Bulgaria facts

Byzantine Empire. At the start of the second millennium, Basil attacked Bulgarians in order to restore territories the Empire had lost long before. He was said to have captured 15,000 prisoners and blinded 99 of every 100 men, leaving one one-eyed man in each cohort to lead the rest back home. Samuel, the ruler of Bulgaria was so shocked seeing his blinded army, that he died two days later.

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.

In Bulgaria. The Cyrillic script was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 9th century AD at the Preslav Literary School. Tradition holds that it was formalized by Saints Cyril and Methodius, who brought Christianity to the southern Slavs (and so the name is derived from Saint Cyril).

Sofia. The Saint Sofia statue is located at the intersection of Maria Louisa Boulevard and Todor Alexandrov Boulevard. It was erected in 2000 replacing Lenin’s monument, which was removed from the same spot in 1991. The crown symbolizes the power, the wreath the fame and the owl the wisdom.

Ottoman Empire. Several Bulgarian revolts erupted throughout the nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule, including some Habsburg-backed ones. Bulgaria had been widely autonomous since 1878, after the Russo-Turkish War. It finally proclaimed independence following the Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire in 1908.

Thracia or Thrace is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians.

Bulgaria. Rila Monastery was founded in the 10th century by St John of Rila, a hermit canonized by the Orthodox Church. His ascetic dwelling and tomb became a holy site and were transformed into a monastic complex which played an important role in the spiritual and social life of medieval Bulgaria. It was designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

Plovdiv. According to the 2011 census: Plovdiv (338,153 inhabitants), Varna (334,870 inhabitants), Burgas (200,271 inhabitants) and Ruse (149,642 inhabitants)