BULGARIA
The Bulgarian lands are ancient crossroads. They remember many ancient civilizations and great people which wrote the pages of their turbulent history: bronze and iron spears and arrows, ruins of palaces and cities, wise words carved on rocks and stone columns, written on parchment and leather. The Thracians bequeathed us the famous tombs near Kazanluk and Sveshtari, the unique gold treasures from Panagyurishte and Rogozen. The Hellenes built the beautiful coastal towns of Apollonia, Anhialo and Messambria, and Romans - ancient Aescus, Nikopolis ad Istrum and Nove. Huns, Gothes and Averas later pass through our lands. Around the mid-7th century the Slavs came from the north across the Danube and reached as far as the Black Sea and the Adriatic. They were followed by the Bulgarians of Khan Asparouh. In fact, there were only three states in Europe in 681, when Bulgaria was founded: The Western Roman Empire, BULGARIA, and The Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). The UNESCO's List of World Heritage consists of over 300 landmarks as the planet's most valuable cultural and natural heritage sites. Nine of these wonders are in Bulgaria: seven cultural and two natural sites.
1. Kazanluk Tomb - Discovered in 1944, this tomb dates from the Hellenistic period, around the end of the 4th century B.C. It comprises three rooms built of brick. The dromos and funerary chambre are decorated with frescoes, representing in particular a funeral banquet. The wall paintings by an unknown artist, mainly in red, black, white and green, show a genuine talent, which is relatively free of the Greek influence.
2. Madara Horseman - Carved into the side of a cliff in the 8th century, this knight triumphing over a lion commemorates the victories of the Bulgarian Khans in an era when their power posed a serious threat to Byzantium. The inscriptions beside the sculpture relate events that occurred between 705 A.D. and 831 A.D.
3. Rock Churches near the village of Ivanovo - Ivanovo is a complex of churches, chapels, monasteries and cells dug into rock near the medieval town of Tchervan and the city of Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of the second Bulgarian state. Five of the churches and chapels date back to the 13th and 14th centuries, and are richly decorated with frescoes.
4. The Thracian tomb near Sveshtari -Discovered in 1982, this 3rd-century B.C. Thracian tomb inspired by Greek design has a unique architectural decor with polychromed half- human, half-plant caryatids and painted murals. It is a remarkable reminder of the culture of the Getes, Thracian populations in contact with the Hellenistic and Hyperborean worlds, according to ancient geography.
5. Boyana Church - Located in the outskirts of Sofia, Boyana Church is composed of three buildings. The Eastern Church was built in the 10th and 11th centuries. The middle - Kayolan - church contains two superimposed sanctuaries. It is covered with frescoes, painted in 1259, making it one of the most important collections of medieval paintings.
6. The Ancient city of Nesebur - Situated on a rocky peninsula of the Black Sea, the 3000-year-old site of Nessebar was originally a Thracian settlement (Menebria). The city then became a Greek colony and one of the most important strongholds of the Byzantine Empire. The city's monuments date mostly from the Hellenistic period and include the acropolis, an Apollo temple and an agora. Other important monuments are the basilica of Stara Mitropolia and wooden houses built in the 19th-century Plovdiv style.
7. Rila Monastery - The Convent of Rila, rebuilt between 1834 and 1860, incorporates the legacies of Saint Ivan of Rilski, 10th-century evangelist of the Slavs, and the remains of a medieval monastery into a distinctive neo- Byzantine monument. Characteristic of the Bulgarian Renaissance, this monument symbolises the awareness of a Slavic cultural identity following centuries of occupation.
8. Pirin National Park - The park has a limestone Balkan landscape, with its lakes, waterfalls, caves and pine forests, and a rich flora containing many endemic plant species. The rugged mountains, with around seventy glacial lakes scattered throughout them, are a relic of the ancient glacial days of Europe
9. Sreburna Reserve - The Srebarna Nature Reserve is a fresh-water lake supplied from the Danube, extending over 600 hectares. It is the breeding home of close to 100 species of birds, many of which are rare or endangered. Some 80 other bird species migrate and seek refuge there every winter.