The article attempts to reconstruct the patterns of perception documented in Bulgarian cultural texts which conseptualised the Bulgarian land as borderlands of civilisation. The author presents the historical and cultural conditions for the deliberate purification of the image of Balgarian culture as resistant to Ottoman influences which took place in 19th and 20th century. Futhremore, the article demonstrates the ways in which Bulgarian artists and thinkers conseptualised the observations and intuitions inconsistent with this understanding of the national idea.