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Bulgaria Marks 130th Anniversary since Liberation
Sofia News Agency, 03.03.2008
A solemn ceremony of hoisting the national flag in front of the Unknown Soldier Monument in Sofia marked on March 3 the 130th anniversary since the country's liberation from five centuries of foreign rule.
Wreaths were laid to honour Bulgarian and foreign fighters who died for Bulgaria's liberty.
Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov, who is also Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Bulgarian Armed Forces, will attend planned ceremonies throughout the day and will take the salute of the representative units of the Bulgarian Army.
Ceremonies, celebrating the national holiday of Bulgaria, are traditionally held throughout the country, particularly solemn in towns and cities boasting victorious battles for Russian and Bulgarian soldiers in the 1877-1878 liberation war.
All over Bulgaria there are monuments erected in homage of those who contributed to Bulgaria's freedom, including Sofia's Doctors' Monument (engraved with the names of 531 Bulgarian and foreign medics who fell victims during the war), the Shipka Monument (on one of the most precipitous areas of the Balkans Range), the Tsar Osvoboditel Monument (portraying the Russian Emperor Alexander II on horseback).
On 3 March 1878, the Peace Treaty of San Stefano (a tiny town near Istanbul) between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was signed, bringing Bulgaria back to the political map.
The first time of marking March 3 occurred in 1880, in honour of the Enthronement of Russian Emperor Alexander the Second. Since 1888 March 3 has become Bulgaria's Day of Liberation and it was not pronounced a National Holiday until 1978.
Since 1990 the date March 3 is included in the list of Bulgaria's official holidays, following a parliamentary decree.
The Peace Treaty of San Stefano marks the revival of the Bulgarian State, submerged under Ottoman rule since the end of 14th century. However, the actual life of independent Bulgaria started after the Berlin Congress, which took place a couple of months later in 1878.
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