Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Bulgaria marks 165 years since birth of Bulgarian Revival Period heroine Rayna Knyaginya

Photo: Library

On January 18, 1856 Rayna Popgeorgieva was born in the town of Panagyurishte. Known by the nickname "Rayna Knyaginya" (Rayna the Princess), she was a Bulgarian teacher and a midwife who sewed the main insurgent flag of the Panagyurishte Revolutionary District of the April Uprising and waved it along with emblematic revolutionary leader Georgi Benkovski. The revolutionary commissioned her to make a flag with the inscription "Freedom or Death" when she was 20 years old. 

After the April Uprising which was brutally crushed by the Ottomans, she was captured by the Turks and subjected to severe torture, but after the intervention of European diplomats, she was released and sent to study medicine in Moscow. 

She had five sons, four of whom became officers in the Bulgarian Army.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

The monument at Petrova Niva in Strandzha in honor of the heroes of the Ilinden-Preobrazhensko Uprising

On the sacrifice and redemption in the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising

The revival of Bulgarian statehood after five centuries of Ottoman rule is connected with the April Uprising of 1876 and the Internal Revolutionary Organization previously created by Vasil Levski. After the Treaty of Berlin of 1878, the Bulgarians..

published on 7/20/25 9:43 AM

Saint Elijah’s Day: one of Bulgaria's most revered summer festivals

On 20 July (according to the Gregorian calendar), the Bulgarian Orthodox Church honours the Old Testament prophet Elijah, known in Bulgaria as Sveti Iliya. Celebrated as Ilinden, this day is one of the most venerated summer festivals in Bulgaria and is..

published on 7/20/25 8:15 AM

Underwater archaeologists reveal the secrets of Taukliman Bay on Bulgaria's northern Black Sea coast

Underwater archaeological research has been completed in Taukliman Bay (also known as Bird Bay) , located about 6 km northeast of Cape Kaliakra.  Dozens of archaeological sites of great historical value have been located in its vicinity: caves used in..

published on 7/14/25 9:46 AM