site.btaBulgaria Celebrates Its Independence Day

The official version of the Independence Manifesto, produced by Art Noveau painter Haralambi Tachev in 1909. The text was engrossed on parchment, decorated with an elaborate vignette surmounted by the royal crown and consisting of intertwined laurel and lime trees, lions and three landmark dates: 679 (foundation of the First Bulgarian Empire), 1187 (establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire), and 1908, around the royal coat of arms. The manifesto was calligraphed as an illuminated medieval manuscript, with embellished initial capitals. It was signed by the King and by all eight Government Ministers, whose seals, impressed in wax and encased in silver, were attached to the lower end by separate strings. The scroll was placed in an ornate silver cylinder, which was inserted in a velvet-lined carved box of Brazilian rosewood with metal binding the arms of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and a dedication. The artefact is kept at the Central State Historical Archives. (BTA Photo)