National Art Gallery (Bulgaria)
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The National Art Gallery ( Bulgarian Национална художествена галерия ) is a Bulgarian museum with more than 50,000 art objects in Sofia . The museum was founded in 1934 and has been located in the former royal palace since the end of the monarchy. The director of the museum is Slava Ivanova .
history
The city's Archaeological Museum has long collected contemporary art. In 1934 it was given its own department and moved to its own building. In 1941 a new building was built according to plans by the first Bulgarian architect, Victoria Angelova . The new museum building opened in 1942, but was completely destroyed two years later in a bomb attack. After the end of the monarchy, the art gallery was given the former royal palace as its new location. The collection was not damaged in the bombing and, together with the royal art collection, formed the basis of the museum. In 1965 a department of medieval art was established to look after the treasures of the crypt in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral . In 1985, the department for non-Bulgarian art was spun off and a museum of its own was founded for it with the gallery for foreign art.
In 2015 the National Art Gallery was reunited with the Art Gallery for Foreign Art under the new name National Gallery - SQUARE 500 .
collection
Today, the museum not only houses around 30,000 contemporary and modern Bulgarian paintings, graphics and sculptures that have been created since Bulgaria's independence in 1878, but also the largest collection of medieval art in Bulgaria, including more than 4000 icons . The museum also collects old Bulgarian art and art from the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the reunification with the National Gallery of Foreign Art, the museum also has an extensive collection of non-Bulgarian art from the 20th century. In addition to the headquarters in the former Royal Palace, the branch on Lachezar-Stanchev-Straße shows socialist art and the National Gallery - Sofia Arsenal - Museum of Contemporary Art on Cherni-Vrah-Boulevard shows current art. The SQUARE 500 on Alexander Newski Square mainly shows art from the 20th century.
building
The royal palace was built shortly after Bulgaria's independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. Bulgaria's first prince, Alexander I , commissioned the Viennese architect Viktor Rumpelmayer to convert a former Ottoman administrative building from the 16th century. The architect gutted the building and only received parts of the facade. The rest was rebuilt in neo-renaissance and neo-baroque styles. A north wing was then built from 1880 to 1882. The palace was officially inaugurated on December 26, 1882.
In the years 1894 to 1896 the palace was given a north-east wing for the royal family by the court architect Friedrich Grünanger . In addition, the palace received an Orthodox and a Catholic chapel. Inside and outside have been adapted to the existing structure. Andreas Greiss from Vienna made stucco and sculptures. The French artist Antoine Barbier was responsible for the interior decoration. In the 1930s, the interior of the palace was extensively redesigned by Boris III. After the Second World War, the castle served as the seat of the Bulgarian Council of Ministers and was used for training courses for the Communist Party. The interior was changed significantly. In 1953, by decree of the Council of Ministers, the building became the new seat of the National Art Gallery and the Museum of Ethnography.
The palace is a two-story plastered building over a high basement. The entrance is in a conspicuous central projection with stairs running in the opposite direction. In the north-west a large hall protrudes from the structure, in the north-east a pavilion-like extension was built. The facades of the buildings are structured with rich ornamentation, pilaster strips and pilasters.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ National Gallery Square 500 - the unorthodox museum , Radio Bulgaria (English)
- ↑ a b History of the Palace , National Gallery website
Coordinates: 42 ° 41 ′ 47 " N , 23 ° 19 ′ 36.1" E