Film and TV locations in Bulgaria
59 places to shoot in Bulgaria: 12 offices, schools and public buildings, 7 theatres, arenas and venues, 7 transport and infrastructure locations and 33 more. 42 have a photo and 4 carry practical details the location publishes itself. Search and put three side by side in the locations search.
What Bulgaria pays back
Bulgaria runs the Film Incentive Scheme (rebate on costs under the Film Industry Act), worth 25% as a cash rebate. Work out the net value on your own spend in the incentive comparison, and find a studio, service company or post house in the 8 companies we list in Bulgaria.
Regions
- Sofia City 20
- Plovdiv Province 8
- Varna Province 8
- Burgas Province 3
- Sofia Province 3
And single locations in 10 more regions, all of them in the list below.
Offices, schools and public buildings in Bulgaria 12
Offices, town halls, courtrooms, libraries, universities and schools: the interiors most contemporary drama actually needs. All 12 on their own page.
Business Park Sofia
Office, school & public building
Office campus in Mladost with glazed low rise blocks, landscaped courtyards, underground parking, a conference centre and its own metro station.
International Fair Plovdiv
Office, school & public building
Trade fair ground by the Maritsa with large exhibition halls, a congress centre, open display areas and wide service roads for heavy vehicles.
National Museum of Military History
Office, school & public building
Military museum with indoor galleries and a large outdoor park of tanks, artillery, aircraft, missiles and radar vehicles on hard standing.
Plovdiv Regional Ethnographic Museum
Office, school & public building
Museum in the Kuyumdzhieva house of 1847 in the old town, a painted National Revival mansion with a curved gable, carved ceilings and a walled courtyard.
Rousse Regional Historical Museum
Office, school & public building
Museum in the former Battenberg palace by the Danube, with period rooms, a garden and a group of listed nineteenth century town houses in its care.
Sofia Central Mineral Baths (Regional History Museum)
Office, school & public building
Former public bath house of 1913 in Vienna Secession style, now the city museum, with tiled halls, arcaded facades and a mineral water colonnade outside.
Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski
Office, school & public building
Main university building of 1934 with a colonnaded front, a domed aula, marble stairs, long corridors and tiered lecture halls.
Varna Archaeological Museum
Office, school & public building
Museum in an 1898 neo-Renaissance girls school, with a symmetrical brick facade, high ceilinged galleries and an inner courtyard of stone finds.
Burgas Regional Historical Museum
Office, school & public building
Municipal museum working from four buildings in central Burgas, including an 1894 school with plain plastered halls and tall windows.
National Museum of History
Office, school & public building
State museum in the former government residence at Boyana, a 1970s modernist block with marble halls, wide staircases and a wooded park.
SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library
Office, school & public building
National library of 1953 next to the university, with a neoclassical facade, a columned entrance hall and large reading rooms lined with shelving.
St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo
Office, school & public building
University campus on a hillside above the Yantra, with concrete teaching blocks, lecture halls, libraries and terraces looking over the old town.
Theatres, arenas and venues in Bulgaria 7
Auditoriums, concert halls, opera houses, cinemas, arenas and event spaces, with the backstage, foyers and dressing rooms that come with them. Theatres, arenas and venues across Europe.
Ancient Stadium of Philippopolis
Theatre, arena & venue
Excavated end of a Roman stadium set below the main pedestrian street, with marble tiers and vaulted entrances open to the square above.
Ivan Vazov National Theatre
Theatre, arena & venue
Neoclassical theatre of 1907 facing the City Garden, with a portico and quadriga, a gilded auditorium of about 750 seats and foyers on two levels.
National Opera and Ballet
Theatre, arena & venue
Opera house completed in 1953, with a colonnaded stone front, a horseshoe auditorium seating about 1,100 and a deep stage with fly tower.
National Palace of Culture (NDK)
Theatre, arena & venue
Congress centre of 1981 with a hexagonal concrete and glass form, thirteen halls including a 3,000 seat auditorium, wide lobbies and a large forecourt.
Seen in: Sofia International Film Festival is held here
Roman Theatre of Philippopolis
Theatre, arena & venue
Second century Roman theatre cut into the hillside of the old town, with marble seating for about 3,500, a two storey stage wall and views over the city.
Varna Opera Theatre
Theatre, arena & venue
Opera and drama house of 1932 on Independence Square, a neo-Baroque block with a decorated auditorium, boxes and a colonnaded entrance hall.
Vasil Levski National Stadium
Theatre, arena & venue
National stadium of 1953 inside Borisova Gradina park, with a colonnaded entrance, an athletics track, about 43,000 seats and floodlight masts.
Transport and infrastructure in Bulgaria 7
Stations, airports, ports, bridges, tunnels, metro lines and rolling stock, including disused stretches that can be closed off for a shoot. Transport and infrastructure across Europe.
Burgas Airport
Transport & infrastructure
Airport between Burgas and the salt lakes, with a terminal of 2013, wide aprons, a fire station and flat open ground around the runway.
Plovdiv Central Railway Station
Transport & infrastructure
Through station south of the old town, with a low symmetrical station building, open platforms, canopies and a large adjoining goods yard.
Port of Varna
Transport & infrastructure
Black Sea cargo port on two terminals, with container and bulk quays, gantry cranes, warehouses, rail sidings and a ferry terminal.
Sofia Airport
Transport & infrastructure
International airport with two passenger terminals, check in halls, piers and stands, a general aviation apron and a single runway.
Sofia Central Railway Station
Transport & infrastructure
Main station of 1974 with a concrete shell roof over a raised concourse, platforms below, tiled halls and a long approach of tracks and signal gantries.
Varna Railway Station
Transport & infrastructure
Terminus station beside the port canal, with a 1920s station building, a plain concourse, buffer stop platforms and quays a short walk away.
Varna Airport
Transport & infrastructure
Coastal airport with a compact modern terminal, apron stands, a control tower and a preserved older terminal building on the same site.
Mountains and wilderness in Bulgaria 5
Mountains, moors, volcanic ground, glaciers and empty terrain, where access and weather decide the schedule. Mountains and wilderness across Europe.
Belogradchik Rocks
Mountains & wilderness
Belt of red sandstone and conglomerate towers up to 200 metres high, spread over about 30 kilometres of hillside above the town.
Central Balkan National Park
Mountains & wilderness
Long protected ridge of the Balkan range with beech forest, waterfalls, open pasture, karst gorges and mountain passes crossing it.
Devetashka Cave
Mountains & wilderness
Very large river cave with a 35 metre entrance arch, seven collapse openings in the roof that light the main chamber, and a stream running through it.
Seen in: The Expendables 2
Rila National Park and the Seven Rila Lakes
Mountains & wilderness
High granite range with glacial lakes, cirques, alpine meadows and conifer forest, reached by mountain roads, huts and a chairlift.
Vitosha Nature Park
Mountains & wilderness
Mountain park on the edge of Sofia rising to 2,290 metres, with boulder rivers, spruce forest, ski runs, a chairlift and a road to the plateau.
Industrial and derelict locations in Bulgaria 5
Factories, warehouses, power stations, mines, depots and abandoned buildings: raw space, hard surfaces and the kind of decay that is impossible to build. Industrial and derelict locations across Europe.
Underground Mining Museum, Pernik
Industrial & derelict
Museum set in the galleries of a former coal mine, with timbered tunnels, rails, cutting machines and winding gear left in place underground.
Devnya Cement works
Industrial & derelict
Cement plant in the Devnya industrial valley with kilns, silos, conveyor galleries, quarry faces and rail connections to the port.
Maritsa Iztok 2 thermal power station
Industrial & derelict
Large lignite fired power station with boiler houses, turbine halls, cooling towers, coal yards and conveyor bridges on an open plain.
Mini Maritsa-Iztok open pit mines
Industrial & derelict
Three working lignite open pits with cut terraces, bucket wheel excavators, long conveyor lines and spoil heaps, the largest mining landscape in the country.
Stomana Industry steelworks
Industrial & derelict
Working steel plant with an electric arc furnace, rolling mills, tall production halls, gantry cranes and yards of stock served by rail sidings.
Hospitals, prisons and institutions in Bulgaria 3
Working and disused hospitals, clinics, prisons, barracks and asylums: corridors, wards and cells that are close to impossible to fake convincingly. Hospitals, prisons and institutions across Europe.
Sofia Court House
Hospital, prison & institution
Neoclassical courts building of 1940 on Vitosha Boulevard, with a colonnaded front, a marble entrance hall, wide staircases and panelled court rooms.
Alexandrovska University Hospital
Hospital, prison & institution
Teaching hospital founded in 1879, a campus of late nineteenth century pavilions and later clinical blocks with long corridors, wards and lecture theatres.
St. Marina University Hospital
Hospital, prison & institution
Large teaching hospital on the western edge of Varna, with modern clinical blocks, treatment rooms, corridors and an emergency entrance.
Houses and apartments in Bulgaria 3
Private houses, villas, apartments and period interiors available for filming, from workers' housing to architect-designed homes. Houses and apartments across Europe.
Balabanov House
House & apartment
Reconstructed merchant house in the old town, a symmetrical National Revival building with a large salon, carved ceilings and a terraced garden.
Kaliopa House
House & apartment
Mid nineteenth century town house near the Danube quay, now a museum of urban life, with panelled rooms, period furniture and a small garden.
Oslekov House
House & apartment
Painted merchant house of 1856 in Koprivshtitsa, with a columned porch, wall paintings, carved wooden ceilings and a walled yard.
Hotels and interiors in Bulgaria 3
Hotels, spas and their lobbies, ballrooms, bars and corridors, including closed or seasonal properties that can take over a whole unit. Hotels and interiors across Europe.
Grand Hotel Varna
Hotel & interiors
Large seaside hotel at St. Constantine and Helena with a modernist block, congress halls, a spa, pools and direct access to the beach.
Kempinski Hotel Grand Arena Bansko
Hotel & interiors
Alpine style resort hotel at the Bansko gondola station, with stone and timber interiors, a ballroom, spa and views to the Pirin peaks.
Sofia Balkan Palace
Hotel & interiors
Hotel inside the 1950s Largo ensemble in the centre of Sofia, with a stone colonnade, a marble lobby, ballrooms and meeting suites.
Historic towns and streets in Bulgaria 3
Old towns, squares and streets that can double for a period without dressing out a modern skyline. Historic towns and streets across Europe.
Koprivshtitsa
Historic town & street
Protected mountain town of about 380 listed houses in painted National Revival style, with cobbled streets, humpback bridges and a river through the centre.
Nesebar Old Town
Historic town & street
Rocky peninsula joined by an isthmus, with medieval stone and timber churches, wooden houses on stone bases, narrow lanes and harbour walls.
Plovdiv Old Town and Nebet Tepe
Historic town & street
Cobbled hill quarter of overhanging National Revival houses, walled lanes, Roman remains and the ruined citadel of Nebet Tepe at the top.
Film studios and backlots in Bulgaria 3
Sound stages, backlots, water tanks and virtual production volumes you can hire, with the crew base and power that go with them. Film studios and backlots across Europe.
Nu Boyana Film Studios
Studio & backlot
Studio lot of about 30 hectares with ten sound stages, a water tank with an underwater stage and standing backlot sets for New York, London and a Roman city.
Seen in: 300: Rise of an Empire, The Expendables 3, London Has Fallen, Rambo: Last Blood
Ten sound stages, water tank with underwater stage, motion capture stage, construction workshops, camera, lighting and grip rental, props, costumes...
PrimeTime Studios
Studio & backlot
Television and film pavilion complex on the Sofia ring road, with separate control rooms for each studio, camera cranes and modular video walls.
UFO Film Studios
Studio & backlot
Four stage studio east of Sofia with a curved LED volume and a large backlot carrying standing sets for an American suburb, a western town, a Viking village and an Arctic station.
Stages of 1,680, 770, 510 and 480 square metres with 12 metre clear height, a 20 by 5 metre curved XR stage, green screen stage and over 56,000 square...
Castles and estates in Bulgaria 2
Castles, fortresses, manor houses and country estates, usually with grounds, outbuildings and period interiors in one place. Castles and estates across Europe.
Belogradchik Fortress
Castle & estate
Fortress built into the sandstone towers above the town, with Ottoman era stone walls, gun emplacements and rock faces forming two of its sides.
Tsarevets Fortress
Castle & estate
Medieval hill fortress above a bend of the Yantra, with rebuilt curtain walls, gate towers, a patriarchal church and steep approach paths.
Churches and monasteries in Bulgaria 2
Cathedrals, churches, chapels, monasteries and cloisters, plus the crypts and refectories behind them. Churches and monasteries across Europe.
Boyana Church
Church & monastery
Small three part medieval church at the foot of Vitosha, with 1259 wall paintings, a stone and brick exterior and a walled garden of old trees.
Rila Monastery
Church & monastery
Walled monastery in a forested valley, with striped arcaded ranges on four levels, a domed painted church and a fourteenth century stone tower.
Villages and countryside in Bulgaria 2
Villages, farmland, meadows and rural roads: open country with somewhere to put a unit base. Villages and countryside across Europe.
Bozhentsi architectural reserve
Village & countryside
Protected village of stone roofed timber houses on a wooded hillside, with unpaved lanes, orchards, workshops and no modern building.
Zheravna
Village & countryside
Reserve village of about 200 wooden houses from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, with stone walls, cobbled lanes and beech forest around it.
Bars, restaurants and shops in Bulgaria 2
Cafes, bars, restaurants, markets, shops and shopping streets, the everyday interiors a schedule eats through quickly. Bars, restaurants and shops across Europe.
TZUM Sofia
Bar, restaurant & shop
Central department store of 1957 in the Largo, with a stone clad facade, a full height atrium, marble floors and galleried shopping levels.
Kapana creative district
Bar, restaurant & shop
Grid of narrow pedestrian streets behind the main street of Plovdiv, lined with small bars, cafes, galleries and craft shops in low old buildings.