site.btaBTA Director General: Kazanlak Is EU's Bulgarian Rose

Kazanlak is the Bulgarian rose of the European Union, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said during a local conference held here on Wednesday. The event was part of BTA’s Europe on Balkans: Cohesion Skills project.

"In the rose we can see not only the symbol of Bulgaria as part of the EU, but also its connection with the rest of the world and Europe in particular," he emphasized, recalling that there are drawings of roses on murals in the palace in Knossos on the Greek island of Crete from 3700 BC and in the Italian Pompeii from the 1st century AD, while the first mention of rose water is in the 9th century from Persia, today's Iran. In the 10th century, rose water was brought to Spain, while the damask rose came to Bulgaria from Turkiye, Valchev noted.

He pointed out that in the Nigerian state of Plateau, a Nigerian businessmen who graduated from higher education in Bulgaria maintained plantations of Bulgarian oil-producing rose at the beginning of this century, while in Hanoi in Vietnam, they hold a festival of the Bulgarian rose. 

"Thanks to the Kazanlak rose growers, we can see the most beautiful of the success of the Bulgarians. Even before Bulgaria became a free state again in the mid-19th century, there were 1,271 cauldrons for boiling rose oil in Kazanlak Region. Gradually, Kazanlak became an example for Bulgarian investors with offices in Constantinople, London, Paris, and New York", Valchev recalled, adding that the first Bulgarian trading house for the export of Bulgarian roses, owned by Dimitar Papazov, dates back to 1858. It exported first through Constantinople, then had offices in Ohrid, Paris, and New York. Many Bulgarian rose oil traders won gold medals at exhibitions in Vienna, the US, Belgium and in France. Petko Orozov's company traded in Russia, Austria-Hungary, and France, Valchev noted.

"This success of the enterprising and hardworking Bulgarians has no expiration date, just like rose oil itself. Thus, Kazanlak is an example of the fact that we, Bulgarians, are not just emigrants around the world or guest workers and workers of foreign masters. Kazanlak is an example of developing our own scientific research, because in 1907, it was in Kazanlak, and not in foreign universities, that research on the oil-yielding rose began with the help of the state, which provided more than two acres for an experimental field, which was the basis for the Oil-Yielding Rose Institute, established in 1968," Valchev stressed.

He added that the The Rose of Friendship exhibition opened on Tuesday at the Rose Museum in Kazanlak and that during the currently ongoing Rose Festival, people can see examples of presentations through roses in culture, folk songs and poems. Valchev recalled that in 2023, during the 120th anniversary of the Rose Festival, BTA dedicated an issue of its LIK magazine to the festival.

"All this is not just old glory. Kazanlak is among the ten towns with the greatest contribution to the creation of the country's gross domestic product, because it has a well-developed industry, combined with good education," Valchev emphasized, adding that "we owe the Bulgarian media this story about Bulgarian success, in addition to the one about Bulgarian failures."

He recalled that Kazanlak is the first non-regional town in which a BTA National Press Club was opened (in 2022) and that the news agency has opened 30 new national press clubs since 2021, as well as preserving and developing those opened in the previous 18 years. Valchev noted that thanks to the BTA correspondent in Kazanlak, Ralitsa Stefanova, publications about the town are now almost twice as many as 2023.

BTA's Europe on Balkans: Cohesion Skills project aims to raise public awareness and foster open dialogue about cohesion policy, local achievements, and the implementation of the EU's policy priorities. The project kicked off with a conference in Veliki Preslav in November 2024. The schedule of conferences until the end of September 2025 includes events in the following cities: Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kazanlak, Kardzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Montana, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Razgrad, Ruse, Samokov, Svishtov, Sliven, Smolyan, Sofia, Stara Zagora, Troyan, Targovishte, Haskovo, Shumen, and Yambol. Cross-border conferences will be held in Belgrade, Bosilegrad, Bucharest, Edirne, Skopje, and Thessaloniki. The project builds on the Europe in the Balkans: A Common Future and Europe in Bulgaria: A Common Future projects, implemented by BTA in 2023 and 2024, respectively.