The National Polytechnical Museum ( bg, Национален политехнически музей) is a

science museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in ...

located in

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 h ...

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 Macedo ...

History

The National Polytechnical Museum was established on 13 May 1957 by a

Council of Ministers A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/ shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

decree, initially under the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It was declared a national museum in 1968. Since 1992, the museum is located in a building formerly used as a museum to Georgi Dimitrov. It has been completely renovated in 2012 at a cost of 640,000 lv (326,000 euro). The National Polytechnical Museum regularly participates in the annual

Night of Museums The Long Night of Museums (german: Lange Nacht der Museen), or the Night of Museums, and, since 2005, the European Night of Museums, is a cultural event in which museums and cultural institutions to remain open late into the night to introduce ...

Collections

The museum has a collection of more than 22,000 items, but only 1,000 of them are permanently displayed. Collections are supplemented by a library with more than 12,000 books and journals, and an archive of about 2,000 documents. Permanent collections are divided in exhibitions of time measurement, transportation, photography and cinema, optics, audio equipment, radio and television, computing equipment, communications equipment and others. Some of the items on display include: * Ford Model A (1928),

Fiat 509 The Fiat 509 was a model of car produced by Italian automotive manufacturer Fiat between 1925 and 1929 as a replacement for the 501. Approximately 90,000 of the model were sold. In 1926 the car was upgraded to the 509A. For 1928, the 509 was off ...

Tatra 97 The Tatra 97 (T97) is a Czechoslovak mid-size car built by Tatra in Kopřivnice, Moravia from 1936 to 1939. History The Tatra 97 was designed to complement two full-size cars in the Tatra range: the Tatra 77 launched in 1934 and the Tatra ...

and

Messerschmitt KR200 The Messerschmitt KR200, or ''Kabinenroller'' (Cabin Scooter), is a three-wheeled bubble car designed by the aircraft engineer Fritz Fend and produced in the factory of the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt from 1955 until 1964. History ...

in the automotive collection; *

Creed & Company Creed & Company was a British telecommunications company founded by Frederick George Creed which was an important pioneer in the field of teleprinter machines. It was merged into the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT) in ...

transmitters, radio and television equipment by

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company'). The name "Telefunken" ap ...

Blaupunkt Blaupunkt GmbH () was a German manufacturer of mostly car audio equipment. It was owned by Robert Bosch GmbH from 1933 until 1 March 2009, when it was sold to Aurelius AG of Germany. It filed for bankruptcy in late 2015 with liquidation proceed ...

and others; *

Quipu ''Quipu'' (also spelled ''khipu'') are recording devices fashioned from strings historically used by a number of cultures in the region of Andean South America. A ''quipu'' usually consisted of cotton or camelid fiber strings. The Inca people ...

s, early abaci and early

electronic calculator An electronic calculator is typically a portable electronic device used to perform calculations, ranging from basic arithmetic to complex mathematics. The first solid-state electronic calculator was created in the early 1960s. Pocket-sized ...

s, including Bulgarian-manufactured Elka 22 (1965) and

Pravetz computers Pravetz computers (in Bulgarian shortly: Правец) are the Bulgarian personal computers produced from 1979 that were widely used in scientific organizations and schools until the late 1990s, and are still in use in some schools. Pravets are ...

(1980s); * Instruments for space satellites and

space food Space food is a type of food product created and processed for consumption by astronauts during missions to outer space. The food has specific requirements of providing balanced nutrition for individuals working in space while being easy and s ...

; *

Player piano A player piano (also known as a pianola) is a self-playing piano containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism, that operates the piano action via programmed music recorded on perforated paper or metallic rolls, with more modern im ...

, the only Bulgarian-manufactured Hammond organ,

barrel organ A barrel organ (also called roller organ or crank organ) is a French mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the sam ...

s and others.

Accessibility

The museum is located on ul. Opalchenska 66. It is open from Monday to Saturday from 9 to 17 o'clock. Fees range from 1 to 7

leva Leva may refer to: * Bulgarian lev, Bulgarian currency * ''Leva'' (grasshopper), a genus of insects * Levice Levice (; hu, Léva, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Lewenz, literally lionesses) is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies o ...

; fees for laboratory demonstrations are 10 or 15 leva (for groups of more than 10 people).

Branches

The National Polytechnical Museum has three branches outside Sofia. One of them is the hydroelectric power station in

Pancharevo Pancharevo ( bg, Панчарево, , also transcribed as Pančarevo) is a resort village and district located on the outskirts of Sofia close to Vitosha, Lozenska and Plana mountains and occupies the southeastern part of the Capital Municipa ...

, the first power producing unit in Southeastern Europe. It became operational on 1 November 1900 and powered the tram system of Sofia, street lamps and several industries. The station was declared a site of cultural significance in 1986, shortly after it ceased operations. The two other branches are a

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

museum in

Sliven Sliven ( bg, Сливен ) is the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. Sliven is famous for its heroic Haiduts who fought against the Ottoman Turk ...

, which traces the history of textile crafts, fabrics and techniques in Bulgaria through the centuries, and a Palace of physics in

Kazanlak Kazanlak ( bg, Казанлък , Thracian and Greek Σευθόπολις (''Seuthopolis''), tr, Kazanlık) is a Bulgarian town in Stara Zagora Province, located in the middle of the plain of the same name, at the foot of the Balkan mountai ...

History

Collections

Accessibility

Branches

References

See also