Sofia, Aug 07, (BTA/GNA) – An exhibition entitled “Bulgarian Cultural Heritage Abroad: Places and Practices” will open at the National Ethnographic Museum on August 9 at 1:30 pm, the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IEFSEM-BAS) announced.
Scientists from IEFSEM-BAN have visited and studied dozens of places in Turkey, Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Albania, Russia, Italy, Hungary, and Czechia, related to the Bulgarian national cultural heritage – military cemeteries and monuments, Bulgarian churches, and monasteries, fortresses, monuments of famous Bulgarians. Among the explored sites are the Bulgarian military cemeteries in North Macedonia and Dobruja; the places associated with the memory of Cyril and Methodius and their disciples in Italy, Germany, Czechia, Albania, and North Macedonia; traces of Volga Bulgaria and the memory of Altsek in Italy; the tomb of King Samuel on the island of St. Achilles; the Bulgarian churches in Romania; the footsteps of Gotse Delchev, Peyo Yavorov and Captain Petko Voivoda in today’s Greece and many others.
In the exhibition, researchers present in images and words the results of the large-scale research, trying to structure, imagine and visualize the Bulgarian cultural territory beyond today’s state borders.
“The borders of the Balkans have always been dynamic, and Bulgaria is still experiencing the trauma of lands taken after wars and peace treaties and of the large flows of refugees and immigrants from Macedonia, Thrace, and Dobrudja. Outside today’s Bulgarian territory, we discover the layers of our heritage from the Middle Ages, from the time of the Ottoman Empire and the Bulgarian Revival period, of victorious battles and forever abandoned cities and villages. There, beyond Bulgaria’s borders, are the traces of the footsteps of many Bulgarian intellectuals, artists and sportsmen, who glorified the name of Bulgaria in Europe and the world. These spaces, defined by the constructed heritage and the marked places of memory, we call cultural territory. It is marked by monuments and commemorative plaques, but also built through cross-border commemorative and pilgrimage routes and rituals,” notes IEFSEM-BAN said in a statement regarding the exhibition.
The exposition is located on the first floor of the Eastern wing of the former King’s Palace and will be on until September 8.
The exhibition is realized with the financial support of the Bulgarian Science Fund of the Education Ministry.
BTA/GNA