Ethnographic Institute With Museum, Sofia

Ethnographic Institute With Museum, Sofia

Located in a former royal palace, the National Ethnographic Museum is dedicated to the preservation of ethnographic treasures and Bulgarian cultural history.

Located in a former royal palace, the National Ethnographic Museum is dedicated to the preservation of ethnographic treasures and Bulgarian cultural history. Part of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, it houses over 50,000 items that showcase Bulgarian culture and tradition, including handcrafts, costumes, carpets, embroideries, musical instruments, home furnishing, agricultural tools, ceramics, and art. The museum's archives store over 3000 units with half a million pages, 100,000 negatives, and 5,200 old photographs and portraits. The EIM Library contains over 25,000 publications, some of which are unique originals. Highlights include the collection of pastoral woodcarving from the 19th - 20th century, martenitsas, ecclesiastical fretworks of the Tryavna, Samokov and Debar schools, and painted eggs.