“Bulgarian decorations” Collection hall

The foundation, evolution and cancellation of every order are a part of the great tale of history. To look into the past and the present day through orders and medals means to touch the ideals and the culture of the Bulgarian people and to make an attempt to get involved in its spirit. The collection of orders and medals, property of the National Museum of Military History has been completed for 90 years, mostly by large donations. It is the richest of that kind collection in Bulgaria.

In the hall, through the display of 980 decorations, is presented only a part of this collection. The opulence shows in variety of rare emissions, in possession of the highest grades and their unique orders and experimental samples, in exceptional variety of types.

In the collection are presented with their decorations 35 countries from Europe, 6- from Asia and 3 from America. The collection is a field for investigation and historical comparison of Bulgarian and European military history and symbolic for a period of 150 years.

The museum possesses private collections of hundreds of Bulgarian soldiers, non- commissioned officers and officers, who bore on their shoulders the brunt of five wars throughout 67 years. The private collections of the highest generals- Danail Nikolaev, Nikola Ivanov , Racho Petrov, Mihail Savov, Radko Dimitriev, Nikola Genev ,Aleksandar Protogerov, Stefan Tochev, Vladimir Stoichev, Petar Panchevski, Ivan Michailov etc . are also museum’s property. In decorations’ collection are preserved orders and medals of members of state administration- Stefan Stambolov, Konstantin Stoilov ; as well as of the Bulgarian rulers after 1879- Prince Alexander I, Prince (since 1908 Tsar) Ferdinand I and Tsar Boris III.