Being a land of rich and ancient history Bulgaria is a country with enormous cultural heritage and long lasting cultural traditions. Excavations from ancient hills throughout Bulgaria have brought excellent examples of highly developed fine arts: jewellery, silver and gold, pottery, terracotta, paintings etc. Even the ancient Orpheus , who, according to the legend has charmed the people and the animals with his magnificent songs, was born in this land. Due to the fact that Bulgaria was on the busy crossroad for centuries where it has suffered number of foreign invasions, few material samples of the early culture remain and can be found mostly in foreign museums. They all prove the high level of development of culture. Some of the artefacts are still kept in medieval churches and monasteries  in Bulgaria; others can be traced in the folklore, myths and legends, songs and dances, traditions and customs. This marvellous heritage has been carefully protected and developed through the centuries as a solid base for the modern Bulgarian culture. The real uplift of the national culture started in mid 19th century, when a mass movement for education and enlightenment started under the influence of national liberation idea as well as the progressive ideas from Western Europe and Russia. After the restoration of the national statehood at the end of 19th century all ways of public life in Bulgaria, including the culture, have marked rapid growth and progress. The drive for renovation of the Bulgarian spiritual and intellectual life continues. Keeping the best traditions of the national revival period, the state pursued a carefully planned policy for guiding society towards broad horizons of European spiritual life and modernisation. Regardless of the various influences, the Bulgarian culture retained its indigenous national essence. In the beginning of the 20th century the cultural life entered a decades long time span of creative and professional maturity, when looking to the past it originally bound up with the modern reconsideration and a future creative interpretation of the rich historical heritage. Bulgarian education adopted the modern European concepts: compulsory and free primary education, with broad public access to it, introduction of the vocational education system etc.
In 1888s the first Bulgarian University was inaugurated. New cultural institutions like libraries, museums and theatres emerged. The national libraries in Sofia and Plovdiv became pools of literary wealth. The Archaeological and Ethnographic Museums undertook the storage and study of thousands of exhibits of the ancient past of Bulgaria as well as some invaluable assets of the popular culture.

The first professional theatrical group laid the foundation of the National Theatre, which the beautiful building is still one of the Sofia's landmarks. On its stage many European and Russian plays, as well as plays of young Bulgarian authors made their first performances for the Bulgarian public. Fine arts and architecture developed successfully. The State Fine Arts School came into existence later on it developed into the Academy of Fine Arts. Bulgarian and foreign architects have left a notable artistic trial in the new Bulgarian capital and the main cities. The general cultural upsurge influenced the Bulgarian music, literature and periodical press as well. Original prose works like "Pod Igoto" /Under the Yoke/ by Ivan Vazov and "Notes on the Bulgarian Uprisings" by Zakhari Stoyanov were created. Realistic tradition and symbolism were intertwined in the works of the wonderful poets Pencho Slaveikov nominated for a Nobel Prize for literature in 1912/, Peyo Yavorov, Dimcho Debelyanov, etc.

The creative impulse gripped the Bulgarian scientific thought as well. The Bulgarian Literary Society, renamed Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1911, facilitated the logistic. Along with the University of Sofia they became the leading centres of Bulgarian scientific knowledge. The political changes after 1944 led to the initiation of so-called Cultural Revolution. Education, science and arts were subjected to the political conjuncture.

The "socialist education" although over ideologised was made as a blue print of the Soviet education system, eliminating illiteracy through compulsory secondary education. In line with the Soviet pattern, several splinter colleges originated from the Sofia University. But the care of the state for the expansion of high education was indisputable: in 1944 Bulgaria had 5 higher educational establishments with some 10,000 students and 453 lecturers, while in 1989 the number of higher schools reached 30 with 138,000 students and 19,200 lecturers.

By 1989 Bulgaria had developed a scientific potential with 31,600 research fellows, which was too big for the size of the country. A considerable number of them attained high level international recognition; Georgi Nadjakov \physicist\, Dimitar Orahovats \physiologist\, Methodi Popov \biologist\, Alexander Todorov-Balan /linguist/, Gavril Katsarov \historian\ and the mathematicians; Nikola Obreshkov, Kiril Popov, Lyubomir Chakalov, etc.