Bulgaria’s Capital May Finally Get its Own Museum
BalkanTravellers.com
Sofia’s municipal privatisation fund will set aside about 4.6 million euro for the completion of the unfinished parts of the project, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency reported recently. The idea is for the museum to open before April 3, which will be the 130 anniversary since Sofia was announced as Bulgaria’s capital.
The Central Bath was built in the Secession architectural tradition at the beginning of the twentieth century, in a spot rich with warm mineral water springs.
Sofia’s municipal council decided to turn the building into a Museum of Sofia exactly 10 years ago, in 1998. It was then that a proposal was approved, which provided for the building’s central wing to become a museum, while its northern wing was to serve as a SPA centre.
Nearly 1.8 million euro was invested when the project began in 2004, though it seems to have barely progressed in subsequent years. It was decided in 2006 by the municipal authorities that the bath’s reconstruction should be continued until its first phase – the Museum of Sofia, is completed.
According to older publications, there are over 100 museum artefacts linked to Sofia’s history from the Neolith to the contemporary eras for which there is no space in which to be displayed.
The current project, according to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, involves reconstructing the west wing to include a foyer, six exhibition halls and a depository, while the south wing is to hold administrative quarters and restoration workshops. The internal courtyard will house an information centre and more exhibition halls.
In the space under the roof, another exhibition hall is to be placed, with a memorial part dedicated to the building’s creators – the architects Petko Momchilov and Friedrich Grünanger. The latter was an Austro-Hungarian architect who worked primarily in Bulgaria and is credited with the construction of numerous remarkable public buildings throughout the country and in Sofia, including the Royal Palace, which now houses the National Art Gallery, as well as the capital’s seminary and synagogue.
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excellent smugs
