roxanda | Theia Tours: Bulgaria

Zemenski Monastery

The Zemenski Monastery “St. John the Evangelist” is located 1.5 kilometers from the town of Zemen and 70 kilometers southwest of Sofia. The monastery was founded during the First Bulgarian Kingdom (7th – 11th century). The church of the monastery preserves parts of the frescoes, which date back to the 12th century. Due to its […]

Sokolski Monastery

The Sokolski Monastery “The Assumption of Mary” is located in the area Sokolova Cave, 15 kilometers east of Gabrovo and 4 kilometers from the Ethnographic museum complex Etara. The monastery was founded in 1833. In the years before the liberation from the Ottoman Domination (1878) the monastery had a monastery school, and the monastery sheltered many […]

Kapinovski Monastery

The Kapinovski Monastery “St. Nicholas the Miracle Maker” is located at a distance of 14 kilometers from Veliko Tarnovo and about 5 kilometers from the village of Velchevo. It is believed that it was founded in the 13th century, and over the centuries it was repeatedly burned and rebuilt. In the nineteenth century the Kapinovski monastery […]

Plakovski Monastery

The Plakovski Monastery “St. Elijah” is located at a distance of about 2 kilometers from the Kapinovski monastery and about 20 kilometers from Veliko Tarnovo. It was founded during the reign of Tsar Ivan Asen II (1218 – 1241). The monastery has existed on its present location since the 13th century. It is assumed that […]

The Aladzha Monastery

The Aladzha Monastery is located about 15 km north of the city of Varna and is the most well-known cave monastery on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The name Aladzha is of mixed Persian and Turkish origin and means bright and colorful, possibly referring to the few remaining murals. The same type of soft rock-hewn […]

The Boyana Church

The Boyana Church in the city of Sofia (built in the 11th-12th centuries) is known as one of the most exquisite and best preserved landmarks of south European Medieval art. It owes its worldwide fame to the exquisite murals painted in 1259 by an unknown icon painter of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (12th-14th centuries). The […]

The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

The patriarchal cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky is one of the symbols of the city of Sofia. The church was proclaimed a cultural monument in 1924. The bell tower is almost 53 m high and has 12 church bell, which were cast and brought here from Moscow. Some of the most exquisite Bulgarian icons are […]

The Russian Church in Sofia

The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker also known as the Russian Church is among the most beautiful Christian churches in Bulgaria and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. At the beginning of the 20th century the church became a spiritual center for thousands of Russian immigrants. Seraphim Sobelev, archbishop of the Russian […]

Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo

In the valley of the Roussenski Lom River, in north east Bulgaria, a complex of rock-hewn churches, chapels, monasteries and cells developed in the vicinity of the village of Ivanovo. This is where the first hermits had dug out their cells and churches during the 12th century. The 14th-century murals testify to the exceptional skill of […]

National History Museum – Sofia

The National Historical Museum in Sofia is Bulgaria’s largest museum. It was founded on 5 May 1973 and its first representative exposition was opened in 1984 to commemorate 1300 years of Bulgarian history. The museum was moved to a former governmental residence in 2000 and currently stores and owns over 650,000 objects connected to archaeology, […]

National Archaeological Museum – Sofia

The National Archaeological Museum is an archaeological museum in the center of Sofia. It occupies the building of the largest and oldest former Ottoman mosque in the city, Büyük camii (“Grand Mosque”), built around 1474 under Mehmed II. The museum was established as a separate entity in 1893 as the National Museum directed by Czech […]

The Earth and Man National Museum – Sofia

The Earth and Man National Museum is a mineralogical museum in the center of Sofia. It’s one of the biggest mineralogical museums in the world. It was founded on 30 December 1985 and opened for visitors on 19 June 1987. The museum is situated in a reconstructed and adapted historic building with an area of 4,000 […]

National Museum of Natural History – Sofia

The National Museum of Natural History of Bulgaria is a museum of natural history located in Sofia, next to the Russian church. Founded in 1889, it is affiliated with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and is the first and largest museum of this kind in the Balkans. The museum’s collection includes over 400 stuffed mammals, […]

National Military History Museum – Sofia

The National Military History Museum is a museum dedicated to military history in Sofia, Bulgaria. A structure of the Ministry of Defence, it has existed under various names and subordinate to various institutions since 1 August 1914 (in practice since 4 July 1916). It disposes of 5,000 m² of indoor and 40,000 m² outdoor (of […]

National Gallery for Foreign Art – Sofia

The National Gallery for Foreign Art of Bulgaria is a gallery located on St. Alexander Nevsky Square in Sofia. It serves as the country’s national institution for non-Bulgarian art. It is situated in the 19th-century Neoclassic edifice of the former Royal Printing Office. The gallery hosts collections of Indian Art, Japanese art, African art, Buddhist art from Southeast Asia, European […]

Archaeological Museum – Varna

The Varna Archaeological Museum is an archaeological museum in the city of Varna on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. Founded on 3 June 1888, when a museum, part of the City Library was established, the Varna Archaeological Museum is situated in a historic building designed in the Neo-Renaissance style by the noted architect Petko […]

Neolithic Dwellings Museum – Stara Zagora

The Neolithic Dwellings Museum in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria contains ruins of two of the oldest surviving buildings in the world. The Neolithic Dwellings Museum in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria was created in 1979. It is a branch of The Stara Zagora Regional Historical Museum. The Neolithic Dwellings Museum is built around two Neolithic houses dating back to […]

National Transport Museum – Ruse

The National Transport Museum in Rousse, Bulgaria, is situated on the bank of the Danube, in the country’s first railway station, built in 1866. Exhibits are laid out both inside and outside the old station. Among the exhibits outside the building are more than ten steam engines, including the oldest steam engine preserved in the […]

Pleven Regional Historical Museum

The Pleven Regional Historical Museum, founded in 1953, is one of the largest museums in Bulgaria. The museum is situated in a two-story edifice near the center of Pleven that is a monument of culture of national importance and has an area of 7,000 m². Its main stock includes over 180,000 units and the museum […]

Plovdiv Regional Historical Museum

The Plovdiv Regional Historical Museum is a historical museum in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Established in 1951, it covers the history of Plovdiv from the 15th century until today (the older history is presented in the Plovdiv Archaeological Museum). It has three departments, each occupying a separate historic building. The Bulgarian National Revival department, situated […]