Portal:Bulgaria

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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located west of the Black Sea and south of the Danube river, Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia and North Macedonia to the west, and Romania to the north. It covers a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi) and is the 16th largest country in Europe. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities include Burgas, Plovdiv, and Varna.

Bulgaria has an upper-middle-income economy, ranking 70th in the Human Development Index. Its market economy is part of the European Single Market and is largely based on services, followed by industry—especially machine building and mining—and agriculture. The country faces a demographic crisis; its population peaked at 9 million in 1989, and has since decreased to under 6.4 million as of 2024. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, the Schengen Area, NATO, and the Council of Europe. It is also a founding member of the OSCE and has taken a seat on the United Nations Security Council three times. (Full article...)

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Portrait of the tsar from the medieval manuscript, Tetraevangelia of Ivan Alexander

Ivan Alexander (Bulgarian: Иван Александър, transliterated Ivan Aleksandǎr, pronounced [iˈvan ɐlɛkˈsandɐr]; original spelling: ІѠАНЪ АЛЄѮАН^дРЪ), also sometimes Anglicized as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor (Tsar) of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, during the Second Bulgarian Empire. The date of his birth is unknown. He died on 17 February 1371. The long reign of Ivan Alexander is considered a transitional period in Bulgarian medieval history. Ivan Alexander began his rule by dealing with internal problems and external threats from Bulgaria's neighbours, the Byzantine Empire and Serbia, as well as leading his empire into a period of economic recovery and cultural and religious renaissance.

However, the emperor was later unable to cope with the mounting incursions of Ottoman forces, Hungarian invasions from the northwest and the Black Death. In an ill-fated attempt to combat these problems, he divided the country between his two sons, thus forcing it to face the imminent Ottoman conquest weakened and divided. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Tsvetana Jermanova survived imprisonment in two forced labour camps in communist Bulgaria?
... that one of the highest death rates in the Holocaust was in Bulgarian-occupied Greece, where 97 percent of Jews were killed in less than a month?

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Gallery

Image 1Maritsa is a river in South Bulgaria.
Image 2Razgrad is a city in East Bulgaria.
Image 3Danube river in Bulgaria
Image 4Rila is a mountain in West Bulgaria
Image 5A beach in Bulgaria.
Image 6Sofia is the biggest city in Bulgaria.
Image 7Varna lake is a salt lake near Black sea.

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Credit: Evgeni Dinev

The Devil's Bridge (Bulgarian: Дяволски мост) spans over the Arda River in the eastern Rhodope Mountains.

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More did You Know?

...that the Zograf Monastery (pictured) on the Holy Mountain was burnt down by a Catalan pirate raid in 1275?

...that Mandritsa is known as the only Albanian village in Bulgaria?

...that the Banat Bulgarian Stefan Dunjov participated in both the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the Italian unification, and was the first Bulgarian to be promoted to the rank of Colonel?

...that Ivan Bogorov, who published the first Bulgarian newspaper in 1846 in Leipzig, was also an ardent supporter of Bulgarian linguistic purism and was known for his often amusing neologisms?

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