Smolyan Regional Historical Museum

Overview

The Stoyu Shishkov Regional Historical Museum in Smolyan was established in 1935. It is the oldest and largest in the Middle Rhodopes and is part of the Hundred National Tourist Sites. There is a huge fund, which includes found historical, archaeological and cultural artifacts from antiquity to the present day in the Rhodope Mountains. The fund has nearly 150,000 museum units, including those from the auxiliary fund and documents from the scientific and technical archives plus the library fund. The museum has spacious lobbies for temporary exhibitions. The museum building is specially built and has an extremely beautiful view of the city and the Rhodope peaks Perelik, Karlak and Sokolitsa. The museum exposition with an area of ​​2000 m2 exhibits objects from the archeology, history, life and culture of the Rhodope people, original works of art of cultural and historical significance. The earliest objects are before the Middle Paleolithic (100,000 - 70,000 BC). The museum also has a rich photo archive of negatives, positives and digital images, as well as orders and medals representing the award system of Bulgaria - a donation from Colonel Raycho Harbaliev. In the museum you can see in great detail the typical ancient tradition of the Bulgarians - mummery. The permanent exhibition "Cultural and historical heritage from antiquity to the present day" is presented in two sections: archeology, including "Prehistory", "Thracian" and "Middle Ages", and ethnography with exhibitions "Ritual props", "Traditional Rhodope crafts: blacksmithing, coppersmithing, weaving ”,“ Rhodope architecture and carpentry ”and“ Traditions and modernity ”.