History of the National History Museum

The Beginning

The National Museum of History (NMM) was established by Order No. 90 of the Council of Ministers of 5 May 1973 “with the task to search for, collect, preserve, study, publish and exhibit material and documentary monuments related to the overall history of the Bulgarian people from the founding of the Bulgarian state to the present day…”

The story in pictures, the beginning

The gallery includes 70 photos. When you open any of the ones shown below, you can view all the other documentary footage.

In the Court Chamber

In 1983. NIM moved from the building of the former Russian Embassy – to ul. “Moskovska” to the Court Palace, on the Blvd. “
The main task was to create a representative museum exposition, which was inaugurated on 2 March 1984, in honour of the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state. It is the work of the entire Bulgarian museum collegium, eminent scientists and specialists from many fields of science.

At that time, the museum exhibition occupied part of the first two floors of the monumental building of the Court Palace, located in the historically distinct centre of ancient Sofia. In adapting the building to the needs of the exposition, all its features were preserved so that the visitor could feel all its impressiveness as a great architectural monument. The area on which the exposition is located is 14,000 square metres and its chronological scope has been extended from 7000 BC to 1878.

The National History Museum in the Court House

The gallery includes 70 photos. When you open any of the ones shown below, you can view all the other documentary footage.

In Boyana

On 15 April 1998, by Decision No. 161 of the Council of Ministers, a new building was granted to the National Museum of Natural History – “House No. 1”, with a built-up area of 3,300 square meters, located in the Boyana complex. The two years that followed until the museum’s final move to its new building put the museum’s composition to the test, which it handled with honour.

The drastically reduced exhibition space, which at first disturbed the creators of the new exposition, had an unexpectedly beneficial effect – new accents were brought to the fore and the historical narrative became more concentrated. This enables visitors to become much better acquainted with our country’s past.

The merits of the new exposition have been appreciated abroad. After a number of familiarisation visits by representatives of European museum institutions, at the 25th official award ceremony of the annual European Museum Forum, held from 8 to 11 May 2002 in Luxembourg, Queen Fabiola of Belgium, patron of the Forum, presented the first special award to the NIM.

Since the beginning of the 1990s the funds of the National History Museum have been enriched with exhibits from the former “Museum of the Revolutionary Movement”, as well as from the museum “Bulgaria and the Slavic World” (until 14 July 1991 “National Museum of Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship”).

Scroll to Top