The National Art Gallery (, ''Natsionalna hudozhestvena galeriya'') is

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

'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 is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, 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 This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent. Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania {, class="wikitable" width="95%" , - bgcolor="white" !align=center, Residence !align=center, Photo !align=center, City !align=cen ...

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

Knyaz A , also , ''knjaz'' or (), is a historical Slavs, Slavic title, used both as a royal and noble title in different times. It is usually translated into English language, English as 'prince', 'king' or 'duke', depending on specific historical c ...

Alexander Battenberg, when

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

architects under Viktor Rumpelmayer 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 (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

)

Ferdinand Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "courage" or "ready, prepared" related to Old High German "to risk, ventu ...

, 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 * Viennese classicism * Viennese coffee house, an eating establishment and part of Viennese ...

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 ...

, who incorporated elements of Viennese

Neo-Baroque Neo-Baroque may refer to: * Neo-Baroque music * Neo-Baroque painting, a painting style used by Christo Coetzee and others *Baroque Revival architecture * Neo-Baroque film *the Organ reform movement The Organ Reform Movement or ''Orgelbewegung'' ...

. 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

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

bombing raids A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

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, reigns as head of state for the rest of their life, or until abdication. The extent of the authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutio ...

. 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's design was built to house both a renaissance and contemporary art collection. The building was finished and opened in 1942, but was completely destroyed 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 Revival (, ''Balgarsko vazrazhdane'' or simply: Възраждане, ''Vazrazhdane'', and ), sometimes called the Bulgarian National Revival, was a period of socio-economic development and national integration among Bulgarian pe ...

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, with 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 ar ...

department was formed in 1965 and occupies the

crypt A crypt (from Greek κρύπτη (kryptē) ''wikt:crypta#Latin, crypta'' "Burial vault (tomb), vault") is a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or other building. It typically contains coffins, Sarcophagus, sarcophagi, or Relic, religiou ...

of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. In 1985 the foreign art section became independent as the

National Gallery for Foreign Art The National Gallery for Foreign Art (, ''Natsionalna galeriya za chuzhdestranno izkustvo'') of Bulgaria is a gallery located on St. Alexander Nevsky Square in Sofia. It serves as the country's national institution for non-Bulgarian art. It is sit ...

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 Athens, Greece. The museum houses Greek works of art from the prehistorical to the modern ...

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, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

* {{authority control Baroque Revival buildings and structures 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 and galleries established in 1934 1934 establishments in Bulgaria

History

Royal Palace

National Art Gallery

See also

References

External links