Museum sights in Central Balkans
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History Museum
The Exhibition Hall of Carpets & Woodcarving, 500m northwest of the bus station, exhibits and sells examples of the famed Kotel style of carpets. The town also has several museums, the best being the History Museum, on the central square, which presents items dating from 19th-century revolutionary times, and Georgi Rakovski’s mammoth mausoleum. The Ethnographic Museum, about 200m west of the Exhibition Hall, is also worth a peek. For a more visceral connection with Bulgarian tradition, you can learn to play the gayda (Balkan bagpipe) and get tuition in other traditional music and dance at the Philip Kotev School, which sometimes holds recitals.
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Ethnographic Museum
The Exhibition Hall of Carpets & Woodcarving, 500m northwest of the bus station, exhibits and sells examples of the famed Kotel style of carpets. The town also has several museums, the best being the History Museum, on the central square, which presents items dating from 19th-century revolutionary times, and Georgi Rakovski’s mammoth mausoleum. The Ethnographic Museum, about 200m west of the Exhibition Hall, is also worth a peek. For a more visceral connection with Bulgarian tradition, you can learn to play the gayda (Balkan bagpipe) and get tuition in other traditional music and dance at the Philip Kotev School, which sometimes holds recitals.
reviewed
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Vasil Levski Museum
Further up ul Vasil Levski, a small park contains the disused and closed Kurshum Mosque, built in 1485 during the Ottoman occupation. Continue up the mall to the town square, then head left (west) for about 300m, past the clock tower, to the Vasil Levski Museum. This set of rooms around a cobblestone courtyard contains several exhibits about Levski with explanations in English. Ask the caretaker to show you the modern shrine, where you can see a lock of Levski’s hair while listening to taped religious chants in Bulgarian. A guided tour in English costs 2.50 lv per person.
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Geo Milev House-Museum
The unique Geo Milev House-Museum, set around a lovely enclosed garden, contains manuscripts and paintings by locally-born Milev (1895-1925). Despite losing an eye in WWI, Milev continued to write poetry dealing with social issues, such as Septemvri, about the September 1923 agrarian revolution. The political sympathies of Milev's work led to it being confiscated by the authorities.
The writer was arrested, put on trial, and then kidnapped by the police and murdered. Contemporary artists also sell their work in the museum, which has a relaxing café in the garden courtyard.
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Angel Kânchev House-Museum
A two- to three-hour walking tour will suffice to see all of Tryavna’s sights. From the bus station, head east (away from the train line) and then turn right along ul Angel Kânchev to reach the impressive St Georgi Church on the left. Completed in 1852, it features some beautiful icons and carvings. Further on the right is the Angel Kânchev House-Museum. Built in 1805, it contains exhibits about revolutionary hero Kânchev, and the liberation of Tryavna during the Russo-Turkish War.
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Tryavna Museum School of Painting
Walk over the bridge, past the shady park and head right (still along ul Angel Kânchev) to pl Kapitan Dyado Nikola. First built in 1814 in National Revival–period style, this large square is dominated by a clock tower (1844) that chimes loudly on the hour. Facing this square is Staroto Shkolo, the town’s old school. Built in 1836, it’s now been fully restored and houses the Tryavna Museum School of Painting.
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Daskalov House
Across the stone Arch Bridge (1844) is ul PR Slaveikov, one of Bulgaria’s nicest cobblestone streets. On the left-hand side is Daskalov House. Completed in 1808, this walled home with garden also contains the intriguing and unique Museum of Woodcarving & Icon Painting. It features some superb examples of the Tryavna school of woodcarving, as well as icons and antique copper implements.
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A
Museum of the Urban Lifestyle in Ruse
The Museum of the Urban Lifestyle in Ruse was built in 1866 and features early-20th-century crockery, cutlery, porcelain and costumes. The elegant furnishings date to the same period. The museum is alternatively known as the Kaliopa House. According to legend, the Turkish governor, Midhat Pasha, gave the house to his reputed mistress, Calliope, the beautiful Greek wife of the Prussian ambassador.
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Archaeological Museum
The Archaeological Museum features a scale model of the city walls as they would have originally appeared, and some photos of early excavations. Nevertheless, the displays about traditional regional costumes and agricultural and weaving equipment are more engaging. The poorly signposted museum is located past the post office, and is accessible from the main road through a pretty courtyard.
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B
State Art Museum
Dramatically situated in a tight bend of the Yantra River, the State Art Museum contains paintings of Veliko Târnovo and the region by numerous artists. The 2nd floor exhibits more artworks, mostly on permanent loan from galleries in Silistra, Dobrich and Ruse. Guided tours (in English and French) are available for about 5 lv extra per person; entry is free on Thursdays.
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C
Archaeological Museum
Housed in a grand old building with a colonnaded terrace and courtyard full of Roman sculptures, the archaeological museum contains Roman artefacts from Nikopolis-ad-Istrum and more Roman pottery and statues from elsewhere. Medieval Bulgarian exhibits include huge murals of the tsars, while there’s also some ancient gold from nearby Neolithic settlements.
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D
Museum Complex of Pancho Vladigerov
One of several National Revival and early-20th-century baroque houses dotted along the cobblestone western section of ul Tsar Osvoboditel is the Museum Complex of Pancho Vladigerov, commemorating Bulgaria’s most renowned composer and pianist. The handsome structures include a library, set around a shady courtyard garden.
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E
Transportation Museum
The unique Transportation Museum exhibits vintage locomotives from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as carriages that once belonged to Balkan luminaries such as Tsar Boris III, Tsar Ferdinand and Turkish Sultan Abdul Aziz. A photo display documents the development of communications and mass transport in Ruse.
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Ethnographical Museum
From near the art gallery, follow the cobblestoned ul Hristo Ivanov Golemia uphill about 100m to the Ethnographical Museum. The two mid-19th-century buildings contain fascinating exhibits and period furniture, plus a cellar full of wine-making equipment. Leaflets with explanations in English, French or German are available.
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Roman floor mosaic
Built as it is on the grid of an ancient Roman city, Stara Zagora has yielded some pretty amazing discoveries. One such find, a massive Roman floor mosaic dated to the 4th to 5th century AD, is displayed in the post office's eastern entrance. The room relies on natural light, however, so it's best seen on a sunny day.
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House-Museums
Koprivshtitsa boasts six house-museums, of which some are closed either on Monday or Tuesday (all operate Wednesday through Sunday). A combined ticket for all six museums is available at the souvenir shop Kupchinitsa two doors up the hill from the Tourist Information Centre; most of the museums also sell them.
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Neolithic Dwellings Museum
Two 8000-year-old Stone Age houses are partially preserved in a secure and airtight environment at the Neolithic Dwellings Museum. These modest one-room homes were abandoned after a fire several millennia ago, making them among the Balkans’ best preserved Neolithic dwellings.
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Museum of Icons
Housed in a former chapel, Tryavna’s second, larger Museum of Icons contains over 160 religious icons from the erstwhile collections of famous local families. The museum is beyond the train line, and signposted from ul PR Slaveikov.
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History Museum
Along the mall, the History Museum occupies a grand old building of three floors that house archaeological and ethnological items such as coins, weapons and books. The best exhibits concern the revolutionary struggle against the Turks.
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Museum
This brick museum on the main road exhibits numerous Thracian and Roman artefacts from Madara, Veliki Preslav and Pliska. Ancient coins, icons and a scale model of the Shumen Fortress as it was in its heyday are also on display.
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Museum of Folk Craft & Applied Arts
The impressive Museum of Folk Craft & Applied Arts by the bridge comprises 10 halls exhibiting local textiles, woodcarving, metalwork, weaving, pottery and ceramics, as well as some archaeological artefacts.
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F
Ruse Regional Museum of History
Ruse Regional Museum of History is a new history museum containing prehistoric, Roman and medieval Bulgarian archaeological finds, taken from the Roman fortress and other local sites.
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G
Museum
This museum, in a former Turkish town hall built in 1872, was where Bulgaria’s first National Assembly was held seven years later to write the country’s first constitution.
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H
Zahari Stoyanov House-Museum
Revolutionary hero Zahari Stoyanov and his firearms collection, along with sabres and early photographs, are commemorated at the Zahari Stoyanov House-Museum.
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Museum of Education
The Museum of Education is accessible through the stunning courtyard in the Aprilov School. Also worth a peek is the art gallery.
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