Fearless Bulgarian Women Who Said “No” to the Rules

On 1 November, Bulgaria’s National Awakeners' Day, Sofia’s Gina Kuncheva Square will come alive in a truly remarkable way. From midday, the Oborishte Municipality and the Buditelkite Foundation will unveil the country’s first interactive outdoor museum, These Are the Women Awakeners of Bulgaria.

Amid the city’s hustle and bustle, 14 benches “tell” the stories of extraordinary women who have shaped Bulgaria’s cultural and public life. Each bench bears the name of a pioneering figure and a QR code linking to an online platform with their biographies in Bulgarian and English.

Visitors will discover the first Bulgarian woman to gain international recognition, the country’s first female architect, its first suffragette, the first female nuclear physicist, and other trailblazers who dared to defy the conventions of their time. They include Ekaterina Karavelova, Yulia Malinova, Mara Belcheva, Ana Karima, Yana Yazova, Konstantsa Lyapcheva, and Gina Kuncheva — the mother of the Apostle, after whom the square is named.

The project aims to highlight women’s contributions to Bulgaria’s national awakening — a story too often overlooked in history books.