THRACIAN & OTHER TREASURES

SOFIA, BULGARIA - JULY 2011

A visit to the National Museum of History and back to the Rila Monastery.

"THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY is Bulgaria's largest museum. It was founded on 5 May 1973 and was moved in 2000 to the former residence of Todor Jivkov at Boyana"

"THE THRACIAN TREASURES - By the time I visited, there was an exhibition of Thracian treasures from the Vassil Bojkov collection"

"THE VASSIL BOJKOV EXHIBITION - Consisting of more than 230 pieces dating from the 15th through the 1st centuries BC, it showed some unique works of the ancient Thracian toreutics for the first time. The Bojkov Collection is one of the important world collections of ancient jewelry"

"GOLD - The collection contains all the object forms characteristic for the Thracian art of the period 5th – 1st century BC."

"THRACIAN TOREUTICS - It is said that in the toreutics the Thracians develop symbols, thus allowing us to learn about their culture and art"

"THE TREASURE OF NAGYSZENTMIKLÓS consists of 23 early medieval gold items, in total weighing 9.945 kg, found in 1799 near the town of Sân Nicolau Mare (Nagyszentmiklós in Hungarian) in northern Banat, today in Timiş County in western Romania. After the excavation, the treasure was transferred to Vienna, where part of it has been on permanent display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum"

"OTHER TREASURES - Including the Silver Eagle from the Vossneszenska Treasure"

"ICONS"

"GOLDEN CROWN"

"BOYANA CHURCH"

"ON THE WAY TO RILA -

"THE RILA MONASTERY"

"FRESCOES"

"SAINT GEORGE"

"THE GREEN ARCADE"

STREETS, MONUMENTS & CHURCHES

SOFIA, BULGARIA, JULY 2011

Some of these pictures are very similar to the ones taken in 2006. Check the differences :-)

BACK TO SOFIA

SOFIA, BULGARIA - JULY 2011

My first time in Bulgaria was in 2006. Five years later, I went back actually to have an exactily equal programme. So the biggest interest of the next posts will be to check the differences, if any...

"VITOSHA BOULEVARD - With a view to Mount Vitosha, on the way to the Boyana Residence"

"BOYANA RESIDENCE is a governmental residence located 8km south from the centre of Sofia. Surrounded by a large park at the foot of the Vitosha Mountain, the building was constructed in 1974 and has hosted a number of high-ranking guests – royals, heads of states and me... :-) According to the publicity, «the complex welcomes individual guests as well as organised groups who are taking part in international conferences, seminars, congresses and workshops, providing superb conditions for meetings as well as sports and business tourism. The vast park is excellently maintained, providing unique recreation and walks among magnificent water cascades, lakes and rare flora species». The latter I can confirm, as I always walked my one hour morning tour in the gorgeous park...

"ROOM 226 - A bit dated. Old style...

"RISING SUN"

"VIEWS - From my roon and from my chair at the Conference"

"CITY PARK - In my first visit to Sofia, I stayed at the Grand Hotel Sofia. My first post at the former Blogtrotter - Welcome to the Balkans - showed basically how were in 2006 the buildings you are going to see next"

"FOUNTAIN & THEATRE -

"AROUND THE PARK -

"ST. NICHOLAS

"ST. NICHOLAS -

"SAINT SOFIA-

SAINT SOFIA - INTERIOR

"NEVSKI -

"VIEWS OF NEVSKI -

"NEVSKI INTERIOR -