On July 3, 1944, during World War II, the Anglo-American aviation bombed Ruse and the village of Chuprene.
The bombings of Bulgaria were a series of attacks against Sofia and other Bulgarian cities and villages by the British Air Force and the US Air Force during World War II, from the spring of 1941 to the fall of 1944, which had the character of real combat operations.
On December 12, 1941 Great Britain was the first to declare war on the Kingdom of Bulgaria, only the next day forced by the Kingdom of Bulgaria, unable to do anything else, to formally respond in kind.
Although Bulgaria did not participate in any hostilities and always categorically rejected such demands of Germany, it was subjected to brutal bombing by the Anglo-American air forces, with Sofia being the hardest hit.
Mostly civilian sites were hit, such as: Alexandrovska Hospital (the southern hospital wings were completely destroyed along with the doctors in them), Tsar Boris I Orphanage (completely destroyed in 1944), the National Theater (severely affected), the Great Sofia Synagogue (severely affected, the unique and widely known Jewish library of the community, which housed the invaluable collection of medieval rabbinical works, was also burned), the First Evangelical Church on "Solunska" Street (completely destroyed on January 10, 1944), the Catholic Cathedral of St. Joseph (completely destroyed on March 30, 1944), the Russian Church of St. Nicholas (direct bomb hit), the 11th century Church of St. Spas (completely destroyed in 1944),
The medieval church of St. Nicholas built by Sevastokrator Kaloyan in 1260. survived the 5 centuries of Turkish slavery (almost completely destroyed on March 30, 1944), the Church of the Holy Transfiguration of the Lord (completely destroyed on January 10, 1944), the City Library (completely destroyed on March 30, 1944, 40,000 volumes of books burned), the National Library and the Archive of the Bulgarian Revival (completely destroyed in March 1944), the Library of the Metropolitanate of Sofia, newly built and destroyed along with all the books and old documents in it (on January 10, 1944) The Synodal Palace - during this bombing, the original of the decree on the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate (1944) was burned in its safe.
Theological Academy (severely affected, the central part in the south was destroyed, the the dome of the temple built into it), Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Academy of Arts, Russian Lyceum, French Catholic School, Catholic School "Santa Maria" of the Franciscans, Sofia Diocesan Priestly Brotherhood, German School for Children next to the German Evangelical Church and this church itself, Italian Royal High School, Sofia Theological Seminary in Lozenets district, Ministry of Public Education (completely destroyed on 10.01.1944).
State Mechanical and Electrotechnical School, Paramedic School, III Girls' Pedagogical High School, III Boys' High School, V Sofia Junior High School, VII Boys' Junior High School, Primary School "St. St. Cyril and Methodius" (razed to the ground in 1944), the National Archaeological Museum, the National Ethnographic Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, the Municipal Museum, the House of Art and Printing, the Palace of Arts - in fact the national art gallery at that time, the Sofia Philharmonic - Bulgaria Hall, the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, (severely damaged in 1944, the current one was built on the empty site in 1981), the Russian Monument was bombed and damaged, in Vratsa - the State Economic and Weaving School (completely destroyed on January 24, 1944). Even the Proshek Brothers' Beer Factory was bombed and severely destroyed.
The zoo suffered greatly, the animals died or were injured in their cages, and quite a few of the others who had run away, distraught, had to be shot. Thousands of residential buildings were blown up and burned, the city centers of Sofia, Skopje, Vratsa, Dupnitsa were destroyed.
On the entire Bulgarian territory and the controlled lands, 4,208 people were killed, disappeared without a trace, and died as a result of the bombings, 4,744 were seriously injured, or with a completely incomplete accounting, the total number of victims killed and injured was no less than 8,952 Bulgarians, about half of them in Sofia where, in the bitterest cold, the attackers destroyed 12,657 buildings, mostly residential buildings.