Population: around 8 million
Capital: Sofia
Government: free democracy since 1989
Currency: 100 stotinki = 1 lev
(Exchange rate GBP 1 = BGL 2.75-2.85 approx.)
Language: Bulgarian (a Slav language)
Other language groups: Turkish, Roma
Alphabet: Cyrillic
Main religion: Bulgarian Orthodox
Other religions: Islam, Evangelical Christian (Pentecostal, Baptist, Methodist, etc.)
Western Europeans often know very little about Bulgaria.
It is a beautiful, mainly mountainous, country of 8 million people, situated in the Balkans in South Eastern Europe. Its neighbours are Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, and Romania to the north. The River Danube forms a large part of Bulgaria's frontier with Romania. To the east Bulgaria faces the Black Sea.
Bulgaria has a long and chequered history. The first Bulgaria kingdom was founded in 681 AD.
For 500 years to 1878 Bulgaria was ruled by the Turks as part of the Ottoman empire.
In 1878, Bulgaria became an independent country once more after being liberated by the armies of Tsarist Russia.
In 1944 Bulgaria was invaded by the Soviet Army and soon after that a Communist government was imposed. Bulgaria became a hard line communist country closely following the Soviet model. It was often referred to as "Little Russia in the Balkans". Evangelical churches suffered deprivation and persecution during that time.
In November 1989 the Communist government collapsed and a new era of democracy began. Bulgaria now has a free market economy and is a full member of the European Union since 2007.