10 Leva 150 Years Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1869 in Braila — then part of the Ottoman Empire's Romanian-administered territories — predates Bulgarian statehood itself by nearly a decade. It was established by expatriate Bulgarian intellectuals who had no independent nation to serve yet, making the institution's founding a peculiarly stateless act of national ambition. The Academy relocated to Sofia only after the Liberation of 1878.