazis death camps. On the 9th of September 1944 Bulgaria was declared a republic and the communist totalitarian regime into power.
The start of the democratic changes in Bulgaria began on 10th of November 1989. The new direction of the country began with the adoption of a new Constitution in 1991, restoration of the political parties and building of a market economy. Today Bulgaria is integrating into European family, and establishing its own unique model of ethnical tolerance based on the traditional Bulgarian democratic values and historical experience. On 2nd of April 2004 the country was accepted as a full member of NATO and on 1st January 2007 , Bulgaria became a member of the European Union.
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