Bulgaria document photos online

On 1 January 2026 Bulgaria did something no EU country had done before: it retired a national currency older than the modern state itself. The lev — its name literally means "lion" — had circulated since 1880, just two years after Bulgaria threw off five centuries of Ottoman rule, making it one of Europe's longest-lived currencies. It vanished overnight at a fixed rate of 1.95583 to the euro, and Bulgarians became the 21st nation to carry euro banknotes. But there was a quiet twist of pride: thanks to Bulgaria, those notes already spelled the word ЕВРО in Cyrillic — a script Bulgarian monks invented over 1,100 years ago.

• Currency On 1 January 2026 Bulgaria adopted the euro and scrapped the lev, ending more than 145 years of a national currency whose name literally means "lion."
• Currency & script Because Bulgaria joined the EU, the euro banknote shows the currency's name in Cyrillic (ЕВРО) alongside Latin and Greek — making Cyrillic the EU's third official alphabet since 2007.
• Passport power The Bulgarian passport ranked 14th worldwide on the Henley Passport Index in 2025, opening 178 destinations visa-free or visa-on-arrival.
• Passport design Bulgaria's burgundy biometric passport hides micro-printing, UV features and watermarks, and prints the holder's photo directly onto the page as both standard ink and a holographic image.
• Citizenship In 2022 Bulgaria abolished its "golden passport" scheme that once sold citizenship for a one-million-euro investment, while keeping a no-investment route for anyone with a Bulgarian parent, grandparent or great-grandparent.
• Borders Bulgaria fully joined the Schengen Area on 1 January 2025, ending land-border passport checks after an 18-year wait since EU accession.
• Oldest name Founded by Khan Asparuh in 681 AD, Bulgaria is widely considered the only European country never to have changed its name in more than 1,300 years.
• World's oldest gold The Varna Necropolis on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast yielded the oldest processed gold ever found — roughly 3,000 artifacts dating to about 4,500 BC, over a millennium older than the gold of Egypt or Sumer.
• Alphabet birthplace The Cyrillic alphabet now used by hundreds of millions was systematized around 893 AD at the Preslav Literary School in the First Bulgarian Empire.