Issue 226

In a globalised world and economy, where giants dominate what we eat, drink and wear, a Bulgarian entrepreneur has demonstrated that with smart business practices, serendipity, and a desire to make life better, local brands can outcompete established names in the market. After a successful start in commerse, in 2014 Petar Delev made a bold step – he decided to become a franchise representative of a Bulgarian sportswear brand, Flair. Two years later, he became a partner in the company.

The duo noticed a unusual large black animal lurking behind some bushes, and quickly retreating after it noticed the humans. Crucially, one of them managed to get hold of a smartphone and made a short video of the event.

The throngs of tourists jostling for a better view of the Mona Lisa have become so overwhelming that the Louvre is already planning to exhibit it in a separate space. Such obstacles are not encountered when viewing Ahinora, a painting of a woman with eyes as enigmatic as Mona Lisa's smile, created by one of Bulgaria's most prominent painters.

Painted in 1925 by Ivan Milev (1897-1927), Ahinora mesmerises with her oversized, green eyes: feverish and fixed with fear, amazement or curiosity about something or someone beyond the frame.

1. What is depicted on the tails of the Bulgarian euro cents?
A. A lion
B. The Madara Rider
C. A coat of arms

2. Which UNESCO World Heritage Site is closest to Sofia?
A. Boyana Church
B. Srebarna Lake
C. Rila Monastery

3. What is the Bulgarian for "yellow cheese"?
A. Krastavitsa
B. Kapama
C. Kashkaval

Increasingly, many Bulgarians towns and even villages these days host jazz festivals of various standing and quality. Visitors will be bemused to hear Dixie being played in some remote corner of northern Bulgaria or fusion blasting out by the Black Sea coast. Yet there is only one place that attempts not just to offer a few jams and plenty of drinks, but also to visualise, literally, the music and the performers.

When all Bulgarians start spending their summer holidays on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, then we will have enough money to raise doctors' wages.

Boyko Borisov, leader of GERB

Bulgaria's next big goal is to become the richest country in the Balkans.

Denitsa Sacheva, GERB, on Bulgaria's planned adoption of the euro on 1 January 2026

It will become increasingly difficult to lie to the EU about what is actually going on in Bulgaria.

With established resorts, new resorts and resorts under construction, the southern Bulgarian Black Sea coast sometimes appears to be one big development site. In summertime, when the crowds flock to the bustling compounds of Sunny Beach, blue-collar paradise Primorsko and nouveau riche-attracting Lozenets and St Vlas, it can become overwhelming. Nevertheless, there are some places between Burgas in the north and Rezovo in the south that have miraculously resisted concrete development. What about the strip of coast between Cape Emine and Burgas?

A look into its history will reveal why. Though it has medieval origins, after the 1878 liberation from the Ottomans the village was populated by ethnic Bulgarian immigrants from the Banat, now in Romania, Hungary and Serbia. The Bulgarians, offspring of the refugees from the failed Chiprovtsi Uprising two centuries previously. They were joined by a number of German families, who set up their own telltale quarter replete with a school and a Roman Catholic church. All of them were forced to resettle in the German Reich in the 1930s, leaving their houses and belongings behind.

Аt first glance Dobrich might disappoint. The town is in the heart of Dobrudzha, in a region that's one of the first where the Proto-Bulgars settled at the end of the 7th century. Nothing of note has remained from these early times; after the Pecheneg inroads in the 11th century, this part of Dobrudzha remained depopulated for centuries. The precursor of Dobrich appeared in the 16th century, in Ottoman times. Its name was Hadjioglu Pazardzhik.