Museums

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Sofia's gold-domed statement of independence.

30 min–1 h

Boyana Church

Eighty square metres of painting that arrived two centuries early.

30–50 min

Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak

A Thracian burial chamber painted around 300 BC.

20–40 min

Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo

Chapels cut into a gorge wall, thirty metres above the river

45 min–1.5 h

National Archaeological Museum, Bulgaria

A fifteenth-century mosque holding Bulgaria's Thracian gold

1–2 h

Belogradchik Fortress

A fortress that used three sandstone massifs as its walls

1–2 h

Baba Vida

Medieval castle in Vidin

30 min–1.5 h

Holy Forty Martyrs Church

Three inscribed columns, a tsar's grave and the 1908 independence declaration

30–50 min

Kordopulov House

Bulgaria's largest Revival house, built in 1754 around a wine cellar

30 min–1.2 h

National History Museum

Todor Zhivkov's residence, now the country's largest collection

1.5–3 h

National Art Gallery of Bulgaria

The royal palace, raised on the konak where Levski was condemned

45 min–1.5 h

Plovdiv Regional Ethnographic Museum

An 1847 merchant's house with a wave-crested gable, 60,000 objects inside

45 min–1.2 h

Varna Archaeological Museum

The oldest worked gold in the world, in a former girls' high school

1–2 h

Roman Thermae in Varna

Seven thousand square metres of Roman bathhouse between blocks of flats

30–50 min

Aladzha Monastery

A cave monastery cut into a cliff above Golden Sands, shut all winter

40 min–1.2 h

National Museum of Natural History

The oldest museum in Bulgaria, grown from a prince's bird collection

45 min–1.5 h

Abritus

A Roman city best known for a battle fought somewhere else

45 min–1.5 h

National Museum of Military History

Bulgaria's army history indoors, and its hardware parked outside

1–2.5 h

Vrana Palace

A royal park you can walk, and a palace you can only look at

1–2 h

Shumen Fortress

A medieval town on a cliff edge, flattened in 1444 and never rebuilt

45 min–1.5 h

Neolithic Dwellings Museum

Two houses from the sixth millennium BC, preserved by burning down

30–50 min

Balchik Palace

The seaside house a Romanian queen built while Balchik was in Romania

1.5–2.5 h

Etar Architectural-Ethnographic Complex

Bulgaria's first open-air museum, with the water wheels still turning

1.5–2.5 h

Bishop's Basilica of Philippopolis

Two thousand square metres of early Christian mosaic under one roof

45 min–1.5 h

History Museum (Botevgrad)

Museum in Botevgrad

30 min–1.5 h

Pleven Panorama

A painting 115 metres round about the siege that made Pleven

45 min–1.5 h

Plovdiv Roman Stadium

A Roman running track under the main shopping street

20–45 min

Great Basilica, Pliska

Church building in Pliska

30 min–1.5 h

Kaliopa House

Viennese furniture, and the first grand piano brought to Bulgaria

30–50 min

Museum of Mosaics (Devnya)

Late Roman floor mosaics left exactly where they were laid

30–50 min

Varna Aquarium

A 1932 aquarium of Black Sea fish, with a stone clam over the door

25–45 min

Radetzky

The steamer Botev hijacked, rebuilt with schoolchildren's money

30 min–1 h

Krastata Kazarma

Ottoman barracks laid out as an equal-armed cross

30 min–1 h

Bulgarian torpedo boat Drazki

The torpedo boat that hit an Ottoman cruiser, now sitting on dry land

20–40 min

House of Humour and Satire

Fifty thousand cartoons in the town that jokes about its own thrift

45 min–1.5 h

National Transport Museum

Bulgaria's first railway station, with the sultan's carriage in it

40 min–1.3 h

Church of the Nativity of Christ in Arbanasi

A barn from outside; 2,000 square metres of fresco within

30 min–1 h

Nesebar Archaeological Museum

The Mesembria back-story, right where the old town begins

30 min–1 h

Plovdiv Regional History Museum

The parliament house of a country that lasted seven years

45 min–1.5 h

St George the Conqueror Chapel Mausoleum

Chapel Mausoleum in Pleven

30 min–1.5 h

Pleven Regional History Museum

Museum in Pleven

30 min–1.5 h

Wine Museum

A wine cellar in a cave in Pleven's park

45 min–1.5 h

Cherven

Important medieval fortress of the Second Bulgarian Empire

30 min–1.5 h

Small Basilica

Basilica in Plovdiv

30 min–1.5 h

Archaeological Museum

Apollonia, Mesembria and Anchialos in one room, with the coast's shipwrecks alongside

45 min–1.5 h

Sozopol Archaeological Museum

The best ancient Greek pottery in Bulgaria, in a small museum on Han Krum square

45 min–1.5 h

Sexaginta Prista

Archaeological site

30 min–1.5 h

Velyan's House

A house in Bansko painted by the man who married Neofit Rilski's sister

20–45 min

Etnographic museum

Strandzha costume and silver in a merchant's house on Slavyanska Street

30 min–1 h

Samouil's Fortress

Where the First Bulgarian Empire lost its army, in the summer of 1014

30 min–1.2 h

Thracian tomb near Mezek

Ancient Thracian beehive tomb near Mezek

30 min–1.5 h

Pantheon of National Revival Heroes

Bulgarian national monument and an ossuary

30 min–1.5 h

Pazardzhik Regional History Museum

Museum in Pazardzhik

30 min–1.5 h

Archeological Museum Sandanski

Museum in Sandanski

30 min–1.5 h

History Museum "Iskra" Kazanlak

Museum in Kazanlak

30 min–1.5 h

Salt Museum Pomorie

Two hectares of working salt pans you can walk round, and the only museum of its kind

45 min–1.5 h

Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" Museum of Paleontology and Historical Geology

University Museum of Paleontology and Historical Geology

30 min–1.5 h

Slaveykov House

30 min–1.5 h

Preslav Fortress

Archaeological museum in Veliki Preslav

30 min–1.5 h

Military cemetery, Tutrakan

Military tomb Tutrakan

30 min–1.5 h

National Historical and Archaeological Reserve "Pliska"

30 min–1.5 h

Shipka Park-Museum

30 min–1.5 h

Shumen History museum

Museum in Shumen

30 min–1.5 h

Kardzhali History Museum

30 min–1.5 h

Batak History Museum

30 min–1.5 h

Asenovgrad history museum

History museum

30 min–1.5 h

Stanislav Dospevski house museum

Museum in Pazardzhik

30 min–1.5 h

Mining museum of Pernik

Museum in Pernik

30 min–1.5 h

History museum (Burgas)

How a fishing anchorage became a port city, told on Lermontov Street

30–45 min

Tsari Mali Grad (Belchin)

Fortress near Belchin

30 min–1.5 h

Peyo Yavorov house-museum, Sofia

Museum in Sofia

30 min–1.5 h

Hadjiangelovs house, Targovishte

Ethnographic Museum in Targovishte

30 min–1.5 h

History Museum

Museum compound in Panagyurishte

30 min–1.5 h

House-museum of Neofit Rilski

30 min–1.5 h

Kashta muzey „Ilyo voyvoda“, Kyustendil

30 min–1.5 h

Svetlin Rusev Donative Exhibition

Permanent art exhibition in Pleven

30 min–1.5 h

Muzey na kiseloto mlyako

30 min–1.5 h

Museum of History Ivailovgrad

Museum in Ivailovgrad

30 min–1.5 h

Georgi Bojilov House-Museum

Museum in Plovdiv

30 min–1.5 h

Shipka-Buzludzha National Park-museum

30 min–1.5 h

Tuteva House

30 min–1.5 h

Nikola Vaptsarov House

Museum in Bansko

30 min–1.5 h

Stanka Dimitrova Art Gallery

Art gallery in Kardzhali

30 min–1.5 h

House museum "Pencho and Petko Slaveykov", Sofia

Museum in Sofia

30 min–1.5 h

Dimitar Dimov House Museum

Museum in Sofia

30 min–1.5 h

House Museum "Hristo Smirnenski"

Museum in Sofia

30 min–1.5 h

Old School, Tryavna

30 min–1.5 h

Vasil Levski Museum, Lovech

30 min–1.5 h

Smolyan History Museum

Museum in Smolyan

30 min–1.5 h

History museum Silistra

Museum in Silistra

30 min–1.5 h

History museum, Targovishte

Museum in Targovishte

30 min–1.5 h

The Museum of Physical Culture and Sports

Museum of Sport

30 min–1.5 h

Ecomuseum with aquarium, Ruse

30 min–1.5 h

Museum of Danube Fishing and Boat-Making, Tutrakan

30 min–1.5 h