Must-see attractions in Bulgaria

  • Sveti Spas Church

    Black Sea Coast

    This modest, single-nave church was built in 1609, below ground level, as dictated by the Ottoman authorities of the time. It features some well-preserved…

  • Ethnographic Museum

    Varna

    This charming revival-era mansion built in 1860 houses an interesting collection of traditional folk costumes and furnishings, and has displays on local…

  • Banya Bashi Mosque

    Sofia

    Sofia’s only working mosque was built in 1576. It’s certainly an eye-catching edifice, and the red-brick minaret makes a convenient landmark. Visitors are…

  • Church of Sveti Petar & Pavel

    Veliko Târnovo

    North of Tsarevets Fortress and the Forty Martyrs Church, this sturdy little church mingles elements of Byzantine and classic Bulgarian styles and houses…

  • Zoo Park

    Varna

    Varna's small zoo, in Primorski Park, has around 70 different types of animals, including some llamas, a camel, some big cats (lion, tiger, panther), pink…

  • Varna City Art Gallery

    Varna

    You can peruse two floors of 19th- and 20th-century Bulgarian art at this gallery, including works by Vladimir Dimitrov and David Peretz. Various…

  • Ethnographic Museum

    Burgas

    Regional folk costumes, jewellery and furniture are on show at this museum, as well as displays covering the local weaving and fishing industries…

  • Roman Odeon

    Plovdiv

    Constructed at the end of the 1st century AD, the Odeon was once the seat of the city council. It now hosts occasional performances in its small,…

  • Ethnographic Museum

    Black Sea Coast

    This museum features folk costumes, housewares and jewellery, as well as displays relating to traditional trades and crafts such as fishing, barrel-making…

  • Roman Baths (Small)

    Varna

    There's a walkway running around the ruins of this smaller Roman bath complex, built around the 4th century AD, but there's little to see other than some…

  • History Museum

    Bulgaria

    The history museum, housed in a National Revival era building from 1810, displays folk costumes, jewellery and traditional local crafts such as…

  • Earth & Man Museum

    Sofia

    This rather old-fashioned museum is dedicated to geology, with two floors of minerals, crystals, ores and the like. There are some big and impressive…

  • City Art Gallery

    Plovdiv

    This branch of the City Gallery of Fine Arts holds small, temporary exhibitions of abstract art, housed within one of Plovdiv's first Bulgarian…

  • Preobrazhenie Gospodne Church

    Black Sea Coast

    This most atmospheric of the town's churches is located in the oldest part of the settlement, on the far eastern end of the outcropping. The church dates…

  • Sveta Bogoroditsa Church

    Bulgaria

    Powder-blue Sveta Bogoroditsa Church features magnificent exterior frescoes of Vasil Levski surrounded by holy company, and intricate wooden iconostases…

  • Monument to Freedom

    Ruse

    This grand sculpture stands in the middle of pl Svoboda (Freedom Square) and is a popular meeting point. The woman depicted is said to represent free…

  • Tryavna Museum School of Painting

    Bulgaria

    Housed in the restored Staroto Shkolo (the town’s old school, built in 1836), the Tryavna Museum School of Painting has exemplary works by local artists.

  • Icon Gallery

    Plovdiv

    This small museum beside the Church of Sveti Konstantin & Elena has a sublime display of icons from the 15th century onwards.

  • Center for Contemporary Art

    Plovdiv

    A stocky 16th-century Turkish bathhouse now features irregular, rotating displays of contemporary art. Free entry on Thursdays.

  • Slaveikov House-Museum

    Bulgaria

    The Slaveikov House-Museum is dedicated to Petko Slaveikov and his son Pencho, renowned poets who lived here for many years.

  • Graffit

    Varna

    This contemporary art gallery displays rotating exhibitions of mainly visual arts, usually of high quality.

  • Bulgaria, Sofia, Borisova Gradina, park benches under shade of tree canopy

    Borisova Gradina

    Sofia

    Lying southeast of the city centre, Sofia’s most attractive park is filled with countless statues and flowerbeds and is a relaxing place for a stroll. It…

  • Cars parked in front of an art museum, National Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Royal Palace

    Sofia

    Originally built as the headquarters of the Ottoman police force, this is where Bulgaria’s national hero Vasil Levski was tried and tortured before his…

  • President's Building

    Sofia

    The Bulgarian president’s office isn't open to the public, but the changing of the guard ceremony (on the hour) is a spectacle not to be missed; for the…

  • Yuzhen Park

    Sofia

    South of the city centre, Yuzhen Park is a vast, wild green sprawl, filled with trees and shady pathways. A sparkling stream bubbles through it, and there…

  • Doctors’ Garden

    Sofia

    This neat, secluded park features a big, pyramidal monument dedicated to the medics who died in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78). Also here is an outdoor…

  • National Palace of Culture

    Sofia

    Sofia's vast concert hall dates from 1981 and houses countless chambers, as well as music clubs and cafes. It watches over an elongated park known as pl…

  • History Museum

    Black Sea Coast

    This small museum doesn't always hold to the posted hours, but if you catch it open you'll find artefacts going back to the town's Thracian, Greek and…

  • Lamartine House

    Plovdiv

    This beige mansion built in 1830 has a special place in Plovdiv hearts as the location where French poet Alphonse de Lamartine stayed in 1833, along the…

  • Byzantine Baths

    Black Sea Coast

    Below ground level just behind the Sveti Spas Church are the partly excavated remains of a 6th-century Byzantine baths complex. Though not much to look at…

  • Sveta Bogoroditsa Church

    Black Sea Coast

    This relatively plain 19th-century church is the only functioning one in town and modestly dressed visitors are welcome. (Shawls are provided at the…

  • Ivan Vazov House-Museum

    Sofia

    Bulgaria’s best-loved author, Ivan Vazov (1850–1921) lived at this house from 1895 until his death. Vazov wrote Under the Yoke, a classic of Bulgarian…

  • Sveti Sveti Petâr & Pavel Church

    Bulgaria

    This pretty pink church was built in the 1860s and is adorned with bright modern murals. It houses relics of a 4th-century local saint, Dasius, which were…

  • Ploshtad Bulgaria

    Sofia

    Watched over by the polygonal concrete bulk of the National Palace of Culture, this elongated park, with a fountain, ice-cream kiosks and bars, is popular…

  • Sofia Monument

    Sofia

    Erected in 2001 on the site where a gigantic statue of Lenin once stood, this 24m-high monument was created as a new civic symbol for the city. The bronze…

  • Party House

    Sofia

    This domineering Stalinist monolith, built in 1953, was once the headquarters of the Bulgarian Communist Party. It is now used as government offices and…

  • Basilica of the Holy Mother Eleusa

    Black Sea Coast

    Overlooking the sea, the Basilica of the Holy Mother Eleusa dates from the 6th century, and later became a monastery. The fortified tower alongside it was…

  • Galeriya Dimitâr Dobrovich

    Bulgaria

    Inside a lemon-yellow mansion, which resembles a beautifully iced cake, Galeriya Dimitâr Dobrovich exhibits 20th-century and graphic art across two floors…

  • Monastery Museum

    Bulgaria

    A two-room monastic museum displaying spiritual and historical artefacts from the 19th and 20th centuries, along with a room where Bulgarian revolutionary…

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