TOWN AND VILLAGES

Bulgaria is still a country, open to exploration, where the thrills and adventure of discovery are alive, and where one can explore places unvisited. You can tour villages, where the rhythm of life is characteristic of Europe several centuries ago, and gives an insight in an Europe, which vanishes quickly and would never exist again. Here the taste of food, the air and the landscape seem to come from another dimension, where the cycling, skiing, or just walking in the snow with snow-shoes and strolling are a mere pretext to the journey to yourself and back in time, which are the essences of it all.
In 1997 a law was adopted, which divides the country in 9 administrative units, called provinces (in Bulgarian oblasti), 279 municipalities and 3913 communities. The local authorities are responsible for upholding the law and order and fulfilment of the approved programmes for regional development. The network of counties totals 5336, 238 of which are cities and towns, 4445 are villages and 653 hamlets. Every province is unique in terms of environment and characteristics.
The administrative regions are as follows (with certain major cities): the city of Sofia - the capital of the country, the Sofia province (towns of Kyustendil, Pernik and Blagoevgrad), the Plovdiv province (the city of Plovdiv, the towns of Smoliyan and Pazardzhik), the Haskovo province (the towns of Haskovo, Stara Zagora and Kurdzhali), the Bourgas province (the towns of Bourgas, Yambol and Sliven), the Varna province (the city of Varna, the towns of Shumen and Dobrich), the Rousse province (the city of Rousse, the towns of Silistra and Razgrad), the Lovech province (the city of Veliko Turnovo, the towns of Lovech, Pleven and Gabrovo), the Montana province (the towns of Montana, Vraca and Vidin). Bulgaria is paying much attention to the preservation of the environment. At the moment on the territory of the country exist 49 protected territories, 17 biosphere reserves (the largest number in Europe), 3 national parks, 9 nature parks, 82 reserves, 3055 protected natural phenomena, 63 protected plants and 419 protected animals. The air and the water in the Bulgarian mountains are among the cleanest in the whole of Europe.