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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 country, built in England in 1865, and various railroad carriages, including the personal carriages of the Kings Ferdinand of Bulgaria and Boris III of Bulgaria, as well as the carriage of the Turkish sultan of 1866.

As of 2007 the museum is underfunded, the heritage engines and railcars are stored in the open air without almost any maintenance, and the humid air from the nearby Danube accelerates significantly their decay.

The museum was named the National Museum of Railway Transport and Communications on 26 June 1996, commemorating the 100th anniversary of railroads in Bulgaria, and the building was declared a historical landmark. The museum’s exhibits have been used in the films Capitan Petko Voivoda, Records of Bulgarian Uprisings, and the Russian-Bulgarian production Turkish Gambit.