A chitalishte is a typical Bulgarian public institution and building which fulfils several functions at once, such as a community centre, library and a theatre. It is also used as an educational institution, where people of all ages can enroll in foreign language, dance, music and other courses. In this function they could be compared to the Folk High School

Folk high school

Folk high schools are institutions for adult education that generally do not grant academic degrees, though certain courses might exist leading to that goal...

s of Northern Europe. Some larger urban chitalishta (plural) are not unlike 92nd Street Y

92nd Street Y

92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...

 in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

The term chitalishte is a compound noun, originating from the Bulgarian Slavic root, chital- (reading); and the suffix -ishte (place where preceding verb happens).

The chitalishta (plural term) of the 19th and early 20th century had a crucial role in preserving and developing Bulgarian culture and thus played an important role during the Bulgarian National Revival

Bulgarian National Revival

The Bulgarian National Revival , sometimes called the Bulgarian Renaissance, was a period of socio-economic development and national integration among Bulgarian people under Ottoman rule...

. The word chitalishte in translation means "reading room," a place where books are kept for public use. The first institutions of this kind emerged in the 1850s, more specifically in 1856 in the towns of Shumen

Shumen

Shumen is the tenth-largest city in Bulgaria and capital of Shumen Province. In the period 1950–1965 it was called Kolarovgrad, after the name of the communist leader Vasil Kolarov...

, Lom and Svishtov

Svishtov

Svishtov is a town in northern Bulgaria, located in Veliko Tarnovo Province on the right bank of the Danube river opposite the Romanian town of Zimnicea. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Svishtov Municipality...

. Later, the chitalishte became an important multi-purpose institution in villages and smaller towns. Today, chitalishta are less widely spread and have decreasingly critical roles, mostly due to lack of funding. They are evolving and adapting to host public events, house cinema halls, and other modern organisations.