  Context. The location of the Solar System constrains the detection of
extragalactic sources beyond the Milky Way(MW) plane. The optical observations
are hampered in the so--called Zone of Avoidance (ZOA) where stellar crowding
and Galactic absorption are severe. Observations at longer wavelengths are
needed to discover new background galaxies and complete the census in the ZOA.
Aims. The goal of this work is to identify galaxies behind the MW Bulge using
near-infrared (NIR) data from the VISTA Variables in V\'ia L\'actea (VVV)
survey. Methods. To this end we made use of different VISTA Science Archive
(VSA) tools in order to extract relevant information from more than 32 billion
catalogued sources in the VVV Bulge region. We find that initial photometric
restriction on sources from VSA \texttt{vvvSource} table combined with
restrictions on star--galaxy separation parameters obtained from Source
Extractor is a successful strategy to achieve acceptable levels of
contamination (60\%) and a high completeness (75\%) in the construction of a
galaxy target sample. To decontaminate the initial target sample from Galactic
sources our methodology also incorporates the visual inspection of false colour
RGB images, a crucial quality control which was carried out following a
specifically defined procedure. Results. Under this methodology we find 14480
galaxy candidates in the VVV Bulge region making this sample the largest
catalogue to date in the ZOA. Moreover these new sources provide a
\textbf{fresh} picture of the Universe hidden behind the curtain of stars, dust
and gas in the unexplored MW Bulge region. Conclusions. The results from this
work further demonstrate the potential of the VVV/VVVX survey to find and study
a large number of galaxies and extragalactic structures obscured by the MW,
enlightening our knowledge of the Universe in this challenging and impressive
region of the sky.
