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CHRIST IN SPACE? OLD FRESCO IN BULGARIAN VILLAGE CHURCH DEPICTS 'UFO'
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Christ was an alien. Or if He wasn't, then four centuries ago there were UFOs hovering over what is now southwestern Bulgaria. -
SECRETS OF MAGURATA CAVE
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Travelling in Bulgaria's Northwest, particularly in early summer when the greenery is still fresh, tempts you to explore the outdoors: the magnificence of the Belogradchik Rocks, the might of the mountains around Vratsa, the slow flow of the Danube past the walls of Vidin fortress. However, when travelling in this… -
QUOTE-UNQUOTE
"We should be proud with the border fence, the Great Wall of Bulgaria."Deputy Prime Minister Valery Simeonov, on the fence on the border with TurkeyBe the first to comment! Read more...
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'GREAT WALL OF BULGARIA'
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Barbed-wire fence now stretches all the way from Rezovo at Black Sea to Svilengrad -
WHERE IN BULGARIA ARE YOU?
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One thing Bulgaria does not have in great abundance is… islands. In fact, there are but a handful of isles, sometime just rocks, off the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, and none of them is permanently inhabited except for the usual lighthouse keeper. However, one of them, near Burgas, has recently… -
CASE OF NDK
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Yet another instance of corruption, wise practical decision or new round of political buffoonery? -
KNOW THINE HISTORY
Bulgaria's extreme nationalism, whose main perpetrators are now in government, sometimes assumes wacky proportions. In the past several months the political establishment of GERB, supported by the loose alliance of ultranationalists identifying themselves as "united patriots," has been ruthless in condemning and eradicating anything that might smack of "anti-Bulgarianness." Of…Be the first to comment! Read more...
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THE EMPTY CAVE, An excerpt from a novel
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This current issue presents a text by the 2016 Sozopol Fiction Seminars fellow and CapitaLiterature participant Dimana Trankova -
NDK, COMMUNIST-ERA MONSTROSITY OR CULTURE PALACE TO SHOW OFF WITH?
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In Sofia, there is a place where you can see a representative sample of modern-day Bulgarian society in just about a couple of square miles and in less than a few hours. This is the National Palace of Culture, or NDK. On its vast square, teenagers skateboard and flirt, elderly… -
BULGARIA'S MONTHLY QUIZ
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Think you know Bulgaria and the Bulgarians? Take our test to doublecheck -
SUNFLOWER POWER
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Travelling in the Bulgarian countryside in the summer is particularly fascinating, for it is then that sunflowers are in full bloom, creating a colourful cacophony with their yellow, orange and brown hues. -
NICOLE SIMMONS, ON TRAVELLING IN BULGARIA, NOT VISITING THE SAME PLACE TWICE AND COLLECTING ART
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Nicole Simmons is the wife of Eric S. Rubin, who has been the US Ambassador to Bulgaria since February 2016. Nicole is also an epidemiologist and international health expert with 20 years of experience managing and developing technical assistance, training and research projects. She is currently a part-time faculty member… -
ATHENS NEVER CEASES TO AWE
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Athens is a place that simultaneously feels very old and very new. It is a place of ancient monuments and of drab, unremarkable post-1940s streets with white houses and greying apartment buildings, with bustling street traffic and elderly people slowly strolling along. There are tourist traps and tavernas that seem… -
BETWEEN THIRD-WORLD TYRANNY AND SECOND-WORLD OLIGARCHY
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Borisov's Bulgaria sleepwalks into increasingly undemocratic future -
ERIC LEBEDEL
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French ambassador on Bulgaria's quaint villages, storks and why he is not eager to talk with Ataka -
GOD'S BRIDGE
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Mighty stone arches loom over a tiny river, the moist air hangs over misty greenery, and the flutter of wild birds' wings is amplified in the dark caves; the atmosphere of Bozhi Most, or God's Bridge, is as intriguing as its mysterious name. -
NOT TO AN US COMPANY
Pavel Shopov, the MP for Ataka, was nominated for deputy transportation minister in charge of information technologies. Except for his extreme nationalist views, Shopov is also known for his inability to put on a pair of simple headphones.Be the first to comment! Read more...
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AMAZING SINEMORETS
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The Bulgarian southern Black Sea coast might be overdeveloped, but a few corners of pristine nature and immaculate beauty still survive amid the concrete, the lack of proper sewage systems, the hideous new buildings and the jam - packed beaches. Sinemorets, one of the last Bulgarian villages before the border… -
VELIKO TARNOVO CHURCHES
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As a city that remembers its glorious past as one of Bulgaria's mediaeval capitals, and its importance in the 19th century as the nascent Bulgarian nation struggled for independence and recognition, Veliko Tarnovo has a collection of churches that have witnessed or played a part in many historic events. -
THE SILENCE OF BULGARIA'S ABANDONED AIRPORTS
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Being a flight attendant was a glamorous job during Communism. Uniformed beauties on calendars for Balkan Airlines, the state air carrier, reinforced that the job as an aspirational one, while for the more practically minded, the profession had another advantage. When local shops lacked essentials like toilet paper, working on… -
IAŞI SURPRISES
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The lady at the ticket booth of the Iaşi Philharmonic Orchestra is surprised. She is not used to seeing tourists entering the building and asking for tickets for a classical concert. We, too, are surprised. We are not used to tickets for classical concerts costing about 18 euros for two. -
EUROPE DAY VS. DAY OF VICTORY
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If you think that 14 February is the high point of the Bulgarians' ability to squeeze culturally different feasts into a single day, think again. -
ENDANGERED KOPRIVSHTITSA
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Will traditional town survive threat of losing heritage status? -
BERSERK BELLES OF GRADUATION BALLS
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If you are visiting Bulgaria in the second half of May, do not be alarmed by the excited hoards of heavily made-up, eccentrically-dressed teenagers roaming the streets and frantically screaming out something (more on this later) at the top of their voices. Despite appearances, they are not members of some… -
WHO WAS KRALI MARKO?
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Folk memory moves in mysterious ways. One of the best examples is Krali Marko, the legendary hero venerated for centuries throughout the Balkans as the mighty man who protected lands and people from the Ottoman invasion. For centuries, legends and epic songs were told and sung; they spread, transformed and… -
STARA ZAGORA' S MUSEUM OF RELIGIONS
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Former mosque provides glimpse into spiritual past -
SWEET POWER OF NOSTALGIA
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The factories worked and everyone had a job, there was no crime, the army was strong and every family had two-week holidays at the seaside: for a significant number of Bulgarians, Communism was a golden era of prosperity and security that outshone democracy, with its freedom of movement, speech and… -
BORDER: A JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF EUROPE
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Kapka Kassabova's newest book causes stir in the UK. Coming to Bulgaria soon -
MOUNTAIN OF TOWERS
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The men's voices appeared suddenly from the darkness that had fallen over Mestia, the most accessible town of the Upper Svaneti region, in northwestern Georgia (the country, not the US state). Their song was strange, three different voices weaved into a single melody that sounded as if from another time… -
SOFIA'S HIDDEN FLEA MARKET
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London has Camden Passage (Portobello is so upmarket nowadays), Paris has the Marché aux Puces de St-Ouen, Rome has Porta Portese, Athens has Monastiraki and Tbilisi has the Dry Bridge Flea Market: local flea markets are one of the most delightful experiences in capitals across Europe. Once they were the… -
WHEN WILL WE CATCH UP WITH THE AMERICANS...?
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At the beginning of the 1990s, when Bulgarian Communism had collapsed and the nation was gripped with pro-democracy fervour, Todor Kolev, this country's perhaps best known comedian actor, put out a song that instantly became a major hit. Loosely picking on the tune of The Beatles's Let It Be, Kolev… -
THE IRISHMAN WHO DANCED THE HORO
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The name, Rachenitsa, may be too difficult for a foreigner to remember or pronounce, but you have probably seen it as a crude copy on the wall of a traditional restaurant, as a reproduction or a souvenir, or in the original in the National Gallery of Art. It is an… -
MYSTIC BULGARIA
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There are places in Bulgaria that ancient tradition or modern lore have turned into sites that attract not only people interested in beautiful landscapes and history, but also those who believe that they will discover something otherworldly there. Supposedly haunted villages and sites frequented by UFOs rub shoulders with "miraculous"… -
BULGARIA'S TOP CAVES
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How many caves there are in Bulgaria is a question with no definitive answer. So far, more than 4,500 have been discovered and mapped. The number is so high because 22 percent of the country is covered with karst, a topography created when water soaks, dissolves and carves sedimentary rocks,… -
HELL IS NO JOKE
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What first attracts your attention in a Bulgarian Revival Period church? The architecture? The silver-haloed icons of the Virgin Mary? The elaborate carvings of the icon doors? These may all be astonishing, but have you noticed the river of fire, on the outside western wall of most of the churches,… -
MASTODONS OF DORKOVO
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Pliocene museum reveals Bulgaria's unknown prehistory -
BULGARIA'S ABANDONED ECO TRAILS
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Neglect ruins many exhilarating trekking experiences -
WHERE WERE BULGARIA'S KINGS BURIED?
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Surprising for a country that is proud of its 1,300-year history, just a few tombs of its grand kings have been identified with certainty.Bulgaria has not changed its name since its founding in 681, as if the 200-year Byzantine and the 500-year Ottoman rule never happened, but the list of… -
C IS FOR SOFIA, A STANDS FOR BURGAS
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In most European countries, licensing cars is a pretty straightforward business. Number plates usually reflect the year of the first registration, or the province where the car's owner resides, or sometimes they give out nothing at all except a unique combination of letters and numbers detectable by the traffic authorities…
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CHRIST IN SPACE? OLD FRESCO IN BULGARIAN VILLAGE CHURCH DEPICTS 'UFO'
1 comment Read more...
Christ was an alien. Or if He wasn't, then four centuries ago there were UFOs hovering over what is now southwestern Bulgaria.
-
CASE OF NDK
Be the first to comment! Read more...
Yet another instance of corruption, wise practical decision or new round of political buffoonery?
-
SECRETS OF MAGURATA CAVE
Be the first to comment! Read more...
Travelling in Bulgaria's Northwest, particularly in early summer when the greenery is still fresh, tempts you to explore the outdoors: the magnificence of the Belogradchik Rocks, the might of the mountains around Vratsa, the slow flow of the Danube past the walls of Vidin fortress. However, when travelling in this…
-
'GREAT WALL OF BULGARIA'
Be the first to comment! Read more...
Barbed-wire fence now stretches all the way from Rezovo at Black Sea to Svilengrad
-
KNOW THINE HISTORY
Bulgaria's extreme nationalism, whose main perpetrators are now in government, sometimes assumes wacky proportions. In the past several months the political establishment of GERB, supported by the loose alliance of ultranationalists identifying themselves as "united patriots," has been ruthless in condemning and eradicating anything that might smack of "anti-Bulgarianness." Of…Be the first to comment! Read more...
-
BULGARIA'S MONTHLY QUIZ
Be the first to comment! Read more...
Think you know Bulgaria and the Bulgarians? Take our test to doublecheck
-
SUNFLOWER POWER
Be the first to comment! Read more...
Travelling in the Bulgarian countryside in the summer is particularly fascinating, for it is then that sunflowers are in full bloom, creating a colourful cacophony with their yellow, orange and brown hues.
-
QUOTE-UNQUOTE
"We should be proud with the border fence, the Great Wall of Bulgaria."Deputy Prime Minister Valery Simeonov, on the fence on the border with TurkeyBe the first to comment! Read more...
-
NICOLE SIMMONS, ON TRAVELLING IN BULGARIA, NOT VISITING THE SAME PLACE TWICE AND COLLECTING ART
1 comment Read more...
Nicole Simmons is the wife of Eric S. Rubin, who has been the US Ambassador to Bulgaria since February 2016. Nicole is also an epidemiologist and international health expert with 20 years of experience managing and developing technical assistance, training and research projects. She is currently a part-time faculty member…
-
WHERE IN BULGARIA ARE YOU?
Be the first to comment! Read more...
One thing Bulgaria does not have in great abundance is… islands. In fact, there are but a handful of isles, sometime just rocks, off the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, and none of them is permanently inhabited except for the usual lighthouse keeper. However, one of them, near Burgas, has recently…
-
NDK, COMMUNIST-ERA MONSTROSITY OR CULTURE PALACE TO SHOW OFF WITH?
Be the first to comment! Read more...
In Sofia, there is a place where you can see a representative sample of modern-day Bulgarian society in just about a couple of square miles and in less than a few hours. This is the National Palace of Culture, or NDK. On its vast square, teenagers skateboard and flirt, elderly…
-
ATHENS NEVER CEASES TO AWE
Be the first to comment! Read more...
Athens is a place that simultaneously feels very old and very new. It is a place of ancient monuments and of drab, unremarkable post-1940s streets with white houses and greying apartment buildings, with bustling street traffic and elderly people slowly strolling along. There are tourist traps and tavernas that seem…
-
THE EMPTY CAVE, An excerpt from a novel
Be the first to comment! Read more...
This current issue presents a text by the 2016 Sozopol Fiction Seminars fellow and CapitaLiterature participant Dimana Trankova
