The monumental Madara horseman near Shoumen was selected as the symbol best representing Bulgaria, after voting in a nationwide campaign ended June 29.

The rock relief, which is on Unesco's world heritage list, won ahead of the Cyrillic alphabet, followed by the Tsarevets medieval fortress near Veliko Turnovo, the Bulgarian rose and rose oil, with the Rila Monastery finishing last in the final voting.

The Madara horseman will now be depicted on the Bulgarian euro coins when the country enters the euro-zone.

The national campaign of selecting the symbol was launched at the end of 2007 by the Bulgarian Association for Business and Tourist Information (BABTI). After sorting through thousands of suggestions, BABTI decided to separate the ideas in several main categories such as Bulgarian culture, history, economy, science, tourism and sport.

Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the National History Museum, said that by definition the Madara horseman has always been a symbol of victorious Bulgaria, and dated back to the period of khan Tervel (circa 700 – 718/721 CE), Focus news agency reported.

Rila monastery was the first choice of Meglena Plougchieva, deputy prime minister in charge of the EU funds, who had previously said that people in Europe think of the monastery when Bulgaria is mentioned. Focus quoted her as saying that being a Bulgarian, she felt proud that the country boast so many historical landmarks each one of which could be a symbol representing Bulgaria.

A little over one million Bulgarians have cast their vote during the campaign.