Thousands climbed peak Shipka on the Bulgarian Liberation Day. Metropolitan Grigoriy of Veliko Tarnovo officiated a funeral mass in memory of the soldiers who died for the liberation of the country.

"Shipka Peak is a place where one steps as in a temple, with faith in the heart - courageously, but quietly, because under our feet in the ground are the bones of the soldiers who defended this peak to their last breath," caretaker Prime Minister Galab Donev said in his speech on the occasion of the national holiday - March 3, at Shipka Peak. In his words, Bulgaria still needs the spirit of its freedom fighters today and its idealists who will put aside their personal interests and dedicate their lives to "the national cause of a free, independent and strong Bulgaria".