Archaeological Museum Sofia – A time machine

Want to see the biggest gold treasure ever found by Bulgarian archeologists? Almost 13 kilos of pure gold together with some silver, copper and iron. Funny thing - two brothers found the Valchitran Treasure while hoeing their vineyard. So they came across one of the biggest treasures left by the Thracians.

Thracians?!? These were the guys that lived on these lands before us. Remember Spartacus and Orpheus? They were Thracians. They believed in afterlife so they used most of these gold and silver treasures for religious rituals and burials. That is whenever they weren't using them for wine drinking (one of their main gods was Dionysus).

Also inside you have a replica of one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Bulgaria - the Madara Rider. This rock carving in the plateau near Shumen is deteriorating and if they do not find a better way to preserve it, the replica might be the only chance to see it in its full glory.

Add to that a lot of icons, tombstones and other artefacts and you get a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours. Moreover, every piece in the museum is labelled in English. I am afraid that's not the case everywhere in Bulgaria.

There are also a lot of temporary exhibitions in this museum so I will keep you posted whenever there's something interesting going on.

P.S. Entrance for students is just 1EUR so make sure you bring your student card.