Varna Archaeological Museum

The Varna Archaeological Museum is a historical and archaeological museum located in the city of Varna, Bulgaria. The museum is one of the largest in the country, hosting over 55,000 exhibitions dating from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. It’s also known as one of the best developed cultural and scientific centres in Varna.

The Archaeological Museum is situated in a beautiful building, designed in the Neo-Renaissance style by architecture Petko Momchilov and built in 1892-1898 for the Varna Girls’ School. The building was first named “Maria Luiza” which in 1945 was renamed to “D-r Petar Beron”. Nine years later, the Varna Girls’ School became a school for both girls and boys.

The very first archaeological exhibits were collected by Karel Shkorpil and Ananie Iavashov in 1887. In the same year, using all of the collected items, they held a museum in the city library. Four years later they were forced by the Ministry of Education to send the museum exhibits to Sofia for establishing a new national museum. In 1895 Karel Shkorpil held another museum collection in the Girls’ School. The first museum exposition was opened on June 11, 1906.

The Varna Archaeological Museum became a national museum in 1945.

The Museum is a two-floor building, featuring 2150 sq ft of exhibition space, a large inner courtyard, storehouses, as well as a library, an Educational Children’s Museum, a gift shop and a cafeteria.

The Archaeological Museum has very unique and extremely valuable displays from the time of the ancient Thracian Culture, the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman periods of the region’s history. The museum also has amazing works of Slavic and Proto-Bulgarian ceramics along with the ornaments from the Middle Ages and a very rich collection of sepulchral reliefs and sacred images.

The most famous and interesting museum exhibit is the Gold of Varna, the oldest gold treasure in the world dating to an incredible 4600 to 4200 years BC. It was excavated in 1972 during construction work near the city. It contains about 2000 golden items, including necklaces, bracelets, breast ornaments and vessels. One of the greatest displays of the collection is the golden sceptre-symbol of power of the monarch. Another amazing display is the skeleton of a forty to fifty year old man who is covered with more than 100 pieces of golden jewellery. The whole exhibit occupies three separate exhibition halls.

The Archaeological Museum and its remarkable collections represent Bulgaria through many national and international exhibitions. Museum exhibitions have been established at many famous museums in France, Germany, Japan, Israel, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Visiting the Museum

The Varna Archaeological Museum is open in the summer from 10am to 5pm, Tuesdays to Sundays and in the winter from 10am to 5pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays.

Address:
Archaeological Museum
41 Maria Luiza Bld
Varna
9000
Bulgaria

Tel: +359 52 681 011

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