The small country of Bulgaria is well-known in Cuba, especially amongst Cubans over the age of 50. There is a lot of citizens of the Caribbean country that have obtained their higher education in Bulgaria, and also after 1970 thousands of Bulgarian engineers and workers built Cuban hydropower engineering systems, bridges, roads, factories and etc. A number of irrigation systems, constructed by Bulgarian, are still functioning amongst the agricultural fields of Cuba.
A big part of the Bulgarian specialists, who arrive daily in Havanа, are accommodated in FOCSA – the highest residential building in Cuba, situated close to Hotel Nacional. In the Hall of Fame of Nacional itself among the famous people, who have visited the Hotel, you will see the picture of Irina Bokova.
A large number of our compatriots used to have apartments and houses, provided by the government, in Nautico, 10 km from Vedado, Havana. Another fellow Bulgarian chooses Havana for the starting and ending point of his yacht trip around the world. Here you can read my material devoted to this historical journey. A special plaque in Old Havanа also commemorates the event.
Another more important Bulgarian trace /as far as I know an initiative of Liydmila Zhivkova/ can bе seen in Old Havanа. In one of the historical buildings, there is a rock from the fortress wall of Veliki Preslav inserted to commemorate the 1300 anniversary of the establishment of Bulgaria.
Furthermore, in Havanа there existed a Bulgarian school named after Hristo Botev, which was attended by the children of Bulgarian diplomats and specialists, working in Cuba.
The city of Holguin also has a Bulgarian trace in it – the Georgi Dimitrov Boulevard. On the boulevard you will find Pernik Hotel, where you can drink a Mojito in the Pliska Hall, take a bite in the Varna Restaurant or have a cigar in the Danub Bar. This is explained by the fact that the colourful miners’ town of Pernik in West Bulgaria has twinned with the Cuban Holguin, situated close to Guardalavakа.
It is rarely known that close to Cienfuegos lays the Plasticware Factory Vasil Levski, built by Bulgarian engineers. The most important fact, however, is that within the factory you can find the only bust of the Bulgarian Apostle of Liberty Vasil Levski, constructed mainly with the assistance of Todor Kuzmanov. Read here about how the bust was constructed.
See here are some of our photos of the Vasil Levski factory or read more here.
The wonderful former building hosting the Bulgarian Embassy was located in the prestigious neighbourhood of Vedado, Havana. See photos here:
Some of my tourists that have studied in Havana remember greeting Todor Zhivkov in orderly lines at the Havana Airport.
When the Bulgarian leader gets off the plane to everyone’s surprise he is being accompanied by El Commandante Fidel Castro Ruz.
If you are in Havana and want to visit an Orthodox church, you will find two – a Russian and a Greek one named after Saint Nicolas. In the latter you can also see a lot of Bulgarian sacred images of the Saint.
For several years now /data from 2020/ the Bulgarian Embassy has been situated on the famous 5th Avenue opposite of the Russian one. The new building hosting our Embassy is far smaller than the former one, but the location compensates for this fact. The full address is Quinta Avenida № 6407, esquinaa66, Miramar, Playa. The Bulgarian Residency can be found in a prestigious area close to Siboney, where a lot of Bulgarians working in Cuba used to live.
If you have your own experience in Cuba, please, feel free to share it with us.
The Bulgarian Embassy in Havana doesn’t miss a chance to organize celebrations and different kinds of events for all the important Bulgarian holidays such as the 1st and the 3rd of March, the 24th of May, and special nights devoted the Bulgarian Jews. In 2019 the Bulgarian ambassador inaugurated “The Bulgarian Wall” – a work by the famous Cuban artist Fuster. Here is a link to the site of the Bulgarian Embassy in Cuba.
