NMNHS is the only national institution directly engaged with

the preservation of scientific collections of live and non-live

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Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
nature from Bulgaria and the world. The study of biodiversity, TSA MOSK
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environmental protection and the evolution of organisms are SVO A

National
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the museum’s major priorities. The main task of NMNHS is the
all-around study of the fauna, flora, fossils, minerals and rocks of

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Bulgaria and other countries. It develops the following scientific

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Museum of

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disciplines: taxonomy, faunistics, zoogeography and ecology

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of arachnids, myriapods, insects and all classes of vertebrates;
taxonomy of fossil mammals and birds; floristics; mineralogy.
The NMNHS is a national centre of biospeleology, archaeozoology How to get to the museum?
and palaeontology of vertebrates and of bat studies.

Yearly the museum is visited by some 50000 (in some years up

— Subway — Serdika station
— Bus lines 9, 94, 280, 306 — Sofia University stop
— Trolley bus line 9 — St. Alexander Nevski Square stop
— Trolley bus lines 1, 2, 4, 11 — Sofia University stop
Natural History
to 115000) people. Students and pupils often use the halls for — Tramway line 20 — National Opera stop
practical seminars.
Admission fees
Adults: 4.00 BGN • Children under 6: 1.00 BGN • Pupils and students: 2.00 BGN
People with disabilities: 1.00 BGN • Retirees: 2.00 BGN

Guided tour [upon request by phone (+359 2) 988 28 94]: 20.00 BGN

National Museum of Natural History

1 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
www.nmnhs.com
NATURA ET SCIENTIA
e-mail: [email protected]
phone: (+359 2) 987 41 95 • fax: (+359 2) 988 28 94 1889

tickets: (+359 2) 988 51 15 (ext. 706)

Opening hours: every day from 10:00 — 18:00,

except 1 January, 3 March and 25 December
— tickets can be bought until 17:00
The National Museum of Natural History (NMNHS) has a history of from 1914 to 1959. At that time it was called the Royal Museum and

exhibition halls
16 15
more than one hundred and twenty years. It is the oldest museum laid the foundations of the Royal Natural and Scientific Institutes
in Bulgaria and the oldest and richest among the natural history established in 1918. Expeditions to all Bulgarian mountains and to the 14
museums on the Balkan Peninsula. It was founded in 1889 by the neighbouring Balkan countries were organised to enrich the museum 13
Royal Prince Ferdinand under the name Royal Prince’s Natural History collections. The museum turned into the main centre of studies
12 11
Museum. At first it was used to accommodate Prince Ferdinand’s on natural sciences in Bulgaria. Today’s building, which harbours
personal collections of birds, mammals and butterflies. The first collections from 1936, is the only building in Sofia constructed for 10
curator of the museum was the court doctor Dr Paul Leverkühn who a museum. It was destroyed during the WW II bombings but the
9 7
was a famous ornithologist. He organised the first exhibition in 14 collections were preserved due to their timely evacuation.
8 6
halls on two floors in an old building where today’s museum stands
and it was opened for visits in 1907. After the war the building was restored to its previous condition 5
and the new exhibition was opened for visitors in 1948. During the
Until WW I the museum added collections mainly from abroad, given reorganisation of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1947 it was the
as present or bought from famous foreign collectors and travellers: first institution to become a division of the Academy. 3 2
Count Amédée Alléon, Emil Holub, Stewart Baker, Josef Haberhauer, 4 1
Julius Milde, etc. In the next decades almost all private collections of In 1974, when director is Academician Ivan Kostov, the museum
animals and plants were contributed by the first Bulgarian geologists turns into an independent scientific unit with a national statute.
such as Nikola Nedelkov, Petar Tschorbadjiev and Dimitar Ioakimov, The exhibition area has enlarged to 16 halls, once again displaying
Ivan Neitscheff, Ivan Urumoff and Anani Javascheff, Prof. Georgi minerals, rocks, fossils, plants and animals arranged in a contemporary
Zlatarski and Rafail Popov. manner. A Palaeontological branch (museum) of the NMNHS was Halls 1, 2, 4 — Mineralogy • Hall 3 — Temporary exhibitions • Halls 5,
established in 1990 in the town of Asenovgrad. 8 — Birds • Hall 6 — Amphibians and reptiles • Hall 7 — Fishes • Hall
The museum underwent particularly intensive development under the 9 — Palaeontology • Halls 10, 11, 12, 13 — Mammals • Hall 14 —
management of Academician Dr Ivan Buresch, who run the museum — Insects • Hall 15 — Non-insect invertebrates • Hall 16 — Plants