General information

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location:Bulgaria is situated in the south-east of Europe, the north-east part of the Balkan Peninsula. The River Danube forms the northern border - between Bulgaria and Romania. To the west the country borders with Serbia and Macedonia, and to the south – with Turkey and Greece. The eastern Bulgarian border is shaped by the Black Sea, which links the country to Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.

Climate:Тhe larger part of Bulgaria has a moderately-continental climate. The four clearly expressed seasons, along with the variety of nature – mountains with broad-leaved and coniferous forests, hilly plains, picturesque river valleys, the sea – create a number of specific micro-climatic conditions. All this makes Bulgaria a preferable resting place for the tourists.

History

Some archaeological discoveries show that the territory of Bulgaria has been inhabited since the Stone Age. The Valchitran Treasure, found near the city of Varna, dates back from that time. It is the oldest gold treasure in the world.

During the Bronze Age the Bulgarian lands were inhabited by the Thracians.
In the 6th century the Slavs settled in the Balkan Peninsula, and in the second half of the 7th century the proto-Bulgarians arrived.

In 864, during the rule of Prince Boris the First Michael (852-889), Bulgarians accepted Christianity as their official religion. With this they removed the ethnical differences between proto-Bulgarians and Slavs, so this is when the building of a unified Bulgarian nation was started.

Under the rule of Tzar Ivan Asen II (1218-1241) the Second Bulgarian Kingdom reached its prime. The borders of the country reached the Black Sea, the White Sea and the Adriatic Sea. Economy and culture were blooming again.

In 1235 the Bulgarian Head of Church acquired the title Patriarch. The discord between some of the boyars led to splitting of Bulgaria into two kingdoms – with Vidin and Tarnovo as centers. This weakened the country, so in 1396 it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. For almost five centuries from that moment on, Bulgaria was under Ottoman management. 

The April Revolt broke in 1876 – it was the first big-scale and well-organized attempt for liberation from the Ottoman domination. The revolt was smashed cruelly and drowned in blood, but it attracted the attention of the European countries towards the Bulgarian national issues. As a result of the Russian-Turkish War for Liberation (1877-1878), the Bulgarian country was restored in 1878 .

In the early 1940s Bulgaria’s politics was directed in favor of Germany. In August 1943 King Boris III died, and the Regency of the young king Simeon II was pronounced government of the country. On September 5, 1944, the Soviet Army entered Bulgaria. On September 9 a government of the Fatherland Front was established, led by Kimon Georgiev. In 1946 Bulgaria was pronounced National Republic.
The Bulgarian Communist Party took power. All political parties outside the Fatherland Front were banned, the economy and the banks were nationalized, the farmland was forcedly organized into co-operations.

November 10, 1989 was the date which put the beginning of the democratic changes in Bulgaria. A new constitution was accepted (1991), the political parties were restored, the property taken away in 1947 was given back to its owners, privatization was started, as well as the process of returning the land to the former owners. In 1990 Zelio Zelev became the first democratically elected president of the country.

After 1996 Bulgaria’s major foreign-political priorities became the membership in the European Union and NATO. In 2004 Bulgaria did become a NATO member, and it is expected to become a member of the EU in early 2007.