Portal:Bulgaria

Welcome to the Bulgaria portal!

Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, and Romania across the Danube river to the north. It covers a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), making it the tenth largest within the European Union and the sixteenth-largest country in Europe by area. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities include Plovdiv, Varna, and Burgas.

Since adopting a democratic constitution in 1991, Bulgaria has been a parliamentary republic composed of 28 provinces, with a high degree of political, administrative, and economic centralisation. A developed country, its advanced, high-income economy is part of the European single market and is largely based on services, followed by manufacturing, mining, and agriculture. Bulgaria has been influenced by its role as a transit country for natural gas and oil pipelines, as well as its strategic location on the Black Sea. Bulgaria is a member state of the European Union, including the Schengen Area and the eurozone, NATO, and various regional suborganizations such as the Bucharest Nine. (Full article...)

Statue of Simeon I in Vidin

Simeon I the Great (Church Slavonic: цѣсар҄ь Сѷмеѡ́нъ А҃ Вели́къ; Bulgarian: цар Симеон I Велики, romanized: Simeon I Veliki [simɛˈɔn ˈpɤrvi vɛˈliki]; Greek: Συμεών Αʹ ὁ Μέγας, romanized: Sumeṓn prôtos ho Mégas) was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire from 893 until his death in 927. Simeon's successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern and Southeast Europe. His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.

During Simeon's rule, Bulgaria spread over a territory between the Aegean, the Adriatic and the Black seas. The newly independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church became the first new patriarchate besides the Pentarchy, and Bulgarian Glagolitic and Cyrillic translations of Christian texts spread all over the Slavic world of the time. It was at the Preslav Literary School in the 890s that the Cyrillic alphabet was developed. Halfway through his reign, Simeon assumed the title of "emperor" (Tsar), having prior to that been styled "prince" (Knyaz). (Full article...)

List of selected articles

... that the combination of Bulgarian choral music and Tuvan throat singing on Fly, Fly My Sadness was inspired by multiple albums being played at the same time?
... that basketball player Charel Allen was a five-time Bulgarian Cup champion despite knowing only a few words of Bulgarian?
... that Will Wood conducted a Bulgarian choir via Zoom for "White Noise"?
... that the combination of Bulgarian choral music and Tuvan throat singing on Fly, Fly My Sadness was inspired by multiple albums being played at the same time?
... that Tsvetana Jermanova survived imprisonment in two forced labour camps in communist Bulgaria?
... that during the 1899–1900 peasant unrest in Bulgaria, some troops refused orders to fire on the protesters?

Credit:

Khan Omurtag, ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire from 814 to 831 AD. His rule saw a territorial expansion and active construction of large temples and palaces.

More selected pictures • Read more...

... that the currently abandoned Old High School of Music (pictured) in Rousse, Bulgaria has previously housed a primary school, a junior high school, a university, and a trade school?

... that Bulgaria's first cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, safely returned to Earth despite a failing main engine and a damaged backup engine on his Soyuz 33 spacecraft?

... that Spas Wenkoff, first a tenor at a Bulgarian amateur theatre, appeared as Tristan at the Staatsoper Dresden, and was then invited to sing the role at the centenary Bayreuth Festival?