THE MUSEUM WORK IN VRATSA (Summary)
The beginning of the museum activities in Vratsa can be traced back to the dawn of the Bulgarian Revival when the Hadzhitoshevs family started collecting antiquities under the influence of St. Sofronii Vrachanski, ordained a bishop in 1794. The antiquities were used to provide evidence in support of the existence in the past of a mighty and independent country and were taken advantage of by the national liberation movement springing up at that time. In the 19th century the collection reached the size of a private museum collection thanks to Todoraki Hadzhitoshev. The collection was displayed in the Hadzhitoshevs’ house where in remained and could be seen by anyone interested in Bulgarian history until 1894 when its owner handed it over to the Public Library and Public Museum in Sofia.
Public museum collections in Vratsa were created only in 1925 – one in the Boys’ Secondary School “Tsar Boris III” and another in the Cultural House “Razvitie”. The school museum collection developed better, while the archeological group of the Cultural House concentrated their energies on restoring the medieval Tower of the Kurtpashovs intended to house their collections of antiquities.
The completion of the new building of the Cultural House “Razvitie” was an important stage in the development of the museum work in Vratsa. In 1941 the museum collections of the school and the Cultural House were moved into it and became the foundation stone of the town museum which had its own museum worker and fixed visiting hours. The public took a great interest and welcomed the creation of the new institution which soon found its due place in the cultural life of the town. But that did not last long. During the English-American bomb raid on January 24, 1944 the front part of the Cultural House building and the museum collection were badly damaged. Later the remaining exhibits were moved into the Tower of the Kurtpashovs, which was intended for a museum
1953 saw the beginning of professional museum activities after the creation of the Public District Museum, set up under a Decree of the Council of Ministers № 1608 of 1951.
The half-century-long history of the museum is a rich one but only the most significant moments of it are mentioned below. At the time of the first two directors – Nikolai Doinov and Tseno Vodenicharski – the foundations of nearly all the museum departments were laid; the first exhibition was opened in 1956 in the Tower of the Meschii; valuable experience was accumulated in all spheres of the museum work such as collecting materials, organizing them in funds and exhibitions, research work, cultural and public activities, restoration and conservation work. During the excavations of the Mogilanska Mound in 1965-1966 there was found the Vratsa gold treasure which was displayed in a separate exhibition hall.
The two decades from 1969 to 1988 were the time of the dreams come true. Under the leadership of Tinka Pavlova, a director, the whole museum work was gradually directed towards designing new exhibitions which were to be arranged in the new museum and art gallery building which occupied the southern wing of the Palace of Culture completed in 1976. A permission was given for the creation of a research group which had its first science workers the next year. At the same time there came out the two volumes of the „Journal of the Museums in Northwestern Bulgaria”, a collective periodical edition in which research papers, written by the museum workers from Vratsa, Vidin, Montana and Pleven, were published. The first volumes of „History of Vratsa” and „The Family Archive of the Hadzhitoshevs Family” as well as separate books written by museum workers were published. All these events testify to the rising oppottunities and professional abilities of the museum staff at that time. Further moments of triumph were enjoyed by the museum personnel in the autumn of 1980 when the exhibitions in the new museum building were opened and were highly appreciated by the specialists and the public. The museum occupied its well-deserved place among the most attractive museums in the country. The following years witnessed well-justified high self-esteem among the museum workers. 1986 was triumphal with the new acquisition – the Rogozen treasure, the greatest Thracian treasure found on the Bulgarian territory. A year later the Ethnography and Renaissance Complex „St. Sofronii Vrachanski” was opened in one of the central quarters of the town. It was completed with the exhibition called „A Wealth of Icons” in the Vaznesenie Church, a temple-memorial „St. Sofronii Vrachganski, a Bishop of Vratsa” on the one hand, and the construction of a monument to the great functionary of the Bulgarian Revival period and a patron of the complex on the other.
After 1989 the museum and the art gallery, which are now one administrative unit, had to work under extremely difficult conditions. In spite of the continuous struggle with the shortage of money they registered further achievements on their way. 1990 was the starting point of the so called „winter talks” at which the museum workers still present their reasearch achievements to the public. In 1991 the publication of a new collection series, called „Bulgarian North-West”, started as an extension to the “Journal of the Museums in Northwestern Bulgaria”. It provided the museum with greater publishing opportunities. 1999 saw the creation of the exhibition hall “The Rogozen treasure”, whose high-tech equipment marked a new beginning in the national museum work. In 2000 the lapidarium, an exhibition of works of stone plastic art, was opened. The Rogozen exhibition hall and the lapidarium were created thanks to the well-intentioned involvement of Vratsa Municipality in the affairs of the institutes of culture.
In 2000 the museum was proclaimed a Regional Historical Museum for Northwestern Bulgaria, which is recognition of its contribution to the development of the national museum work.