bg Varna

Varna Regional History Museum

- Maria Luisa Boulevard 41 -
The construction of the educational building lasted from 1893 until 1898 and was built on the site of a former Turkish barrack. The building was constructed by a design of the Bulgarian architect and was led by the architects , Schreiber, and Sava Dimitrievich. It was built to house the Varna Girls' High School, which was commissioned by the Belgian Minister of Education with the assistance of regent , who became its first director. The first academic year took place between 1898 and 1899 after it was completed and fully furnished. Until the , the high school rose as one of the main educational centers in Bulgaria. In 1954, boys were admitted to the Girls' High School and it became a mixed school.
The project of the Bulgarian architect Petko Momchilov
On March 3, 1983, the first floor of the building was in use to house the exposition of the Archaeological Museum, and since 1993, the building has been completely occupied by the museum. The Varna Archaeological Museum was created by the Varna Archaeological Society, which was founded in 1887 on the initiative of the Czech-Bulgarian brothers, and . The first exhibition was opened on June 11, 1906, in a room in the attic of the Girls' High School. Its first director was Karel Shkorpil, who remained in this position until his death in 1944. In 1923, the Archaeological Museum returned to the room in the attic.
An old postcard shows the building
In 1945, the Varna museum was declared state-owned, and in 1950, the museum moved to another building in the city, where in 1952, they opened a new exposition. In 1983 they moved back to the former Girls' High School where they became one of the largest museums in the country. The museum stores the oldest gold in the world, discovered in 1972 near Varna, the Varna Eneolithic treasure, dated to 4200-4600 BC. The museum and its collections present Bulgaria at dozens of national and international exhibitions. With solo exhibitions, the museum visited famous museums in France, Germany, Japan, Israel, and Italy, and at the world exhibitions in and .
Schoolgirls from the Girls' High School in Varna in 1920
The part of the symmetrical majestic building, which is built in the Neo-Renaissance style, is topped with a stone balustrade that in some cases contains . You can either see one or two strips of underneath the , which can be seen around the entire building. The three rectangular-shaped fragments are embellished with and . The contains an in Cyrillic letters that states НАРОДНА ДЕВИЧЕСКА ГИМНАЗИЯ (National Girls' High School). Some of the that are placed above the circle top windows are flanked by that contain a circle. The that flanked these spandrels are either crowned with an Ionic or a Doric . The that are placed underneath some windows contain the same balusters as the balustrades that are placed on top of the building, but they differ from the ones that are used in the balconets that are located on the . The building contains a total of four turrets, which are all adorned with and some small . A pointed is placed above almost all of the second floor windows, and underneath most of the windows, you can see a window sill, which is supported by two .
View on part of the exhibition in 1906