Portal:Bulgaria

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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; Bulgaria is a member state of the European Union, in which it is a new member of the Schengen Area and is set to join the eurozone on January 1, 2026, and also of NATO, in which it is a member of various regional suborganisations such as the Bucharest Nine. (Full article...)

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The COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Bulgaria when the country's first cases, a 27-year-old man from Pleven and a 75-year-old woman from Gabrovo, were confirmed on 8 March 2020. Neither of the two had traveled to areas with known coronavirus cases. The man tested positive for the virus after being hospitalized for a respiratory infection, and authorities announced plans to test several people who were in contact with the two individuals. Two other samples in Pleven and Gabrovo were positive on 8 March. Patient zero remains unknown.

After the number of patients in the country had reached 23, the Bulgarian Parliament voted unanimously to declare a state of emergency from 13 March until 13 April. A 14-day preventive house quarantine was introduced for citizens who have been in contact with a COVID-19 patient or have returned from an overseas region with a high number of cases. For patients tested positive for the virus a 21-day house quarantine was introduced. This time span is counted from the day a subsequent test comes out negative after they have been treated in a hospital or at home. After the World Health Organization (WHO) has established that COVID-19 is more resilient than the initial data was showing, the National Crisis-management Staff increased the recovery house quarantine by a week to 28 days. With the continuing increase of COVID-19 cases on a daily basis, the Bulgarian government requested on 1 April that Parliament extend the state of emergency by one month until 13 May. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that Swiss national Charles Champaud represented Bulgaria at the 1896 Summer Olympics?
... 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?
... 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 Will Wood conducted a Bulgarian choir via Zoom for "White Noise"?

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Gallery

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

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Credit: Evgeni Dinev

The Smolyan lakes are situated in the western part of the Rhodope Mountains near the homonimous city.

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More did You Know?

... that the currently abandoned Old High School of Music (pictured) in Rousse, Bulgaria has previously housed a primary school, a junior high school, a university, and a trade school?

... that goaltender Konstantin Mihailov played in 28 Ice Hockey World Championships with the Bulgarian national team until the age of 49?

... that Bulgaria's first cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, safely returned to Earth despite a failing main engine and a damaged backup engine on his Soyuz 33 spacecraft?

... that Spas Wenkoff, first a tenor at a Bulgarian amateur theatre, appeared as Tristan at the Staatsoper Dresden, and was then invited to sing the role at the centenary Bayreuth Festival?

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