Portal:Bulgaria

Welcome to the Bulgaria portal!

Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. 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 tenth largest within the European Union and the sixteenth-largest country in Europe by area. Sofia is the nation's capital and largest city; other major cities include Burgas, Plovdiv, and Varna.

Since adopting a democratic constitution in 1991, Bulgaria has been a parliamentary republic composed of 28 provinces, with a high degree of political, administrative, and economic centralisation. Its high-income economy is part of the European Single Market and is largely based on services, followed by manufacturing and mining—and agriculture. Bulgaria has been influenced by its role as a transit country for natural gas and oil pipelines, as well as its strategic location on the Black Sea. Its foreign relations have been shaped by its geographical location and its modern membership in the European Union, Schengen Area and NATO. (Full article...)

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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Bulgaria face significant challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex relationships are legal in Bulgaria, but same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation has been banned since 2004, with discrimination based on "gender change" being outlawed since 2015. In 2019, a Bulgarian court recognized a same-sex marriage performed in France. Contrastingly, in 2024, Bulgaria's parliament prohibited the “propaganda, and promotion of non-traditional sexual orientation and/or gender identity other than the biological one” in schools.

For 2020, Bulgaria was ranked 37 of 49 European countries for LGBT rights protection by ILGA-Europe. Like most countries in Central and Eastern Europe, post-Communist Bulgaria holds socially conservative attitudes when it comes to such matters as homosexuality and transgender people. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Will Wood conducted a Bulgarian choir via Zoom for "White Noise"?
... that Swiss national Charles Champaud represented Bulgaria at the 1896 Summer Olympics?
... that Tsvetana Jermanova survived imprisonment in two forced labour camps in communist Bulgaria?
... that basketball player Charel Allen was a five-time Bulgarian Cup champion despite knowing only a few words of Bulgarian?
... that Ferdinand I of Bulgaria once described historian Dimitar Agura as having "the eyes, gaze and head of a cat"?
... that during the 1899–1900 peasant unrest in Bulgaria, some troops refused orders to fire on the protesters?

Gallery

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

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Varvara Beach is a secluded sandy beach near the village of Varvara. The village is located on the Black Sea coast of Burgas Province, between the towns of Tsarevo and Ahtopol, near the border with Turkey.

More did You Know?

...that the National Art Gallery of Bulgaria (pictured) occupies the Neo-Baroque 19th-century edifice of the former royal palace?

... that Petar Zhekov, a European Golden Boot winner, is the highest Bulgarian football division's top overall goalscorer?

... that Bulgaria became the country to introduce the Cyrillic alphabet in the European Union when it acceded to that organization on 1 January 2007?

...that the Largo, a Socialist Classicism complex in central Sofia, Bulgaria, accommodates a number of state institutions?

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