Map of Bulgaria

Map of Bulgaria

21 Nov 2013 | From Nevena of Bulgaria

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Bulgaria located in south-eastern Europe, is bordered by Romania, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and the Black Sea. The largest and capital city of Bulgaria is Sofia. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe's 14th-largest country

A predominantly Slavic-speaking, Orthodox country, Bulgaria was the birthplace of the Cyrillic alphabet, which was created there towards the end of the 9th century AD.

The Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants in the late 7th century to form the first Bulgarian state. In succeeding centuries, Bulgaria struggled with the Byzantine Empire to assert its place in the Balkans, but by the end of the 14th century the country was overrun by the Ottoman Turks. Northern Bulgaria attained autonomy in 1878 and all of Bulgaria became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1908. Having fought on the losing side in both World Wars, Bulgaria fell within the Soviet sphere of influence and became a People's Republic in 1946. Communist domination ended in 1990, when Bulgaria held its first multiparty election since World War II and began the contentious process of moving toward political democracy and a market economy while combating inflation, unemployment, corruption, and crime. The country joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007.