Portal:Bulgaria

Welcome to the Bulgaria portal!

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, 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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Coin of Ivan Asen II

Ivan Asen II, also known as John Asen II (Bulgarian: Иван Асен II, [iˈvan ɐˈsɛn ˈftɔri]; 1190s – May/June 1241), was Emperor (Tsar) of Bulgaria from 1218 to 1241. He was still a child when his father Ivan Asen I – one of the founders of the Second Bulgarian Empire – was killed in 1196. His supporters tried to secure the throne for him after his uncle, Kaloyan, was murdered in 1207, but Kaloyan's other nephew, Boril, overcame them. Ivan Asen fled from Bulgaria and settled in the Rus' principalities.

Boril could never strengthen his rule which enabled Ivan Asen to muster an army and return to Bulgaria. He captured Tarnovo and blinded Boril in 1218. Initially, he supported the full communion of the Bulgarian Church with the Papacy and concluded alliances with the neighboring Catholic powers, Hungary and the Latin Empire of Constantinople. He tried to achieve the regency for the 11-year-old Latin Emperor, Baldwin II, after 1228, but the Latin aristocrats did not support Ivan Asen. He inflicted a crushing defeat on Theodore Komnenos Doukas of the Empire of Thessalonica, in the Battle of Klokotnitsa in 1230. Theodore's empire soon collapsed and Ivan Asen conquered large territories in Macedonia, Thessaly and Thrace. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Tsvetana Jermanova survived imprisonment in two forced labour camps in communist Bulgaria?

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Gallery

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

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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 chitalishte (community centre) in Novo Selo (pictured), constructed in 1930, is also a memorial to locals who perished in war?

...that Hadzhi Dimitar was one of the most prominent Bulgarian voivods and revolutionary workers for the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule?