National Art Gallery

Occupying the east wing of the royal palace, the National Art Gallery holds one of the country’s most comprehensive collections of Bulgarian art, with several galleries full of mainly 19th and 20th century paintings and sculptures. All the big names are represented, including the ubiquitous Vladimir Dimitrov, whose orange, Madonna-like Harvester hangs in the former royal music room. Other standouts include Goshka Datsov’s The Dream of Mary Magdalene and Georgi Mashev’s creepy Outcast. Anton Mitov’s paintings of early-20th-century Sofia, such as Vegetable Market at Sofia, offer a fascinating insight into local history. On the floor above, a warren of corridors and small rooms forms a display space for Bulgarian sculpture, featuring marble, bronze and terracotta portraits by Ivan Lazarov, Vaska Emmanouilova and Andrei Nikolov, whose marble head, Yearning, is among the highlights.