Remembrance Day 2025 services to be held in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv and Sofia
This year’s annual Remembrance Day Services will be held in Plovdiv Central Cemetery on November 9 and in Sofia Central Cemetery on November 11.
The services are in commemoration of all those who lost their lives in the service of their country in the wars of the 20th century.
Remembrance Day is annually on November 11, the anniversary of the Armistice at the end of the First World War. Traditionally, Remembrance Sunday is observed on the Sunday closest to November 11.
The services in Plovdiv and Sofia are open to the members of the public.
If you plan to join please arrive before 10.45am for the Plovdiv service and 10.30am for the Sofia service.
The Remembrance Day Service in Sofia will be live streamed on the British embassy’s Facebook page for those that cannot attend.
Customarily, the service at the Commonwealth war graves in Sofia is followed by ceremonies of remembrance at the German, Italian and French war graves. Diplomatic representatives of numerous countries, as well as military veterans and senior officers from the Bulgarian Armed Forces, attend to pay their respects at each of the memorials.
The Commonwealth war graves cemetery in Central Sofia Cemetery is about two km north of the railway station on Purva Bulgarska Armia Street, with the cemetery entrance opposite Mara Buneva Street.
Sofia’s Commonwealth war graves cemetery contains the remains not only of British military personnel, but also of South Africans, Australians and others from the Commonwealth who sacrificed their lives, in the Second World War, in the fight against Nazism and fascism.
Plovdiv Central Cemetery is about a kilometre from the city centre, within the city limits, with the entrance about 100m north of the crossroads of Iztochen Boulevard and Maria Loisa Boulevard. As you enter the main entrance to Plovdiv Central Cemetery, take the first turning on the right in front of the church. Continue and take the third road on the left. The Commission cemetery is at the end of this road and is surrounded by a low brick wall.
According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Commonwealth servicemen buried at Plovdiv Central Cemetery died either as prisoners of war or while serving with the occupying forces following the Bulgarian capitulation in September 1918.
The cemetery contains 55 Commonwealth burials from the First World War. Among the British burials is a South African national who was serving with British forces.
