UNESCO World Heritage for Bulgaria

UNESCO World Heritage Sites represent some of the best natural, cultural and historic attractions in world travel. Below are details of the 9 cultural, natural and mixed sites inscribed for Bulgaria to date (a red World Heritage symbol denotes a site currently regarded as endangered). For more details of these properties, click on the links to the UNESCO website and the photographic galleries of these sites from OurPlace (where available). Also, check out UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage for Bulgaria below.


1979 - Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak
1979 - Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo
1979 - Madara Rider
1979 - Boyana Church
1983 - Ancient City of Nessebar
1983 - Srebarna Nature Reserve
1983 - Rila Monastery
1983 - Pirin National Park
1985 - Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari


Intangible Cultural Heritage

Recently UNESCO has begun to document the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage which includes "traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts". The current listings for Bulgaria are shown below - click on the links for more details.


Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

2008 - Bistritsa Babi, archaic polyphony, dances and rituals from the Shoplouk region
2009 - Nestinarstvo, messages from the past: the Panagyr of Saints Constantine and Helena in the village of Bulgari