The National Art Gallery ( bg, Национална художествена галерия, ''Natsionalna hudozhestvena galeriya'') is

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

's national gallery, and houses over 50,000 pieces of Bulgarian art.

History

It is located on Battenberg Square in the capital city of

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, occupying most of the historic Ottoman Chelebi mosque and Ottoman konak, which were converted into the imposing edifice of the former royal palace of Bulgaria.

Royal Palace

The royal palace, a typical example of

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

architecture with chateauesque connotations, was constructed in two stages, the first lasting between 1880 and 1882 during the rule of

Knyaz , or ( Old Church Slavonic: Кнѧзь) is a historical Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times of history and different ancient Slavic lands. It is usually translated into English as prince or duke, dependi ...

Alexander Battenberg Alexander Joseph ( bg, Александър I Батенберг; 5 April 185717 November 1893), known as Alexander of Battenberg, was the first prince ('' knyaz'') of the Principality of Bulgaria from 1879 until his abdication in 1886. The Bul ...

, when

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

architects under

Viktor Rumpelmayer Viktor Rumpelmayer (7 November 1830 – 14 June 1885, in Vienna) was a 19th-century Austro-Hungarian architect, whose style was a combination of French and Italian influences and the Viennese trends characteristic for the period. He is regarded as ...

worked on the building. It was inaugurated on 26 December 1882 and constituted the representative part of the palace, encompassing the administrative ground floor, the ballrooms above and the service third floor. The second stage, during

(later

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

)

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

, saw the construction of the palace's east wing by

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city * Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance * V ...

architect

Friedrich Grünanger Friedrich Grünanger (25 January 1856 – 14 December 1929) was a Transylvanian Austrian architect who worked primarily in Bulgaria. Born in Schäßburg in Austria-Hungary (today Sighişoara in Romania), Grünanger studied at the Academy of Fi ...

, who incorporated elements of Viennese Neo-Baroque. The east wing was where the apartments of the royal family were located, but some service premises (including a lift) were also located there. After the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a Communist government in Bulgaria following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, most of the palace was given to the National Art Gallery since its building was destroyed by the

bombing raids Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematic ...

in 1943 and 1944. All of the paintings it had housed were preserved, and together with the royal art collection already exhibited in the palace formed the stock of the National Art Gallery.

National Art Gallery

The gallery was established in 1934 and moved to the palace in 1946, after the abolition of the

monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy) ...

. The National Art Gallery is situated at an altitude of 556 m. The National Art Gallery had been planned for many years and between 1934 and 1941, Bulgaria's first female architect

Victoria Angelova Victoria Angelova Vinarova (sometimes written Viktoria Angelova, bg, Виктория Ангелова-Винарова, 1902–1947) was one of the first female architects of Bulgaria. She is credited with having built the first modern, national ...

's design was built to house both a renaissance and contemporary art collection. The building was finished and opened in 1942, but was completely lost in a 1944 bombing. Meanwhile, the National Archaeological Museum was established. It was the first national institution to have an art department in the country, which was founded in 1892. It collected examples of contemporary Bulgarian art. The department grew into the State Art Gallery in 1934 and was moved to a separate building. Among its exhibits were works by

Bulgarian National Revival The Bulgarian National Revival ( bg, Българско национално възраждане, ''Balgarsko natsionalno vazrazhdane'' or simply: Възраждане, ''Vazrazhdane'', and tr, Bulgar ulus canlanması) sometimes called the Bu ...

artists, foreign art and works of first-generation Bulgarian painters from after the

Liberation of Bulgaria The Liberation of Bulgaria is the historical process as a result of the Bulgarian Revival. In Bulgarian historiography, the liberation of Bulgaria refers to those events of the Tenth Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) that led to the re-establishme ...

in 1878. The

medieval art The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at certain periods in Western Asia and Northern Africa. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, gen ...

department was formed in 1965 and occupies the

crypt A crypt (from Latin ''crypta'' "vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, sarcophagi, or religious relics. Originally, crypts were typically found below the main apse of a chur ...

of the

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral Alexander Nevsky Cathedral may refer to the following (alphabetically by country, then by town): * Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Baku in Azerbaijan * Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia in Bulgaria * Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Tallinn, Estonia * Al ...

. In 1985 the foreign art section became independent as the

National Gallery for Foreign Art The National Gallery for Foreign Art ( bg, Национална галерия за чуждестранно изкуство, ''Natsionalna galeriya za chuzhdestranno izkustvo'') of Bulgaria is a gallery located on St. Alexander Nevsky Square in ...

and was moved to the former Royal Printing Office, an imposing Neoclassical building in Sofia. The National Art Gallery houses not only examples of contemporary and National Revival art, but also the country's largest collection of medieval paintings, including more than four thousand icons, a collection comparable in quality and number only to that of the

Benaki Museum The Benaki Museum, established and endowed in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in memory of his father Emmanuel Benakis, is housed in the Benakis family mansion in downtown Athens, Greece. The museum houses Greek works of art from the prehistorical to the ...

according to the director of the gallery, Boris Danailov. Since May 2015, the 19th and 20th century collections of the National Art Gallery are exhibited together with the collections of the

. For this purpose, the building of the National Gallery for Foreign Art on Alexander Nevsky Square was enlarged. The resulting exhibition space is known as National Gallery Square 500.

References

External links

Photos and 360° views of the National Art Gallery

Ivan Milev and Bulgarian ArtVirtual tour of the National Art Gallery, Bulgaria
provided by

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

* {{authority control Baroque Revival architecture Second Empire architecture Royal residences in Bulgaria Palaces in Bulgaria 1882 in Bulgaria Residential buildings completed in 1882 Government buildings completed in 1882 Art museums established in 1934 1934 establishments in Bulgaria