Bulgaria - Oasis Highlights

There are so many highlights in this fascinating country that it is impossible to list them all here. Our travel consultants will discuss your interests and be able to put a specific itinerary together for you, but below are a few must see’s!

Plovdiv

Bulgaria’s second-largest city, Plovdiv (Пловдив), has more apparent charms than Sofia, which locals tend to look down on. The old town embodies Plovdiv’s long history – Thracian fortifications subsumed by Macedonian masonry overlaid with Roman and Byzantine walls. Great timber-framed mansions, erected during the Bulgarian Renaissance, symbolically look down upon the lower town’s derelict Ottoman mosques and artisans’ dwellings.

Veliko Tarnovo

With its dramatic medieval fortifications and huddles of antique houses teetering over the lovely River Yantra, Veliko Tarnovo holds a uniquely important place in the minds of Bulgarians. When the National Assembly met here to draft Bulgaria’s first constitution in 1879, it did so in the former capital of the Second Kingdom (1185–1396), whose civilisation was snuffed out by the Turks. It was here, too, that the Communists chose to proclaim the People’s Republic in 1944.

Sofia

Sofia was founded by a Thracian tribe some three thousand years ago, and various Roman ruins attest to its zenith as a regional imperial capital in the fourth century AD. The Bulgars didn’t arrive on the scene until the ninth century. With the notable exception of the thirteenth-century Boyana Church, their cultural monuments largely disappeared during the Turkish occupation (1396–1878), whose own legacy is visible solely in a couple of stately mosques. The finest architecture postdates Bulgaria’s liberation from the Turks: handsome public buildings, parks, and the magnificent Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral.

Ruse

The city of Ruse is situated on the highest right bank of the Danube River, at 320 km from Sofia, 200 km from Varna and about 300 km from Plovdiv. The population of the city is about 180,000 people. This is one of the largest cities in the country – an important cultural, commercial, and industrial centre. Due to the beautiful architecture and the internal shaping of the buildings constructed by Italian, Austrian, German and Bulgarian architects, Ruse was also known as “The Small Vienna”.