Bulgarian nature and cultural and historical heritage are the image of this country abroad. Their protection and promoting would attract more tourists to this country, who would find new and unknown places, tourist attractions, customs and crafts.This is the aim of a project, entitled "Friends of Bulgarian Treasures" 2016 - 2020 that has been launched by the National UNESCO Club for Scientific Expeditions (NNEK - UNESCO). For five years with the help of 1200 volunteers, information about all Bulgarian cultural and historical sites, as well as biodiversity and natural landmarks will be gathered. The huge amount of work will be done mostly by young researchers, working in the spheres of history, archeology, culturology, ethnology, art studies, etc.

More about the huge project from head of NNEK – UNESCO, Kristian Kalchev:

“We truly mean that all tourist sites will be included in the project. Exception will be those sites that can no longer be easily visited and cannot handle any tourist flows. Speaking about cultural and historical heritage we should say that municipal administrations sent us information about these sites. However, during the work process intangible heritage is often discovered, such as traditional songs. It was important that the teams that worked in the first two municipalities - Dryanovo and Tutrakan, did not know anything about them before. These are young people who were fascinated by the fact that they had learned something new. This has contributed to the development of young leaders, as well as to making them acquainted them with the history of a place, as well as with the ways of its promotion.” 
 
Some 400 volunteers have already signed in for the project. 80 percent of them are students, while the rest are socially-active people or scholars. There have also been requests form European countries like Greece, Belarus, Russia, France, and Portugal.

Actual work on site started In October as two teams of researchers managed to shoot and describe in detail tourist sites in Dryanovo and Tutrakan. It is not by chance that the project started in the town of Tutrakan on the Danube. This year the 100th anniversary since the battle for Southern Dobrudzha between Bulgarians and Romanians is marked.  The battle is known as the Epic of Tutrakan.

Among the selected sites in the town are the Museum of Danube Fishing and Boat Construction and "Fishing Quarter" architectural reserve.

By the end of the year 8 municipalities more will be researched. These are Vratsa, Bratsigovo, Bozhurishte, Ivaylovgrad, Dobrich, Kavarna, Belogradchik and Dimitrovgrad. In 2017 volunteers will be working on the territory of other 50 municipalities. When selecting sites experts keep in mind whether they meet safety criteria, as well as whether they are accessible to people with disabilities.

While relying on volunteering "Friends of Bulgarian Treasures" project also needs financing, totaling some 3 million euro. For this purpose the project relies on donations. Next year a mobile application will be launched, too, allowing tourists to plan their visit to a place and see actual photos of its condition. During the third year already collected information will be updated. At the end of 2020 the whole information will be available in Bulgarian and English at  http://friends-bulgaria.eu/bg/ Moreover, a luxury brochure in German, French, English and Russian languages, presenting some of the sites will be published.

English: Alexander Markov