site.btaJuly Issue of LIK Magazine on Bulgaria in UNESCO to Be Presented in Paris

The latest issue of Bulgarian News Agency’s (BTA) LIK magazine will focus on Bulgaria in UNESCO. The issue will be presented in three languages, Bulgarian, French and English, at the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which is being held in Paris under Bulgarian chairmanship, between July 6 and July 16.

On July 7, the new issue will be presented by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev at the UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France. LIK magazine Editor-in-chief Georgi Lozanov and his interlocutors will join the event via video link from BTA's MaxiM hall in Sofia. Guests from the agency's other national press clubs in the country and abroad will also participate.

In his foreword in the issue, Valchev says that the magazine is “a fitting face of Bulgaria at UNESCO as the country presides over the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee at the organization’s headquarters in Paris”. Valchev notes that among the 168 countries with sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Bulgaria ranks 33rd, with 10 sites – a distinction shared by only two other nations. This is a significant recognition for a country of Bulgaria’s size, he comments. These include seven cultural and three natural sites, along with nearly a dozen traditions recognized as intangible cultural heritage. These are also a very good reason to visit and stay longer in Bulgaria, adds Valchev.

The July LIK presents the ten Bulgarian sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, seven cultural and three natural: the Boyana Church, the Madara Rider, the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, the Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari, the Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo, the Rila Monastery, the Ancient City of Nessebar, the Srebarna Nature Reserve, Pirin National Park, and the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of Central Balkan National Park (as part of the transnational UNESCO listing of the Carpathian and Other Regions of Europe).

The magazine also features Bulgaria’s elements inscribed on UNESCO’s lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the songs and dances of the Bistritsa Babi, the Nestinarstvo firedancing ritual, Chiprovtsi carpets, the Surva festival in the Pernik region, the Koprivshtitsa Festival of Folklore, the Bulgarian community centre (chitalishte), the Martenitsa tradition, Visoko multipart singing from Dolen and Satovcha (Southwest Bulgaria), and the proposed inscription of the Bulgarian bagpipe and bagpiping tradition.

The edition also describes the work of the National Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage, a specialized unit within the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM-BAS). Its mission is the comprehensive documentation, preservation, and promotion of folklore traditions, as well as the related records necessary for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage.

A thematic chronology illustrates how UNESCO has appeared in the news coverage of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) since the mid-20th century. BTA’s archives show that the earliest reports about UNESCO date back to just a few years after its establishment. Over the years, Bulgaria’s role in UNESCO’s history has grown, and reports on the organization’s activities have appeared more often in BTA’s newsletters and bulletins.

The issue concludes with a look at other Bulgarian sites that deserve UNESCO World Heritage recognition, including two prehistoric settlements: the Varna necropolis, where the world’s oldest processed gold (over 6,000 years old) was found, and the Salt Works near Provadia, dating back some 7,600 years. It also features the Episcopal Basilica in Plovdiv, the oldest city in Europe, and Bulgaria’s three medieval capitals, Pliska, Preslav, and Tarnovo.

Since January 2024, LIK magazine is freely accessible online. All issues from its relaunch in 2022 until now can be downloaded in electronic format from the BTA website.

The Bulgaria in UNESCO issue of LIK magazine is available at:

https://www.bta.bg/bg/lik-magazine/54 (in Bulgarian)

https://www.bta.bg/bg/lik-magazine/53 (in English)

https://www.bta.bg/bg/lik-magazine/52 (in French)