Hristo Botev National Museum

Overview

Hristo Botev National Museum is a state cultural institute of national importance. It stores, preserves and exhibits personal belongings, documents, publications, works of Bulgarian art and other materials related to the life and work of Hristo Botev, his family and associates. The main activity of the museum is to search for, study and promote the movable cultural monuments related to the life of the revolutionary and creative path of Botev. For this purpose, the relevant departments and funds have been created, in which more than 5,000 museum units are kept. The museum library has over 1,500 volumes of specialized literature.
Hristo Botev Museum organizes and participates in scientific sessions and conferences of national and regional character. To increase interest in our native history, the museum organizes and hosts a number of thematic and art exhibitions. Thus, it seeks to satisfy the growing interests of its many visitors.

Hristo Botev National Museum, Kalofer was built on the site of the last house of the Botev family. The museum complex is located in Boteva Gradina Park, established in 1926 and includes the following sites - a memorial house-museum, an exhibition hall, the monument to Botev from 1930 and the monument to Ivanka Boteva - the poet's mother. The whole ensemble has been declared a group cultural monument - a historical place of national importance. The main element in the complex is the house where Botev lived the longest. He was not born in it, but he calls it "his home because he spent his childhood here. He returned to this house after his studies in Odessa and his teaching in Zadunaevka. In it he also received the issue of Slaveykov's newspaper "Gaida", in which his first poem "Your T-shirt" was published. From this home Botev left for the "black abroad" to give "strength and youth" for the freedom of his beloved Fatherland. The house was destroyed during the burning of the town in 1877. At the initiative of the Kalofer citizenship and patriotic Bulgarians from all over the country, the building was restored in memory of Botev's brother. gen. Kiril Botev and older Kalofer residents. The project was developed by arch. Baltadjiev and construction began in 1942. It was officially opened as a museum on June 2, 1944
The memorial house-museum is a one-storey semi-massive building with a four-pitched roof and a large veranda. In it, with ethnographic materials from the Renaissance era, the situation in which Botev grew up is recreated. Original exhibits are the wheel and the sewing machine of grandmother Ivanka.
In 1973, the memorial house-museum opened its doors to thousands of Botev worshipers and the new exhibition hall of the Hristo Botev Museum. It was completely renovated in 2008 in honor of the 160th anniversary of Botev's birth. In the new exposition Botev's life and work are presented in detail, with photos and photos. Here visitors can see the only preserved personal belongings of Botev - his pocket watch and his stationery. The printing press is also shown, on which some of the issues of Botev's newspaper "Zname" and the first issue of its last newspaper "Nova Bulgaria" are printed.


The museum complex "Hristo Botev" includes:
Memorial house-museum: The house where Botev's family lived the longest. Restored in 1942-1944 in memory of Botev's brother Gen. Kiril Botev and older Kalofer residents. Original exhibits in it are the chakra and the sewing machine of grandmother Ivanka - Botev's mother;
Exhibition hall: Built in 1973. The exhibition is dominated by photographs and photographs. Original exhibits are: the only preserved personal belongings of Botev - pocket watch and stationery; the Zname printing press; the printing press of Dimitar Panichkov; personal belongings of Veneta and Ivanka Botevi. Other interesting exhibits are the model of the steamer "Radetski" and the flag of Botev's detachment.
The monument of Hristo Botev from 1930: the first monument of Botev in Kalofer, author Kiril Georgiev;
The monument of grandmother Ivanka - Botev's mother, Prof. Mandov
Boteva Garden Memorial Park: established in 1926 on the site of Botev's house; planted with rare tree species.
The entire museum complex has been declared a group cultural monument - a historic site of national importance.