Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin opened Monday a memorial plaque of the Belgian diplomat from the end of 19th century Baron Emile de Levelle in the city of Liege, Belgium, the Bulgarian National Radio reported.

"I am happy we can open this plaque signifying the gratitude of the Bulgarian people towards Levelle and his work", Kalfin said at the ceremony.

The inscription on the plaque reads: "From Grateful Bulgaria to Baron Emile de Levelle - Economist, Diplomat, and a Great Friend of Bulgaria".

"At the end of the 19th century where the modern Bulgarian state was created Levelle was one of the persons working very actively to promote Bulgaria and to win friends for it in Europe", the Bulgarian Foreign Minister declared as well.

In his capacity of Belgium's Consul in Belgrade, in the 1880s Levelle traveled throughout the Bulgarian-populated lands including today's Republic of Macedonia, and European Turkey.

He published his notes from the trips in a two-volume book entitled "The Balkan Peninsula" presenting competently and correctly the history, culture, traditions, and language of the Bulgarian people. As the book was translated into many other European languages, Levelle greatly influenced the Europeans' image of Bulgaria at the time.

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