About us

History

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNHS) has a history of almost one hundred and twenty years. It is the oldest museum in Bulgaria and the oldest and richest among the natural history museums on the Balkan Peninsula. It was founded in 1889 by the Royal Prince Ferdinand under the name Royal Prince’s Natural History Museum. At first it used to accommodate Prince Ferdinand’s personal collections of birds, mammals and butterflies. The first curator of the museum was the court doctor Dr Paul Leverkühn who was a famous ornithologist. He organised the first exposition in 14 halls on two floors in an old building where today’s museum stands and it was opened for visits in 1907. That year the first and until now the only full catalogue of collections was issued listing several thousand exhibits of that time.

Until WW I the museum added collections mainly from abroad, given as present or bought from famous foreign collectors and travellers: Count Amede Aleon, Emil Holoub, Stewart Baker, Joseph Haberhauer, Julius Milde, etc. In the next decades almost all private collections of animals and plants were contributed by the first Bulgarian geologists such as Nikola Nedelkov, Petar Chorbadjiev and Dimitar Yoakimov, Ivan Neychev, Ivan Uroumov and Anany Yavashev, Prof. Georgi Zlatarski and Rafail Popov.

The museum underwent particularly intensive development under the management of Dr Ivan Buresch, member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who run the museum from 1914 to 1959. At that time it was called the Royal Museum and laid the foundations of the Royal Natural and Scientific Institutes established in 1918. Expeditions to all Bulgarian mountains and to the neighbouring Balkan countries were organised to enrich the museum collections. Many new animal and plant species were discovered. The museum turned into the main centre of studies on natural sciences in Bulgaria. A journal of great international authority started to come out. Today’s four-storey building, which harbours collections from 1936, is the only building in Sofia constructed for a museum. It was destroyed during the WW II bombings but the collections were preserved due to their timely evacuation.

After the war the building was restored to its previous condition and the new exposition was opened for visitors in 1948. That year the museum was renamed Museum of Natural History. During the reorganisation of the Bulgarian Academy of Science in 1947 it was the first institution to become a division of the Academy. The same year, on the basis of the museum collection three new academic institutes were established — Zoological, Botanical and Geological. Only the zoological collections remained in the building. Later, a period of regress ensued when the museum was closed for visitors and the exposition was limited to 9 halls from the previous 22.

That made the Council of Ministers adopt a decision in 1974 on the restoration of the museum as an independent scientific unit with the BAS Presidium and it acquired a national statute. The exposition enlarged, occupying 16 halls, once again exhibiting minerals, rocks, fossils and plants and the animal halls were arranged in a contemporary manner. After the museum gained its independence, the number of employees increased over two times and the number of publications per year went up several times. Once again a museum library was established and a new museum journal started coming out. In 1990 a Palaeontological Museum was established as a branch of NMNHS in the town of Asenovgrad.

Mission

The mission of NMNHS incorporates the following areas: fundamental and applied studies, management and preservation of collections, promotion of natural-scientific knowledge through the exposition and popular literature, training of doctorate degree candidates and young experts, expert activities.

NMNHS is the only national institution directly engaged with the preservation of scientific collections of live and non-live nature from Bulgaria and the world. The study of biodiversity, environmental protection and the evolution of organisms are the museum’s major priorities. Consequently, the main task of NMNHS is the all-around study of the fauna, flora, fossils, minerals and rocks of Bulgaria and other countries. It develops the following scientific areas: taxonomy, faunistics, zoogeography and ecology of arachnids, myriapods, insects and all classes of vertebrates; taxonomy of fossil mammals, birds and brachiopods; floristics; mineralogy. Some of the areas have priority as a result of which NMNHS has become the national centre of biospeleology, archaeozoology and palaeontology of vertebrates and of bat studies. Insect studies are also highly developed.

Museum activities for maintenance of the exposition and its enrichment and the processing of scientific collections are performed along with the scientific studies. With this NMNHS is pursuing its educational and promotional mission. Yearly the museum is visited by some 50000 (in some years up to 115000) people. Students and pupils use its halls for practical seminars. Temporary exhibitions are organised. In the last two years the topics of exhibitions have been: 120 Years of the Birth of Academician Ivan Buresch, Aconcagua Through the Eyes of a Zoologist, Rock Mysteries, Bulgarians on the Way to K2 Peak in Karakorum, 30 Years of Bulgarian Participation in UNESCO’s Program The Man and the Biosphere.