Culture and History

There is so much Culture and History to learn about in Bulgaria, it is hard to know where to start and what to see.  This is where we come in.  We will choose the highlights of the country and present those to you.  Tseravits is a fortress in Veliko Tarnovo which was the historical capitol of the Second Bulgarian Empire.  It is a massive walled fortress encompassing two sides of a river and built on top of a hill.  As you walk around this compound, you begin to get an idea how grand the civilization was so many years ago.  Some of the buildings have been restored, and many more sites lay ready to be discovered.

Plovdiv is the best preserved example of a Roman City built on top of a Thracian City.  It is easy to see where one civilization ends and the other begins.  The Roman Theater, and Colliseum like arena which is partially burried under the current modern city gives a feeling that civilizations have existed there for thousands of years.

The Mountains hold may secrets in the form of ancient monasteries, and caves.  The Rila Monastery is one of the most treasured spots in the country, and houses a museum with relics from the past as well as Rafael's Cross.  There is still a very active Monastery here, with patrons and visitors arriving daily for baptisms, and to say their prayers.  The paintings on the ceiling tell the story of biblical characters and saints for thousands of years.

Our Culture and History experience will dive into the distant past of this great land.  We will see where the ancient civilizations laid the foundations for the modern world that we live in.  We will explore the journey from Thracian times through the communist era, and into the modern country as a proud member of the European Union.  By learning about this history, we can better place ourselves in the sequence of human events of today.  It is a fascinating narrative which is just beginning to be discovered by the "Western" world.