One Of The First Ever European States

The state was established in 681 (7th century A. D.) and has succeeded to preserve its name, language and religion during thirteen centuries of dynamic existence and under the influence of Thracians, Early Byzantines, Romans, Late Byzantines and Ottomans. That's why Bulgaria has a remarkable cultural heritage, consistent of influences of Thracians, Early Byzantines, Romans, Late Byzantines and Ottomans. There are 36 cultural reservees, 160 monasteries, around 40,000 monuments of culture, 7 of which are on UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage List.

• Population: 7,517,973 (according to the July 2004 census)
The population can be characterized as a mosaic of a great variety of ethnic groups which perplexes different layers of cultural heritage.

• Ethnic groups: Bulgarian–83,9%, Turk–9,4%, Roma-4,7%, other–2%

• Religion: Orthodox Christianity–82,6% (official), Muslim–12,2%; also Roman Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.

• Alphabet: Cyrillic-founded in the 9th century A.D. by the Saint brothers Kiril an Methodius. During thirteen centuries the alphabet is used as official in most of the slavonic countries.

• Language: The official language is Bulgarian; the other ethnical groups use Bulgarian as well as their native language and a significant part of the population speaks English as foreign language.