Description of the attraction
In the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia, the famous Museum of Fine Arts is located. The building that houses the National Gallery, in the past - the royal palace, built in 1873 on the square named after Prince Alexander Battenberg.
The museum's collection began back in 1892 with the creation of the art department of the National Archaeological Museum, in 1948 the collection was recognized as an independent collection, and a few years later it was decided to move the collected works to the former palace. The same building houses the National Ethnographic Museum dedicated to the culture of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people.
The Gallery presents a large collection of art works, numbering over 50 thousand different exhibits.
The second floor is dedicated to the fine arts of Bulgaria: there are more than 150 paintings by Bulgarian artists (from the Renaissance to the 1960s). Visitors can see the works of the brush of such masters as Zlatya Boyadzhiev, Vladimir Dimitrov, Zakhary Zograf, Vladimir Dimitrov-Maistoa, Goshka Datsov, Ivan Milev, Georgy Mashev.
The third floor houses sculptures made of marble, bronze, terracotta and other materials. Works belong to sculptors Nikolov, Lazarov, Emmanilova and others.
The special pride of the museum is an outstanding collection of paintings from the Middle Ages. In the crypt of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which exists at the gallery, there is a rich exhibition of icon painting.
The gallery often hosts seminars and conferences, scientific meetings, concerts, as well as exhibitions of contemporary artists.
