Description of the attraction
The Natural Science Museum is the largest museum in the city of Plovdiv and the second largest in Bulgaria. The idea of creating the complex was approved by the city authorities in 1952. However, it took several years to collect a rich collection and decorate the exhibition premises.
On September 5, 1955, the Temporary Exhibition of materials of the future natural science museum was opened, which was a great success - it was visited by tens of thousands of residents and guests of Plovdiv.
The first full-fledged exhibition opened on May 8, 1960. It was devoted to the geology, flora and fauna of Bulgaria and consisted of several sections: "Evolution of organisms and inanimate nature", "Plants", "Invertebrates", "Vertebrates - fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals". This exhibition was the beginning of the future development of the museum. In 1970-1971. there was an expansion of the museum fund, which was replenished with departments of geology, botany, zoology of invertebrates and vertebrates.
In 1974, as a result of the enormous research work of the museum staff, the premises were reconstructed and artistically decorated with the exhibitions "Geology", "Botany", etc., new sections appeared: "Minerals of the Rhodope massif", also "Edible and poisonous mushrooms”,“Protected natural objects and plants of the Plovdiv region”, etc. Since the same year, a large-scale exposition“Freshwater”has been operating. Indoors with an area of 100 sq. m there are 44 aquariums with 32 species of ornamental fish and exotic plants.
In 1985, the opening of the new "Fish" and "Sea Bottom" halls took place. In the latter, you can see such unique exotic representatives of the underwater world as snails, mollusks, corals and starfish collected off the coast of Angola.
The museum has a library located in a separate building. It contains a large number of various printed publications of natural science in Russian, Bulgarian, English, German and other languages. Today there are about 8 thousand volumes in the library funds.
Since 2006, the complex has been called the Regional Natural Science Museum. Exhibitions of the museum complex, in which a huge number of samples of living and inanimate nature are presented, will be equally interesting for both adults and young visitors.
