100 Years Since the Attack on "St. Nedelya" Church: The Bloodiest Terrorist Act in Bulgarian History

April 16, 1925, remembered as "Bloody Maundy Thursday," marks one of the darkest days in Bulgaria’s modern history. At 3:23 p.m., a powerful bomb detonated during the funeral of General Konstantin Georgiev at Sofia’s "St. Nedelya" Church. The explosion, planted in the church’s dome with the help of a cooperating priest, was triggered by a member of the Military Organization of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP).

The funeral had gathered nearly the entire political and military elite, including ministers, deputies, and senior officers. Although Tsar Boris III was expected, he arrived late and narrowly escaped the attack. The explosion caused the collapse of the dome and part of the southern wall, killing 213 people and injuring over 500, making it the deadliest terrorist act in Bulgaria’s history and one of the largest in Europe at the time.

The attack was the culmination of months of plotting by the BCP, which sought to decapitate the ruling elite following the 1923 coup, the killing of former Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski, and the suppression of the September Uprising. The plan was to use a high-profile funeral to gather key state figures in one place. General Georgiev, a deputy from the Democratic Alliance, was deliberately assassinated two days earlier to provide the occasion.

In response, martial law was declared, and state security forces launched a brutal crackdown. While the perpetrators and their accomplices were pursued, many left-wing intellectuals, teachers, and political opponents were also arrested or executed without trial.

The atrocity reverberated beyond Bulgaria. Foreign media condemned the "unheard-of cruelty" of the attack. Reports from Vienna, London, Paris, Belgrade, and Geneva described it as a premeditated mass assassination with alleged links to Soviet-backed revolutionary plots in the Balkans. Some compared it to Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot, emphasizing the calculated intent to exterminate an entire government.

As part of the 100th anniversary commemorations, citizens will gather this evening at 6:30 p.m. in front of "St. Nedelya" to light 700 candles in memory of the victims.

April 16 remains a powerful reminder of the dangers of extremism and the profound impact of political violence on national history.