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On 29 July 1014, Emperor Basil II broke Tsar Samuil's army in a mountain pass in the far southwest, a defeat so brutal it is said to have killed the tsar within the year. Today's name days: Kalin, Goran, Kalina and Kalinka.
Around half of likely voters would back Bulgaria's president in the autumn election, a Global Metrics survey finds, with her own caretaker prime minister appointee her nearest named rival on 23%.
Netflix popularised the free trial, and viewers broke it. The industry's replacement, the discounted introductory price, is better for the platforms and not necessarily worse for you, as long as you know the exact day the bargain ends.
A Sofia city bus broke through the central guardrail on Tsarigradsko Shose on Monday and ended up across the oncoming carriageway, injuring four people, six days after the 23-year-old vehicle passed its mandatory technical inspection. Police are investigating a possible mechanical fault, and the same interchange has seen this before.
Bulgaria's largest trade union confederation says a family of three now needs €1,491 net a month to cover basic living costs, while the minimum wage stays frozen and more than half of employees earn less than the subsistence line.
Darina Yotova, the Varna-born singer who records as Dara, took the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with "Bangaranga", and she is a good doorway into Bulgarian music generally.
Bulgarian and Serbian armies clashed near Velbazhd on this date in 1330, Tsar Mikhail Shishman died in captivity days later, and the defeat reshaped the medieval Balkans for a century.
The Burgas poet who made the sea his lifelong subject died in Sofia on this date in 2002, aged 68. It's also the feast of Saint Panteleimon, name day for twenty variants, and town day for a small spa city built on radioactive mineral water.
The country's travel trade has publicly backed the capital's bid to host Eurovision 2027, citing beds, flights and experience. Burgas is the only other city left, and BNT and the EBU are expected to settle it within days.
On this date in 1332, Tsar Ivan Alexander beat the Byzantine emperor at Rusokastro and dictated the peace. It was the confident high point of a golden age whose greatest artwork now sits in the British Library.
Bulgaria's 2026 state budget cleared its final reading on 24 July by 125 votes to 84, carried entirely by Progressive Bulgaria after the DPS crossed to the opposition. Behind the record 5.7% deficit sits a short list of changes that reach British expats directly, most of them dated 1 August.
Iliana Yotova, who inherited the presidency in January when Rumen Radev resigned to fight the parliamentary election, told BNT she will stand for a full term in the autumn. Her nomination will come from a citizens' committee rather than a party, and Radev has not said whether he backs her.
In July 1393, after a three-month siege, the Ottomans took Tarnovo, capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire. It opened almost five centuries of Ottoman rule, and it is one of the load-bearing dates in the whole Bulgarian story.
24 July is the feast of St Christina the Great Martyr, the saint behind every Hristina and Kristina. But there is a twist: in Bulgaria the big celebration for those names is not today, it is at Christmas.
Eleven-year-old Natalia was found safe in Ovcharovo, a village in the Shumen region, shortly after midnight on Thursday, ending a search that had run since June 30. Her stepfather, 40-year-old Asen Simeonov, was detained roughly 50 metres away.
On 23 July 1942 the poet Nikola Vaptsarov, a ship's machinist from Bansko with a single published book, was executed by Bulgaria's wartime government. Hours before, he wrote a farewell poem to his wife on his cell wall.
Wizz Air started flying twice a week between Burgas and the Polish city of Radom this week, one of five Polish routes now feeding a Black Sea airport whose capacity has jumped by more than 32% since last summer, alongside the direct London service many British expats already fly.
New Eurostat figures put Bulgarian household debt at just 28% of GDP, one of the lowest ratios in the bloc, while the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden carry debt loads worth more than 80% of their economies.
22 July is Magdalenovden, the feast of Mary Magdalene and the name day for every Magdalena, Magda and Meglena in Bulgaria. It also quietly corrects the reformed-sinner myth most Brits grew up with.
New Union of Brewers data shows more than half of Bulgarians still drink beer weekly, even as 2025 sales fell about 5%. The sector is ploughing record money into malt production and backing a national bottle deposit scheme it says would cost it around €100 million to set up.
Hurricane-force winds, hail and torrential rain tore through Bulgaria overnight, felling trees onto cars, ripping balcony railings from a block in Galabovo and forcing a Plovdiv derby off. Nobody was seriously hurt, but the yellow warning stays up for 14 districts on Tuesday.
On 21 July 1774, Russia and the Ottomans signed the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in what is now the Bulgarian village of Kaynardzha. One quiet clause in it helped set up Bulgaria's Liberation a century later.
20 July is Iliyovden, St Elijah's Day, one of Bulgaria's biggest name days. It honours Iliya the Thunderer, the storm saint who inherited the old thunder-god's job, and it gave the 1903 Ilinden Uprising its name.
Gianlorenzo Blenghini's side beat the hosts 3-1 in front of more than 5,000 fans in Chicago, moving into sixth place in the Nations League standings with a daunting date against Olympic champions France still to come.
Record-low unemployment hasn't solved Bulgaria's staffing crisis, so the country has turned to workers from outside the EU: more than 108,000 in three years, and the rules for hiring them just got faster. British workers and employers fall under the same third-country system too.
On this date in 1877, in the fields near Stara Zagora, a Russian advance guard with Bulgarian volunteers marching alongside beat back an Ottoman force at Dzhuranli. A small battle with a big meaning: Bulgarians were now fighting for their own freedom, not just waiting to be handed it.
On this date in 1837, in the rose-growing town of Karlovo, a boy was born who would become the man Bulgarians still vote the greatest of them all: Vasil Levski, the Apostle of Freedom, who built a revolution and was hanged before it arrived.
Eighteen days after 11-year-old Natalia Asenova disappeared from Konstantinovo with her mother's former partner, investigators have logged more than 70 tips and confirmed none of them. The last verified sighting is just over a fortnight old, and the night search has narrowed to a cluster of villages where the suspect has family.
17 July is Marinovden, the day of St Marina, patron of seafarers, when the coast blesses its fishing boats and every Marina, Marin and Margarita celebrates. The old port of Sozopol marks its town day too. Forget the football; this is the real 17 July.
On this date in 1877, Russian troops took the Ottoman fortress of Nikopol on the Danube, a clean victory in the war that would free Bulgaria. It also, by accident, set up the bloodiest siege of the whole war, at Plevna. Here is how.
Bakery manager Dimitar Georgiev walked back into his own home in Pavlikeni late on Monday, six days into a search involving over a hundred people, drones and divers. His explanation, that he had simply been walking and eating wild fruit, has left almost as many questions open as it closed.
It is a busy 15 July: the name day for every Vladimir and Vladislav in the country, the town day of the spa city Bankya (yes, the mineral water), and the birthday of the film director Georgi Balabanov. Three small doors into Bulgaria at once.
A 52-year-old man has been charged with the intentional murder of his 53-year-old partner after she died from injuries sustained during a domestic dispute in the town of Karlovo on 12 July. The Plovdiv District Prosecutor's Office says it will ask the court on 15 July to order his continued detention while the investigation continues.
Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition has confirmed inspections at two major retail chains over claims they force Bulgarian food producers into unlawful discounts, while separately uncovering four cartel cases in sectors from hospital catering to kindergarten meals. The watchdog's own deputy chair says the deeper problem, a collapsing domestic dairy industry, may be harder to fix than any fine.
In the summer of 1306 the Catalan Company, one of the most feared mercenary armies in Europe, was cutting a bloody path across the Balkans, and Bulgaria's tsar was manoeuvring among the killers. It is a stranger, more cosmopolitan medieval Bulgaria than most of us imagine.
Since 7 July 2026, every newly registered car and truck sold in the EU must carry a driver-distraction camera and expanded emergency braking that also watches for pedestrians and cyclists. Existing vehicles and used imports are untouched, which matters in a country with one of Europe's oldest car fleets.
UBS's Global Wealth Report 2026 puts Bulgaria near the back of Europe's millionaire race, but among the continent's strongest performers for everyday household wealth: real assets per adult are up more than a quarter since 2020. Property, pensions and tax policy are doing more of the work than a stock portfolio.
Born in Moscow on this date in 1889, Kosta Todorov packed a teenage stint as a guerrilla, the French Foreign Legion, an Agrarian diplomatic career, exile and a letter to Churchill into one life. He called his memoir The Confession of a Mad Balkan Head. He was not exaggerating.
Eurostat's latest overview hands Bulgaria the bloc's highest fertility rate and its lowest life expectancy in the same breath. The numbers behind the contradiction touch everything from hospital staffing to the price of a builder.
Thirty-five years ago today, in July 1991, a specially elected assembly signed off the constitution Bulgaria still runs on. It is younger than a lot of British expats, and it quietly governs almost everything about your life here.
The UK has released and deported Ivan Stoyanov and Vanya Gaberova, two of the six Bulgarians convicted in 2025 over one of the largest Russian espionage operations uncovered in Britain, after they served the mandatory half of their sentences. The people the ring spied on say nobody told them.
A truck heading from Burgas towards Sofia crossed the guardrail near kilometre 311 on 10 July and hit two oncoming cars, killing one person and injuring two. It is at least the third barrier breach by a heavy truck in a matter of weeks, and the questions about barriers and truck checks are getting louder.
The forecast hands Bulgaria a sunny, properly hot Saturday, up to 35°C in places, before thunderstorms spread from the northwest on Sunday and a cooler Monday follows. Plan the beach run for the first half, and mind the fire risk.
The satirist Vasil Tsonev, the man behind Good Night, Adults! and years of copy for the Hornet, died on this date in 2002. It is also the name day for anyone called Olga, Olya or Oleg. A good day to understand both.
Property prices climbed 14.8% in a year and rents 10.5%, second only to Portugal and Croatia respectively, Eurostat's first-quarter 2026 figures show. For a Brit buying or renting here, the comfortable assumption that Bulgaria is cheap is quietly expiring.
From 27 October, Wizz Air runs Varna to Basel twice a week from €29.99. For Brits on the northern coast, the real prize is what waits at the other end: easyJet's frequent, cheap run from Basel into Gatwick and Luton.
Born in Sofia on this date in 1944, Vanya Petkova wrote 27 books, worked in seven languages, lived in Cuba, Sudan and Syria, and dedicated her last collection to Johnny Depp. Most British expats have never heard of her. Here is why they should.
Bulgargaz posted a €137 million loss for 2025, most of it payment for Botas pipeline and terminal capacity it barely touched. Days before the report, Bulgaria and Turkey froze that contract for 15 months.
Bulgaria and Serbia have agreed to build a second border crossing at Kalotina, the choke point on the Sofia to Serbia road, to separate holiday cars from freight. There is a green light, but no completion date, so this summer's queues stand.
The Interior Ministry has handed regional police 204 new cars, 154 Skodas and 50 Volvos, fitted with plate-reading cameras that automatically spot lapsed insurance and overdue inspections. Here is what that changes if you drive in Bulgaria.
On this date in 1868, a band of Bulgarian rebels who had crossed the Danube nine days earlier was cornered in a ravine near Vishovgrad. It went badly. It also, indirectly, produced the most quoted line in the language about dying for freedom.
A parliamentary group wants machine voting made the default once more, in time for this autumn's presidential vote. British expats cannot vote in it, but the fight over how Bulgaria casts its ballots is worth understanding, and it has a British thread.
On 8 July 1868 the rebel band of Hadzhi Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha was caught resting near a Veliko Tarnovo village by an Ottoman force that grew past four thousand regulars. They fought until dark, then walked out of the encirclement in good order. The fields there still carry the battle's names.
A usurper tsar tried to rerun his murdered cousin's greatest victory and got soundly beaten outside Philippopolis. Also today: sixteen name-day variants that all mean Sunday, and a Rhodope town in feast mode. A full calendar, this one.
In July 1868 the rebel band of Hadzhi Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha crossed the Danube to raise a rebellion, and spent a whole day encircled in the vineyards above Karaisen, beating back every attack before slipping the cordon at dusk. The story ends on a peak most British expats already know from photographs.
Our whole week in one place: 22 Shumen.UK stories from 29 June to 5 July 2026, from the euro's first exchange fees to Canada gate-crashing Eurovision. If you would rather read it as one email every Sunday, that is exactly what the newsletter is for.
Bookings through Airbnb, Booking and Expedia rose almost 10% across the EU in early 2026, with Bulgaria part of the rise rather than leading it. For the many British expats who let out a coastal flat or a village house, the bigger story is the tighter compliance regime that arrived alongside the demand.
Democratic Bulgaria MPs have tabled amendments that would give every citizen a single state-run digital wallet for identity, tax and public services, bringing Bulgaria into line with an EU framework that carries a hard end-of-2026 deadline.
Seventeen years ago today, a party barely three years old took 40% of the vote, a former tsar's movement was wiped out, and Boyko Borissov began the first of three premierships. That one Sunday still explains half the political talk you overhear in Bulgaria.
The National Museum of Military History traces its founding to a single order issued at the height of the First World War, on 4 July 1916. BTA's archives piece walks through the institution's story; here is what it holds today and why it decodes half the monuments you pass in Bulgaria.