The National Art Gallery

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1, Knyaz Al. Batenberg sq.

The National Art Gallery (Bulgarian: Национална художествена галерия, Natsionalna hudozhestvena galeriya) is Bulgaria’s national gallery and houses over 50,000 pieces of Bulgarian art. It is located on Battenberg Square in the capital city of Sofia, occupying most of the historic and imposing edifice of the former royal palace of Bulgaria, having been established in 1934 and moved to the palace in 1946, after the abolition of the monarchy.

The National Art Gallery houses not only examples of contemporary and National Revival art, but also the country’s largest collection of medieval paintings, including more than four thousand icons.

The National Gallery for Foreign Art

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1, Alexander Nevski Blvd.

The National Gallery for Foreign Art (Bulgarian: Национална галерия за чуждестранно изкуство, Natsionalna galeriya za chuzhdestranno izkustvo) of Bulgaria is a gallery located on St. Alexander Nevsky Square in Sofia. It serves as the country’s national institution for non-Bulgarian art. It is situated in the 19th-century Neoclassic edifice of the former Royal Printing Office.

The edifice of the NGFA was built between 1882 and 1884 during the rule of knyaz Alexander Battenberg to the designs of Austrian architect Friedrich Schwanberg and reconstructed after it suffered significant damage during the bombing of Sofia in World War II. The gallery itself was founded on 5 November 1985 as the art gallery of the Sts. Cyril and Methodius Foundation, its stock being later enlarged by donations, as well as by the addition of the National Art Gallery’s foreign art section.

A large portion of the donations were made through the “13th Centuries of Bulgarian Statehood” fund, established by Lyudmila Zhivkova in the 1980s. Gallery’s current look is thanks to the architect Nikola Nikolov.

The venue is situated in 20 halls with total exhibition area of 3 200 sq. m.

The gallery’s permanent exposition features European, Asian (Buddhist, Japanese and Indian) and African art, as well as separate contemporary art and engraving sections. It houses christian plastics stemming from Indian province Goa, tat could be found only in Portugal and the UK.

Peyo Yavorov Museum House

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136 G.S. Rakovski str.

The Romantic poet and revolutionary Peyo Yavorov (1878–1914) lived in this house, located on the famous Rakovski Str. from 29^th of November 1912 to the tragic night of 30^th November 1913, along with Lora Karavelova. Since 1963 the house is a functioning museum, gathering precious collections of manuscripts, original photographs, poet’s personal library, his first signed editions, his weapon collection. It also houses personal items of Peyo Yavorov, Mina Todorova and Lora Karavelova, paintings, graphic sheets and plastic sculptures by famous Bulgarian artists. The exposition of poet’s cabinet shows the family nest of Yavorov and Lora. Here is recreated the house with the original furniture of the last home of the poet on Solunska Str.

The Memorial Tomb of Alexander I

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81, Vasil Levski Blvd.

The Memorial Tomb of Alexander I of Battenberg (Bulgarian: Гробница паметник „Александър І Батенберг“, Grobnitsa pametnik „Aleksandar І Batenberg“), better known as the Battenberg Mausoleum (Мавзолей на Батенберг, Mavzoley na Batenberg) in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is the mausoleum and final resting place of Prince Alexander I of Bulgaria (1857–1893), the first Head of State of modern Bulgaria.

Commissioned to the Swiss architect Hermann Mayer, designed in the eclectic style (with prominent elements of Neo-Baroque and Neoclassicism) and opened in 1897, the mausoleum measures 11 metres in height and 80 square metres in area. The interior was painted by the noted Bulgarian artist Haralampi Tachev. It was partially restored in 2005.

When Alexander died in exile in Graz, Austria in 1893, he was initially buried there. However, in accordance with his wish, his remains were transferred to the Bulgarian capital. He was given a state funeral attended.Following a service in the St Nedelya Church his body was moved to the Church of St George and subsequently to the newly constructed mausoleum in the centre of the city.

The mausoleum was closed between 1947 and 1991, during the period of Communist rule in Bulgaria, but was subsequently reopened for the public. Today it also exhibits some of Alexander’s private possessions and papers, donated by his wife in 1937.

The museum exhibition of Sofia University

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15, Tzar Osvobodiyel Blvd.

The museum exhibition of Sofia University is situated in the premises beneath the rotunda in Block 6 in the Northern wing of the Sofia University, adapted to museum needs.

The whole exhibition covers a space of about 100 m2 in the main hall and 4 separate rooms. The exhibition is successfully enlarged by two smaller museum collections on archeology and ethnology, situated in two other separate rooms.

The Museum of Physical Culture and Sport

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38, Evlogi and Hristo Georgievi Blvd

The Museum of Physical Culture and Sport is housed in hall in the National Stadium Vasil Levski in Sofia. It was created in 1956 and was renovated in 2003. The first exposition was held in 1962.

The museum shows the facts of the history of Bulgarian sport and top scores of Bulgarian athletes. Exposures include many exhibits, photographs and facsimiles, including a copy of the first Bulgarian bicycle, motorcycles and personal prizes and medals of Bulgarian sportsmen and sportswomen, like Hrsto Stoichkov, Yordanka Blagoeva, Diana Yorgovs, Svetla Otzetova, Vesela Lecheva, Zdravka Yordanova etc.

Vasil Levski National Stadium

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Vasil Levski National Stadium was officially opened in 1953 and reconstructed in 1966 and 2002. The Bulgaria national football team’s home matches and the Bulgarian Cup finals are held at the venue, as well as athletics competitions. It was also used as the home venue for Levski Sofia’s Champions League games.

Prior to their demolition by the Communist authorities during the 1940s, two other stadiums stood on the ground where the current national stadium lies. One of those was Levski Sofia’s club stadium, called Levski Field (Bulgarian: Igrishte Levski, completed 1934), and the other – the Yunak Stadium (built 1928). The latter used to host national football team matches with its capacity of about 15,000 seats.

In 1998 reconstruction works start in order to meet UEFA’s requirements. In 1997 seats were pinned. The works were finished in 2002 before the game Bulgaria-Croatia, that was the official opening of the reconstructed venue. The new seat capacity is 43 340. The stadium is licensed by UEFA with four stars.

The stadium offers also judo, artistic gymnastics, basketball, boxing, aerobics, fencing and table tennis halls, as well as a general physical training hall, two conference halls and three restaurants.

The National Museum of Bulgarian literature

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139, Georgi S. Rakovski Str.

The National Museum of Bulgarian literature was created on 1 January 1976 to the Committee for Arts and Culture, in order “to search for, collect, preserve, study, publish and display materials and documentary monuments related to the overall history of Bulgarian literature from the founding of Bulgarian state until today and in the future “.

The museum has a literary archive and research group.

The Literary houses-museums in Sofia are branches in the structure of NMBL and fall under its methodological guidance.

By Order of the Council of Ministers № 22 from 03.12.1992, the name of the museum is amended in National Literary Museum.

The National Church Museum of History and Archaeology

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19, Sv. Nedelya Sq.

The National Church Museum of History and Archaeology is situated in the building of the Theological Faculty of Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski on St. Nedelya square in the center of Sofia.

The remarkable building was designed by Bulgarian and foreign architects and artists and was built in 1923. The museum was opened in the same year. During the bombing in the Second World War the building suffered great damage, but it was later restored.

The museum preserves more than 10,000 exhibits – icons, carvings, historical files, church plates, old books, etc. Visitors can see icons, made by masters of the Tryavna, Samokov, Debar and Bansko schools. Unique in their kind autographs are also exhibited, such as manuscripts of Neophyte Bozveli, Illarion Makariopolsky, Exarch Antim the 1st, Exarch Joseph the 1st, etc. Due to its exceptional value, exhibitions of the museum often visit various museums all over the world – Paris, Geneva, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Prague, Bratislava, etc.

The building of the Theological Faculty was declared a monument of architecture and art of national importance.

The National Museum of Natural History

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1, Tzar Osvoboditel Blvd.

The National Museum of Natural History

(Bulgarian: Национален природонаучен музей, Natsionalen prirodonauchen muzey; abbreviated НПМ, NMNHS) of Bulgaria is a museum of natural history located in Sofia, on “Tzar Osvoboditel” str. next to the Russian church. Founded in 1889, it is affiliated with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and is the first and largest museum of this kind in the Balkans.

The museum’s collection includes over 400 stuffed mammals, over 1,200 species of birds, hundreds of thousands of insects and other invertebrate, as well as samples of about one quarter of the world’s mineral species.

Today’s National Museum of Natural History was founded in 1889 as the Natural History Museum of Knyaz Ferdinand of Bulgaria.