The National Museum of Natural History of Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 is a museum of natural history

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

 located in Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

, the capital of the country on "Tzar Osvoboditel" str. next to the Russian church

Russian Church, Sofia

The Russian Church , officially known as the Church of St Nicholas the Miracle-Maker , is a Russian Orthodox church in central Sofia, Bulgaria, situated on Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard.-History and architecture:The church was built on the site of the Saray Mosque, which was destroyed in 1882, after the...

. Founded in 1889, it is affiliated with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy is autonomous and has a Society of Academicians, Correspondent Members and Foreign Members...

, and is the first and largest museum of this kind in the Balkans

Balkans

The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...

.

The museum's collection includes over 400 stuffed mammals, over 1,200 species of birds, hundreds of thousands of insects and other invertebrata, as well as samples of about one quarter of the world's mineral species.

Today's National Museum of Natural History was founded in 1889 as the Natural History Museum of Knyaz Ferdinand of Bulgaria, with various foreign and Bulgarian specialists (e.g. Ivan Buresh

Ivan Buresh

Ivan Yosifov Buresh was a Bulgarian zoologist and entomologist who has been dubbed "the patriarch of Bulgarian biology".Ivan Buresh was born in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria, to the family of Czech zincographer and photographer Josef Bureš who had settled in Bulgaria after the...

, director from 1913 to 1947) being its directors until 1947, when the museum became part of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences' Zoological Institute. The museum became autonomous as a separate institute in the BAS system in 1974. In 1992, the Asenovgrad Palaeontology Museum, an NMNH branch in Asenovgrad

Asenovgrad

Asenovgrad is a town in central southern Bulgaria, part of Plovdiv Province.-History:Asenovgrad was founded by the Thracians as Stenímachos around 300–400 BC. In 72 BC the city was captured by the troops of the Roman Empire as part of the Roman expansion towards the Black Sea. After a long period...

, was formed.

Departments

• Recent and Fossil Mammals
• Fossil and Recent Birds
• Fishes
• Amphibia and Reptilia
• Insects
• Non-insect Invertebra
• Fossil Invertebrata
• Minerals and Rocks
• Plants

External links

• Official website of the National Museum of Natural History (in Bulgarian and English)