NEWS:
The Naval Museum in Varna invtes you to the celebration "50 years underwater archelogy in Bulgaria"

ABOUT US

In its halls,in the open exposition and by all its manifestations, the Naval Museum in Varna presents and popularizes the maritime and the naval history of Bulgaria. In the course of 125 years of existence, there have been collected about ten thousands of exhibits. The museum disposes of rich library. For decades it studies our maritime past and seeks to maintain in the value system of the society, a respect for the achievements of the Bulgarian seafaring during the centuries - of the military sailors,of the dedicated to commercial shipping, shipbuilding, ship repair, artistic perception of the sea.

The Naval Museum is included in the “100 National Tourist Sites”

CONTACTS :
N.2, “Primorski” blvd.,Varna
E-mail: mus_maritime@abv.bg
Director – PhD Mariana Krasteva

At the moment , there is an overhaul of the museum building and the administration is temporarily located at the following address: blvd. Yanush Hunyadi ", № 55 - Park Museum “Wladislaw Warnencek”

Temporary Telephone and fax: 052 / 731 523
working hours: at the moment, there is an overhaul of the museum and it does not accept visitors

A Brief History of the Naval Museum

The beginning of the Naval Museum is laid in the Danube city of Russe in 1883. In the same city, in 1879, was initiated the navy of the newly liberated Bulgarian Principality. The first act that documents the beginning of the museum is the report of Captain- Lieutenant Zinovi Rozhestvenski - commander of the Danube flotilla to the Minister of War from October 12 (24) 1883. It announced that it has started the collecting of antiquities and the maritime museum is in "germ". Together with the newly formed library,the museum will contribute to "the education of the corresponding circles" in the Fleet.In 1885,for curator of the maritime museum collection is appointed the engineer-mechanic Pavel Kuzminski. The first exhibits in the museum collection are mainly models of armaments and technical appliances. Since that time there are preserved personal weapons and personal belongings.

The idea for the maritime museum in the navy is developing. At the end of World War I in Varna had arised real preconditions for its opening to visitors: exhibits were raised, the launched initiative found realizers and supporters, premises were secured . The opening of the museum is preceded by a decision of the Board of managers of the Bulgarian National Marine Agreement(BNMA)of August 1921 the museum collection to be moved from Rousse to Varna. Provided were two rooms in the Girls' High School of that time. The initiators were the officers Georgi Slavjanov, Ivan Mihailov, Sava Ivanov. Among the first names of curators are Protasi Pampulov, St.. Tzanev, Dzheferov. The prominent Bulgarian archaeologist Karel Shkorpil was enlisted. The sketches, the plans, the diagrams and the legendary "Sea bottom" were due to the Russian colonel with an education of archaeologist Alexander Poluboyarinov.

The official opening and consecration of the Maritime Museum (as it was called then) took place on May 20, 1923,by which it was defined as the first public military museum in Bulgaria. It was sanctified by the bishop of Varna and Preslav - Simeon.In the words of Karel Shkorpil: "The purpose of the museum is to explore and present the development of the Bulgarian navigation to the society... aims to propagate the concept of love to the sea, the needs of its knowledge and the enormous benefits of it.In the museum the visitor will get acquainted with the history of our former military and commercial fleet .... "

The longest and continuously in the coming decades as the only employee who is a curator and a security guard, remained Olga Poluboyarinova.

A long time the existence of the museum and its survival was due to the public support in the face of the Bulgarian National Marine Agreement. The agreement established a fund "Museum" and with its help and by voluntary donations withstood the museum.

By Ministerial Order № 46/April 10, 1955 the Maritime Museum entered into the Ministry of National Defense under the name Naval Museum and as a branch of the Central Museum of the National Army (now the National Museum of Military History). It is situated in the building on № 2 “Primorski” blvd. The official opening came about by order of the Minister of National Defense on August 9, 1956.Soon the set from the beginning idea started to impose- the preservation and the popularization of the worthy past of maritime Bulgaria in the broader sense - shipping, shipbuilding, events in the marine sports and in the artistic painting of the sea. Today, the museum preserves collections of maritime weapons - mines, coastal and marine artillery, of uniforms and decorations, of ship models, large number of photographs, and many others.

In its biography the Naval Museum became the first in the underwater archaeological researches in Bulgaria,by the organized in 1959, First Expedition - at the cape Kaliakra.In the coming decades were carried out series of studies under water - near the cape Kaliakra ,in Shabla, in Varna Bay, etc.

The museum was awarded the medal "Cyril and Methodius" first degree,by which it was awarded in 1973 for the 50 anniversary of the opening of its exposition in Varna.

In hundreds of thousands are estimated the visitors that throughout the years have passed in the open and covered exposition of the museum, where they are exposed to a total at about 1200 objects. There are years in which the museum is the most visited: in 1973 was awarded a special diploma of the two-millionth visitor (from 1956) - a Soviet citizen, and in the reports from the 80th years of the twentieth century we see series of 200 000 -250 000 visitors annually.

Throughout its existence, the Museum enjoys the special attitude of the Varna sea guild. There is no moment in the history of the museum, which is not a sense of care on the part of the command of the Bulgarian Navy. Today, among the closest adherents of the Naval Museum is the Association “National Maritime Museum”.

Dear users, the new site of the Naval Museum in Varna is in process of development. Expect us!