The topic of this study is provoked by the ideas for marriage patterns in Europe, which are gaining popularity with the theory of J. Hajnal. According to it, on the territory of the Old Continent there are two types of marriage models – European and Eastern or traditional. Geographically, the author distributes them respectively west and east of the line St. Petersburg – Trieste. The preserved sources for the Bulgarian lands in the 19th century show that the marriage patterns in the region have their own specifics and cannot be placed within the framework of traditional marriages. In general, Bulgarian science so far lacks a comprehensive study of marriages. The main goal of the research is to reveal the specific marriage patterns, widespread in the Bulgarian lands in the 19th century and to place it in the pan-European marriage picture. To achieve this, a variety of source material is used, much of which has not been published so far. Of essential importance are the Ottoman-Turkish documents, mainly nüfus defters and sigils. Another type of sources is of Greek origin, such as the Codes of the Metropolitans of the Bulgarian Lands. Similar information about marriages can be found in the Protocol Books of the Bulgarian municipalities and the Revival press. The main tasks before the study of marriage in the Bulgarian lands are several: • Outlining the legal basis of marriage - the Christian canon, the Muslim sacred law and the customary law. • Presentation of the significant marital problems and the measures taken for their solution in the 19th century. • Discovering the peculiarities of the existing marriage pattern in the Bulgarian lands, through analysis of specific elements of marriage. • Clarifying the specifics of the existing marriage patterns in Europe and discovering the place of the Bulgarian lands.