Saints Cyril and Methodius National Library

Overview

The National Library is situated in the capital city of Sofia. It was founded in 1878 and named after Saints Cyril and Methodius – the creators of the Cyrillic alphabet. It is currently the largest public library in Bulgaria and the oldest cultural institution after the country’s liberation and also houses one of the richest Ottoman archival collections. The present building of the library is among the landmarks of Sofia. It was designed by the famous Bulgarian architectural team Vasilyov – Tsolov and completed in 1953.

Along with documents about Bulgaria and other Balkan and European countries, hundreds of thousands of archival units are stored in the library collection which contains valuable information about the Arab countries during the Ottoman period of their history. Some of these documents are Ottoman population registers from the 19th century identifying the inhabitants of many Bulgarian towns, neighbourhoods, and villages.

The library collection includes 7,808,928 items. The library publishes the journal "Library", specializing in library theory and practice.

On August 11, 1994, Saints Cyril and Methodius National Library was declared a cultural institute of national importance.