General Information
    Bulgaria is a country in south-eastern Europe. It comprises a considerable part of the eastern half of the Balkan peninsula. The northern frontier of Bulgaria (with Romania) goes along the river Danube. The eastern frontier follows the coast of the Black Sea from cape Kartal to the issue of the river Rezovska. The Southern frontier (with Turkey and Greece) passes from the issue of river Rezovska to peak Tumba. The western frontier goes from peak Tumba to the issue of the river Timok.
    The surface of Bulgaria is 111 000 sq. km. The population is 8 291 000. The official language is Bulgarian. In administrative aspect the state is divided into 30 regions. There are 220 cities and approximately 5500 other villages in Bulgaria. The capital is Sofia. Plovdiv is the second city in population.  The currency is Bulgarian lev (pl. leva). Coins with smaller denomination are called "stotinki" (100 stotinki = 1 lev).
Major credit cards are accepted. Many local banks and currency exchange offices function in every town. Working hours of the banks: 9.00 a.m. - 4.30 p.m., Monday to Friday. Currency exchange offices are open to 5 p.m., some working 24 hours a day. Currency exchange at the airport on arrival or departure, and in  big hotels, is also possible. Local time: GMT +2 (GMT +3 from the end of March to the end of September)
OFFICIAL HOLIDAYS
January 1 - New Year 
March 3 - Bulgaria's Liberation from Ottoman yoke - the National Day
Easter - one week after the Catholic Easter 
May 1 - Labour Day 
May 6 - Bulgarian Army Day 
May 24 - Day of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture and the Slav Script 
September 6 - Bulgaria's Unification
September 22 - Independance Day
December 25-26 - Christmas 
Telecommunications: International dialing code for Bulgaria +359, for Sofia +359 2, for Plovdiv +359 32 . Direct telephone communication from Bulgaria to all countries  is possible from Bulgarian Telecommunication Company phone booths or with phonecards. Phone calls, telegram and telefax services in the country and abroad are also offered by the Post Offices.

 State system
    Bulgaria is an independent state and the form of government is of people�s democracy. All citizens have equal rights as the law is concerned disregarding sex, nationality, race, religion, education, occupation, social and material status.
    According to the Constitution the entire power comes from the people and belongs to the people. It is done by freely elected representative body and by referendum.
    A supreme body of the state power is the Parliament which represents the power in all its aspects according to the Constitution. The Parliament is the only legislative body in the state.
    A supreme body of the power is the Government. The authorities preserve the rights and freedom acknowledged by the Constitution and the laws. The citizens have the right of work, repose and social insurance. The state guarantees the freedom and inviolability of  the person,  freedom of  press, speech, assemblies, meetings and others.
Bulgaria abides by the East-European time, 2 hours ahead of universal time  (the time of Greenwich Observatory in Great Britain).  Daylight saving time is used from  0 hours on the last Sunday of March till 24 hours on the last Saturday of October.
History
   The geographical situation at crossroads, the favourable climate and the variety of relief are prerequisites for the interweaving of fates and routes of many tribes and peoples on the Bulgarian lands. The territory of Bulgaria was inhabited since the earliest historical ages - the Stone Age and the Stone-Copper Age. Archaeological findings of that time were excavated near Karanovo, in the region of Nova Zagora, near Varna, Veliko Turnovo, Vidin, Sofia, Teteven, Troyan, in the Rhodopes. In the Bronze Age Thracians settled here. They dealt in field farming and stock breeding and left evidence of a rich culture (the treasure of Vulchitrun, the Sofia golden vessel and others). In the 11th-6th centuries B.C. there appeared Thracian state units the efflorescence of which took place between the 6th and 2nd centuries B.C. In the 1st C. B.C. their lands were conquered by Rome and in the 5th C. were included in Byzantium. In the 5th-6th centuries the Slavs settled on the Balkan Peninsula, soon to be followed by the Proto-Bulgarians. The constant threat in the face of Byzantium was the cause for these settlers to unite. Thus, in 681 the Bulgarian state was established with Khan Asparouh at the head. Pliska became the capital city. In the years to follow the state underwent periods of greatness and decline.

Under the reign of Khan Tervel (700-718) Bulgaria expanded in territory and rose to a higher political standing. Under Khan Kroum (803-814) Bulgaria bordered on the west with the empire of Charlemagne and on the east the Bulgarian troops reached the walls of Constantinople.

In 864 under Knyaz Boris I Mihail (852-889) the Bulgarian people adopted Christianity as official religion.

At the end of the 9th C. the students of Constantin-Cyril the Philosopher and his brother Methodius - founders of the Slavonic alphabet, came to Bulgaria. Here they enjoyed favourable working conditions and soon undertook large-scale educational and literary activities. Ohrid and Pliska, and later the new capital Veliki Preslav became centres of the Bulgarian and, generally speaking, the Slavonic culture. The reigh of Tsar Simeon (893-917) was the "golden age of Bulgarian culture", when the state expanded to reach the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea.

Under the successors of Simeon the state weakened by reason of internal turmoil; there spread the heretical teaching of the Bogomils that exerted influence over the heresy of the Cathars and the Albigenses in Western Europe.

In 1018, after long-lasting wars, Bulgaria was conquered by Byzantium. As early as the first years of Byzantine rule the Bulgarians began to struggle for liberation. In 1186 the uprising led by the brother boyars Asen and Petur overthrew the power of Byzantium. As a result the Second Bulgarian Kingdom was established, with Turnovo as a capital city. Up to 1197 the state was under the rule first of Asen and next of Petur.

The mighty power of Bulgaria was restored under their youngest brother Kaloyan (1197-1207), and under Tsar Ivan Asen II (1218-1241) the Second Bulgarian Kingdom reached its highest efflorescence establishing political hegemony in South-East Europe, expanding its borders, pushing forward economical and cultural development. After 1300 the cultural life in Bulgaria marked a new uplift. The literary and artistic school of Turnovo carried on the traditions in the Bulgarian culture - evidenced in the mural paintings in the Boyana Church, the churches in Turnovo, the Zemen Monastery, the rock churches near Ivanovo, the miniatures in the London Gospel, the Chronicle of Manasses.

Separatist tendencies, though, on the part of the boyars led to the splitting of the state in two kingdoms - the Vidin Kingdom and the Turnovo Kingdom. This weakening of the state made it an easy prey for invaders and in 1396 it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. In the course of almost 5 centuries Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule. The initial years were characterized by unrest and attempts for liberation, later on the haidouts (rebels) appeared who took revenge on the Turks for their wrong doings and this finally led to the establishment of a well-organized national liberation movement.

The beginning of the 18th C. saw the first stages in the formation of the Bulgarian nation - the Bulgarian enlightenment set in. It was initiated by the work of the monk Paisiy Hilendarski "Slav-Bulgarian History", written in 1762. This writing urged the Bulgarian people to become conscious of and appreciate its own nationality. The ideas of national liberation were conceived and led to the establishment of national church, education and culture.

The organized revolutionary activities are associated with the life-work of Georgi Stoikov Rakovski (1821-1867) - writer and publicist, founder and ideologist of the national-liberation revolutionary movement; Vasil Levski (1837-1873) - strategist and ideologist of the movement, captured by the Turks and put to death near Sofia, a national hero; Lyuben Karavelov (1834-1879) - writer and publicist, leader and ideologist of the movement; Hristo Botev (1847-1876) - poet and publicist, revolutionary democrat, who got killed as voivode (chieftain) of a volunteer detachment fighting the Turkish army, a national hero, and many others.

1876 saw the outbreak of the April Uprising, ruthlessly crushed and drowned in blood, but of major political significance, as it drew the attention of the European states to the Bulgarian national issue.

In 1878, as a result of the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation (1877-1878), the Bulgarian state was restored, but national integration was not attained. The Principality of Bulgaria was proclaimed with an elective knyaz (prince) (Alexander of Battenberg), Eastern Rumelia with a governor of Christian faith to be appointed by the sultan, while Thrace and Macedonia remained under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.

The opposition to this unfair decision of the Congress of Berlin (1878) let to the Kresna-Razlog Uprising (1878-1879), to the unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia (1885), to the break up of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising (1903). Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a prince since 1887, proclaimed the independence of Turkey and in 1908 became tsar (king) of the Bulgarian people, Bulgaria waged the Balkan War (1912) together with Serbia and Greece for the liberation of Thrace and Macedonia. Bulgaria won that war, but in the Inter-Allies War that followed (1913) was defeated by Romania, Turkey and its former allies that tore off territories populated by Bulgarians.

The intervention of Bulgaria in World War I on the side of the Central Powers ended up in a national catastrophe. In 1918 Tsar Ferdinand abdicated to the advantage of his son Boris III. The Peace Treaty of Neuilly imposed harsh clauses on Bulgaria.

Towards the beginning of the 40ies Bulgaria swerved towards Germany and the Axis powers, but later on the participation of Bulgarian troops on the Eastern Front was prevented, Jews living in the country were rescued from deportment.

In August 1943 Tsar Boris III died and a regency was proclaimed that governed the state in lieu of the young Tsar Simeon II. On 5 September 1944 the Soviet army invaded Bulgaria and on 9 September a government of the Fatherland Front was instated headed by Kimon Georgiev. In 1946 Bulgaria was proclaimed a republic. The Bulgarian Communist party came into power. The political parties were suppressed, the economy and the banks were nationalized, the arable land was joined in co-operatives. At the head of the state and the communist party there stood in succession Georgi Dimitrov, Vasil Kolarov, Vulko Chervenkov, Anton Yugov, Todor Zhivkov.

Relief, Climate and Waters

RELIEF. The relief of the country is diverse, including vast lowlands, planes, low hills, high and low mountains, valleys, river basins and deep gorges. The surface structures were formed during different geological eras. The oldest in terms of geological classification are the Moezian Platform (the Danubian Hilly Plane) and the Rila Massif and the Rhodopes. The undulating system of Stara Planina and Sredna Gora mountains and the Sub-Balkan Valleys date from a later geological age.

The average altitude of Bulgaria is 470 m. Over 2/3 of the territory is situated at an altitude of 600 m, i.e. lowlands, planes and low hills prevail. The lowlands (up to 200 m) take up 30 % of the territory, the planes and the low hills (200-600 m) - 40 %, the low mountains (600-1000 m) - 16 %, the medium high mountains (1000-1600 m) - 10 %, and the high mountains (over 1600 m) - 4 %. A typical feature of the relief is that its structural units alternate from north to south and extend (also diminishing in height) from west - north-west to east - south-east.

In the northernmost part of Bulgaria, to the south of the Danube River, lies the Danubian Hilly Plane, the largest plane in the country. To the south it reaches the Fore-Balkan, to the west - the Timok River, to the east - the Black Sea. Its highest point (502 m) is in the region of the Shoumen Plateau. From the east to the west the relief changes from lowlands-plateau to uplands-plateau.

The Fore-Balkan is a fore mountain of Stara Planina, from which it is separated by a system of gorges, defiles and valleys. It lies to the south of the Danubian Hilly Plane stretching from Vrushka Chouka Hillock to the Black Sea. The mountain rises to its highest point in the Vasilyovska Mountain - Vasilyov Peak (1490 m), and its average altitude is 364 m. In the relief of the Fore-Balkan longitudinal mountain rising grounds, divided by wide valleys, prevail.

The mountain range of Stara Planina lies between the Belogradchik Pass and Cape Emine on the Black Sea; to the south it borders on Sofia Valley and the Southern Balkan Valleys. Its length is approximately 530 km, its width - 15-20 km and its medium altitude - 722 m. The range reaches its highest elevation in the Troyan-Kalofer Mountain - Botev Peak (2376 m).

To the south of Stara Planina and almost parallel to it the Sredna Gora Mountains lies. It is connected to Stara Planina by means of the cross-thresholds Gulubets, Koznitsa, Krustets and Mezhdenik. Its length is about 285 km, its width - 50 km and its average altitude is 608 m. Its highest point is Golyam Bogdan Peak (1604 m).

Between Sredna Gora, the Rila Massif and the Rhodopes there lie the low mountains Golo Burdo, Chirpan Hills, the massive mountain domes of Vitosha and Sakar, the isolated hills of Sveti Iliya, Manastir, Bakadzhitsite, etc. The upper Thracian and Bourgas valleys, the valleys of Pernik and Radomir lowlands are situated between these hills.

The Rila Massif and the Rhodopes are the highest on the Balkan Peninsula. They consist of the Rila Mountains (highest point - 2925 m), Pirin, the Rhodopes and the mountain group of Osogovo-Belasitsa. In the Quaternary Rila and Pirin were covered with glaciers; at 2200 m altitude there can be found numerous cirques, glacial planes, moraines and beautiful cirque lakes. The sharp rocky peaks lend these mountains an alpine view. The mountain massif of the Rhodopes has almost square outlines and levelled ridges. It is characterized by the alternation of high long rising grounds and narrow, deeply cut in valleys and ravines. There are numerous Karst formations - caves, gorges, rock phenomena (in the regions of Trigrad, Velingrad, Dobrostan, Peshtera and Arda).

In the eastern part of Bulgaria, by the Black Sea Coast, there are well outlined wide beaches. These occupy approximately 130 km of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast (378 km). The Kamchiya-Shkorpilovtsi Beach Line is the longest (12 km). These beaches are wide and strewn with fine sand.

CLIMATE.Bulgaria is situated in the southern part of the temperate climatic zone of Europe. The territory of the country is subject to the influence of the Atlantic Ocean from the west, and to the influence of the continental part of Central and Eastern Europe from the north-west and the north-east. The climate of Bulgaria is generally defined as temperate continental with well expressed transition to the south of Stara Planina. In the southernmost regions of the country the influence of the Mediterranean is felt. The influence of the Black Sea is localized along a narrow strip (10 - 30 km) in Eastern Bulgaria. In the mountainous regions at an altitude above 1000 m a mountainous climatic zone is differentiated with relatively low temperatures, heavy rainfall and continuous snow retention. The average annual temperature of the air in Bulgaria is 10,5 oC. The lowest reading, -38,3 oC, was taken in Trun in 1947, the highest, +45,2 oC, in Sadovo in 1916.

Winds vary in direction and velocity, relatively constant being the north-west and the west. These cause warming up in spring and bring rainfall in summer, often accompanied by thunder. Comparatively frequent is the north-east wind bringing dry continental air masses - cold in winter and hot in summer.

The average annual rainfall range is between 450 - 1300 mm, the larger quantity falling over Western Bulgaria and the high mountains. The heaviest rains fall in May and June, but in the high mountains the precipitation is in winter. The snow cover lasts 10 days along the Black Sea coast, but more than 200 days in the high mountains.
Climate: Mild continental (2,000 to 2,400 hours of sunlight per year). Four seasons. Dry and hot summer. Average temperature (April - September): + 23 °C Cold winter with snowfalls, average temperature: 0 °C. The average yearly temperature is 10.5 °C.

WATERS. The complex relief structure and the small territory of Bulgaria do not create conditions for big rivers. The variety of relief and climatic conditions account for a comparatively dense and unevenly distributed river network. Most rivers in Bulgaria spring from its high mountains and flow into the Black Sea (predominantly through the Danube River) and the Aegean Sea. The catchment basins of these rivers are small - the biggest one is the Maritsa River basin. In Bulgaria there are 526 rivers that are more than 2,3 km long. The longest one is the Iskur - 368 km.

Bulgaria is rich in mineral waters, with more than 600 natural springs and more than 370 drillied mineral sources. The temperature of the water ranges from 8 to 101,4 oC (in Sapareva Banya).
The natural lakes in Bulgaria are comparatively few. The biggest are along the Black Sea - the lagoon lakes of Alepou, Arkoutino, Pomorie, and the firth lakes of Beloslav, Bourgas, Varna, Shabla. Most numerous (more than 360) are the high-mountain alpine glacial lakes in Rila and Pirin. These are situated mainly in cirques at an altitude of 1900 - 2400 m. The lakes and the swamps along the Danube have been drained with the exception of Sreburna Lake which is a part of a reserve.

Numerous dams have been built as parts of hydrosystems and hydrojunctions - Iskur, Arda, the Batak Hydropower System, Dospat-Vucha, Belmeken-Sestrimo, and also about 2000 small dams.

Agriculture
    Bulgaria is an industrial - agricultural country. After the World War II radical economical and social changes are done in Bulgaria. Agriculture predominates. The national income grows. Industry develops. The international tourism expands. Large mountain as well as seaside resorts are built.

    Many new roads, equipment and objects are built.
    After the changes an economical reform is conducted. Since it is not finished yet it may be said that the economy is not very stable at the moment. That fact reflects on education,  health services and the culture.

    Science and education
    After the World War II Bulgarian science enters a new period of development. Many new researching institutions are created as well as universities and colleges. Many efforts are put in creating of new specialists. The number of university graduates is large. With their practical knowledge and great general information  Bulgarians win distinguished scholarships and competitions; many of them work abroad.

Architecture and art
    The Bulgarian lands are rich in various architectural records inherited from different epochs and people. The Bulgarian architecture originates along with the forming of the First Bulgarian Country in 7th c. At the time of the Turkish yoke many architectural records are cruelly destroyed. During the Renaissance (from the middle of 18 c. to the Liberation) a blossoming of the Bulgarian architecture comes. The houses in Geravna, Koprivshitza, the Old Town of Plovdiv, the Rilski Monastery, Tarnovo and others are remarkable. Valuable architectural monuments are: the church-monument �Alexander Nevski� in Sofia, People�s Theatre �Ivan Vazov�, the building of Mineral bath in Sofia and others. Bulgaria is rich in remarkable monuments of the fine arts. These are: the Madara�s horseman, the bone-vault in the Bachkovo monastery, the mural paintings in the Bojana�s church and others. Eminent representative of Bulgarian art during the Renaissance is Zahari Zograf with his mural paintings in Rilski Monastery, Bachkovo Monastery and Preobragenski Monastery.
    Several generations of Bulgarian painters spread the glory of the Bulgarian art school: Anton Mitov, Ivan Markvichka, Alexander Boginov, Vladimir Dimitrov � the Master, Tzanko Lavrenov, Zlatjo Bojadgiev and many others.

Music
    The mentality and the sensibility of the Bulgarian people are reflected in the Bulgarian folk music. Our folk singers are welcome cordially all over the world. Very famous and acknowledged is the Bulgarian folk song that is in the space � �Izlel e Deljo haidutin�. Bulgarian folk dancers receive the applause and the admiration in many states of the world.
    Bulgarian music and art performances achieve great success around the world stages. Many connoisseurs of art admire our opera school. Many representatives of this school act in the biggest opera theatres in the world � Nikolai Gjaurov, Raina Kabaivanska, Boris Hristov, Gena Dimitrova, Anna Tomova � Sintova, Nikola Gjuzelev and others.