Museum sights in Bulgaria
-
A
National Museum of Military History
Don’t be put off by the rusting army trucks in the overgrown front yard – this museum is among the most interesting and best presented in Sofia. Displays over three floors tell the story of warfare in Bulgaria from the time of the Thracians onwards, with extensive labelling and information boards in English. Most space goes to the period from the 1876 April Uprising through to WWI, with cases filled with weaponry, rebel flags and a seemingly endless parade of uniforms and personal belongings of soldiers. Among the more striking are the shaggy-fur flying costume, resembling a traditional Kuker outfit, worn by a Lt Simeon Petrov during the First Balkan War, and the…
reviewed
-
B
Archaeological Museum
The Buyuk Djami (Great Mosque) since 1899 has housed Sofia’s fascinating Archaeological Museum. Thracian and Roman tombstones fill up much of the ground floor, along with weaponry and jewellery. Among the more eye-catching artefacts are a 3rd-century AD bronze head of the Emperor Gordianus; a stone plaque showing gladiatorial fights in the circus, now under the Arena di Serdica hotel; and the original 4th-century AD mosaic floor from the apse of the Church of Sveta Sofia. On show upstairs are the remarkable finds unearthed near Shipka in 2004, including the 4th-century BC gold burial mask of a Thracian king, and a magnificent bronze head with coloured glass eyes and…
reviewed
-
C
Mineral Baths
The Mineral Baths – also known as the Turkish Baths – was built between 1911 and 1913. With its elegant striped façade and ceramic decorations recalling the designs of Nesebâr’s medieval churches, it’s one of Sofia’s architectural gems, but it fell into dereliction in the 1990s and has been undergoing sporadic restoration for over a decade. When restoration is finally complete, it will house a new civic museum, although no date has been set for this. The centrepiece of the little square between the baths and the Banya Bashi Mosque, known as pl Banski, is a modern fountain, while a smart drinking-fountain complex has been constructed just behind the baths,…
reviewed
-
D
History Museum
Watching over the ruins of the Roman baths, Varna’s ivy-covered History Museum is itself an intriguing part of the city’s history. Built in 1851 as the Belgian Embassy, it subsequently became a hotel, a prison and, under the communists, a Museum of the Revolution, before taking on its present role in 1990. Displays on the ground floor include photographs of the city from the 1920s, while the basement holds an exhibition on local trades and handicrafts such as printing, weaving and brewing. More imagination has gone into the replicas of long-gone 1920s and ’30s shops and offices on the 1st floor, including ‘Uncle Mityu’s Café’, a hat shop, toy shop and lawyer’s office.…
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
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
-
E
Ethnographical Museum
Plovdiv’s fascinating Ethnographical Museum houses some 40,000 exhibits, including folk costumes and musical instruments, jewellery and examples of traditional crafts such as weaving, metalworking, winemaking and beekeeping. Traditional tools ranging from grape-crushers and wine-measures to apparatuses used for distilling attar of roses are also displayed. Upstairs, the restored 19th-century rooms have nice touches such as carved wooden ceilings. The most renowned Bulgarian National Revival–period home in Plovdiv, it was built in 1847 and owned by the eminent Agir Koyoumdjioglou, later becoming a girls’ boarding school and a tobacco and flour warehouse.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
F
Royal Palace
Originally built as the headquarters of the Ottoman police force, it was at the Royal Palace that Bulgaria's national hero, Vasil Levski, was tried and tortured before his public execution in 1873. After the Liberation, the building was remodelled in Viennese style and in 1887, apparently undeterred by its grisly recent past, Prince Alexander Battenberg moved in and it became the official residence of Bulgaria's royal family until the communist takeover.
These days it houses the National Art Gallery and the Ethnographical Museum, while the shaded park at the rear contains an odd assemblage of statues.
reviewed
-
Archaeological Museum
The centrally located Archaeological Museum, built over a Roman villa’s remains, contains tombstones and votive tablets, plus the original villa’s mosaic floor. Sandanski’s apparent link to Spartacus is explained (in Bulgarian), and items from the adjacent ruins of the 5th-century Sveta Ioanna Basilica are also displayed. The basilica ruins themselves are small, but fun to wander around. Much less prominent Byzantine ruins are up on ul Mara Buneva, possibly including a baptistry, though there are no descriptions and not much is visible.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
G
Archaeological Museum
The Archaeological Museum has a fair collection of Hellenistic and Roman-era tombstones on the ground floor, as well as an unusual triple-image statuette of Hecate, goddess of witchcraft and fertility, from the 2nd century BC. Other exhibits include Greek pottery, Thracian gold jewellery and ancient anchors, while Hellenistic humour is on show on a bronze jug depicting Dionysus, god of wine, supporting a sozzled Silenus, god of drunkenness. The basement holds a collection of religious icons recovered from Nesebâr’s numerous churches, including a 13th-century image of the Virgin.
reviewed
-
H
National Museum of Natural History
You can almost sense the ghosts of generations of school parties dutifully trooping through the musty halls of this old-fashioned museum. The didactic collection of animal, plant and mineral specimens is vast, although there’s little labelling in anything but Bulgarian. Rocks, crystals and minerals grace the ground floor, while on the next two floors you can browse cases full of stuffed birds and animals, including a brown bear dangling a Nazi hunting medal from its claw and some threadbare apes, lions and tigers. Pickled fish and cases of dried insects complete the collection.
reviewed
-
I
National Polytechnic Museum
One of Sofia’s less visited attractions, this small museum is nevertheless a treasure trove for anyone interested in the history of science and technology. On show is a varied (though not always well labelled) collection covering such subjects as photography, radio and time measurement. A gleaming, perfectly restored 1928 Ford Model A is parked just inside, while other displays include atomic clocks, typewriters, early movie cameras and mechanical pianos. Look for the Bulgarian-made freeze-dried ‘space food’, which includes a packet of powdered tarator.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
Devin Museum
A comically gruff reception awaits visitors at the little Devin Museum, which exhibits Rodopi folk arts and crafts, ancient and medieval coins, and colourful minerals from local mountains. Prominently positioned reproductions of salacious 19th-century paintings depict wicked Turks whipping Bulgarian women, hurling Bulgarians babies and carrying off slaves. The roomful of traditional implements and machinery, however, is quite interesting, and also displays the gayda (Balkan bagpipe) of Bai Mihail. In winter the museum operates only in afternoons.
reviewed
-
J
Ethnographical Museum
Spread over two floors, the Ethnographical Museum has a permanent collection of regional costumes and crafts, although most of the space is usually occupied by long-term temporary exhibitions on topics of varying interest, such as traditional festivals or carpet-making. (Everything is captioned in English.) Some rooms are in poor condition, but others, with their marble fireplaces, mirrors and ornate plasterwork, are worth pausing over; note the lobster, fish and dead duck on the ceiling of what was once presumably a royal dining room.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
K
Archaeological Museum
Burgas’ small Archaeological Museum houses a collection of local finds ranging from the Stone Age up to the Roman era. Artefacts on show include Neolithic flint tools, a wooden canoe from the 5th century BC, Thracian jewellery and the remarkably well preserved wooden coffin of a Thracian chieftain. A separate room displays recently unearthed discoveries from a Neolithic site and a Roman necropolis outside the city, including pottery, clay idols and silver jewellery.
reviewed
-
Archaeological Museum
Housed in a scruffy concrete building on a lane running down to the port, the Archaeological Museum is a little disappointing given Sozopol's long and rich history, but the artefacts and dry English texts at least give you some insight into the town's past. Anchors, amphorae and pottery take up most of the space, including some painted 5th-century-BC vases, tableware imported from Greece and terracotta figurines of actors unearthed at the Apollonia necropolis, on Harmanite Beach.
reviewed
Advertisement
-
L
Natural Science Museum
The Natural Science Museum presents a series of old-fashioned – but still informative – displays on local flora, fauna and geology. Exhibits of rocks, seashells, butterflies and beetles occupy the ground floor, while the basement holds mineral samples from around Bulgaria and the rest of the world. Upstairs there’s a collection of stuffed birds and animals from the locality, including rarer species such as the squacco heron and ferruginous duck.
reviewed
-
M
Ethnographical Complex
The Ethnographical Complex, also known as the Bulgarian National Revival Compound, houses dry displays on publishing, literature and education, along with a restored 19th-century schoolroom and a church, originally built in 1866. From the bus station, walk north on ul Cherno More for 20 minutes and look out for the clock tower in the grounds. If you’re near the port, take a taxi (about 2.50 lv) because it’s a very steep walk.
reviewed
-
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.
reviewed
-
Museum of Speleology & Karst
Also called the Cave Museum, the Museum of Speleology & Karst is unique in Bulgaria and, possibly, the Balkans. Minerals, bottled bats, remains of ancient cave-dwelling animals such as lions and bears, are exhibited, along with displays on the Trigrad and Yagodina caves. A tape in English and German gives explanations. The museum’s in the Hotel Pesternika building, 200m up from the bus station on the hillside.
reviewed
-
N
Ethnographic Museum
Housed in a delightful revival-era mansion built in 1860, Varna’s Ethnographic Museum is one of the country’s best. The ground floor contains a collection of agricultural implements and displays about weaving, wine-making and fishing from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The 1st floor has an impressive range of costumes and jewellery, and the four rooms on the 2nd floor are furnished in period style.
reviewed