site.btaBulgaria Celebrates Its National Day

Bulgaria celebrates its national day on March 3: the anniversary of its liberation from Ottoman rule 148 years ago as a result of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War.

Observances are scheduled to take place across the country, including a traditional celebration on Mt Shipka in the Central Balkan Range, with President Iliana Iotova, National Assembly Chair Raya Nazaryan, caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gurov, politicians and diplomats attending. 

Each year thousands of Bulgarians brave the 894 steps leading to the Monument to Liberty on Mt Shipka, built near the site of a decisive battle in the Russo-Turkish War, in which 7,500 Bulgarian volunteers and Russian soldiers held the pass against a 30,000-strong Turkish army on August 11, 1877.

The programme includes a national flag-raising ceremony outside the St Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church at 11:00 and a ceremonial military tattoo at National Assembly Square at 18:30.

The flag-raising ceremony will take place outside the St Alexander Nevsky Memorial Church. Gurov will inspect the honor guard of Bulgarian Army representative units, and those in attendance will pay tribute to Bulgarians who died for the country’s freedom. 

The Preliminary Treaty of Peace between Russia and Turkey was signed at the Village of San Stefano (west of Istanbul) on March 3, 1878, constituting Bulgaria as an autonomous and tributary principality under the suzerainty of the Sultan on an area of 177,031 sq km, comprising the geographical regions of Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia. 

The San Stefano Treaty was revised by the July 13, 1878 Treaty of Berlin, which limited the Bulgarian Principality to 35.5 per cent of the San Stefano area (the territory north of the Balkan Range plus Sofia), created an autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia in Northern Thrace, awarded Northern Dobroudja to Romania and left Macedonia and Southern Thrace under Turkish rule.

In Bulgaria, March 3 was celebrated for the first time in 1880 as the day on which Russian Emperor Alexander II ascended the throne. In 1882, the date was designated for celebration of the conclusion of the Treaty of San Stefano.

Under communism, the anniversary was not formally observed between 1950 and 1987, with the exception of the 1978 celebration of the Liberation's centenary. In 1987, March 3 was reinstated as a public holiday by a decision of Bulgarian Communist Party Central Committee. On February 27, 1990, the National Assembly designated March 3 national day of Bulgaria.