Balkans facts

Nestinarstvo is a fire ritual performed in the Strandzha Mountains close to the Black Sea coast in the very southeast of Bulgaria. In 2009, the ritual was entered in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.

Both Krk and Cres. Krk had been thought to be the largest Adriatic island, with an area of 405.78 km2 until a geographical survey and remeasurements done in 2011 determined that the neighbouring island of Cres has an equal surface area. Krk is the most populous island in the Adriatic sea, with multiple towns and villages that contain a total of 19,383 (2011) inhabitants.

Montenegro. The Bay of Kotor is the name of the winding bay of the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Montenegro and the region of Montenegro concentrated around the bay. The bay has been inhabited since antiquity. Its well-preserved medieval towns of Kotor, Risan, Tivat, Perast, Prčanj and Herceg Novi, along with their natural surroundings, are major tourist attractions. Natural and Culturo-Historical Region of Kotor has been a World Heritage Site since 1979.

Bulgaria. Cyrillic script is used in Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. Of these, only Bulgaria belongs to the European Union.

Baklava is a rich, sweet dessert pastry made of layers of filo filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey. It is characteristic of the cuisines of the Levant and the broader Middle East, along with the Caucasus, Balkans, Maghreb, and Central Asia.

Musala (2,925 m) is the highest peak in Bulgaria and entire Balkan Peninsula. Olympus (2,918 m) is the highest peak in Greece and the 2nd highest in the Balkans. Triglav (2,864 m) and Korab (2,764 m) are the highest peaks in Slovenia and Macedonia, respectively, but they are not the 3rd and the 4th highest peaks in the Balkans.

Dalmatia is one of the four historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria.

Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. The biggest part of the Istria peninsula belongs to Croatia. The small northern part belongs to Slovenia and only Muggia, a town in the extreme south-east region of Istria belongs to Italy.

Sava connects three national capitals: Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade.