National Art Gallery

Overview

The National Gallery of Art serves as a center of visual art, education, and culture. Its collection of more than 42 000 paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, photographs, prints, and drawings spans the history of Bulgaria, Europe, Asia, America, and Africa art. The National Gallery offers a full spectrum of special exhibitions and public programs. It was founded by a government decree in 1948.

The National Gallery is located in the center of Sofia, in the northwestern part of the former royal palace, sharing a common entrance with the National Ethnographic Museum (in the southeastern part of the building).

In 2014, the National Museum of Bulgarian Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Foreign Art were merged into a national museum complex, which has been called the National Gallery since July 2015.

The National Gallery also includes the halls of the new "Square 500" - a former building of the Technical University. "Square 500" was opened in 2015.

The gallery offers several permanent exhibitions - on the second floor of the palace are exhibited about 150 art objects representing the history of Bulgarian painting from the Renaissance to the 1960s, and on the third is the permanent sculptural exhibition. In the crypt of the  "St. Alexander Nevsky ” cathedral are also exhibited precious Bulgarian icons.

The National Gallery also includes houses-museums of Bulgarian artists, but they are not open to visitors. Public and private events are held in the halls, such as concerts, seminars, cocktails.