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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Clockwise from right: The Battle of Anchialus; Khan Omurtag; The rulers of Bulgaria and Byzantium negotiate for peace; Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas.

The Byzantine–Bulgarian wars were a series of conflicts fought between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria which began after the Bulgars conquered parts of the Balkan peninsula after 680 AD. The Byzantine and First Bulgarian Empire continued to clash over the next century with variable success, until the Bulgarians, led by Krum, inflicted a series of crushing defeats on the Byzantines. After Krum died in 814, his son Omurtag negotiated a thirty-year peace treaty. Simeon I had multiple successful campaigns against the Byzantines during his rule from 893 to 927. His son Peter I negotiated another long-lasting peace treaty. His rule was followed by a period of decline of the Bulgarian state.

In 971 John I Tzimiskes, the Byzantine emperor, subjugated much of the weakening Bulgarian Empire by defeating Boris II and capturing Preslav, the Bulgarian capital. Samuel managed to stabilize the Bulgarian state with a center around the town of Prespa. Near the end of his rule, the Byzantines got the upper hand again, and under Basil II they won the Battle of Kleidion and completely conquered Bulgaria in 1018. There were rebellions against Byzantine rule from 1040 to 1041, and in the 1070s and the 1080s, but these failed. In 1185, however, Theodore Peter and Ivan Asen started a revolt, and the weakening Byzantine Empire, facing internal dynastic troubles of its own, was unable to quash the revolt. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

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

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Gallery

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

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Credit: Psy guy

Shipka Pass is a scenic mountain pass through Stara Planina in Bulgaria. The maximum altitude of the pass is 1,150 m (3,820 ft). During the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878, Shipka Pass was the scene of a series of conflicts collectively named the Battle of Shipka Pass.

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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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