Museum of Socialist Art

On Tuesday morning we visited one of Sofia's newer cultural sites, the year-old Museum of Socialist Art. Despite the museum's location off the beaten path and a lack of information available online, it was easy to get to* and worth the effort.  Perhaps our greatest challenge was getting in after we could see the museum statutes from the street, as no signage tells you to enter through the fairly nondescript security gate for the Ministry of Culture.

The old and the new.

The museum is a collection of paintings and statues that were removed from public places after the fall of the communist government in 1989.  The sculpture garden is fascinating and contains, among other things, a 45-ton statute of V.I. Lenin and the huge red start from atop the party headquarters in central Sofia.  The gallery holds murals and framed paintings, most of which are from the 1940s and '50s and depict the partisan fight against the Nazis and the establishment of Bulgaria's communist government.  The museum also has a small theater that shows a series of propaganda films from the early years of communism, with English subtitles.  While these were very interesting in terms of their intent and message, they were also interesting in that they gave a great glimpse of what Sofia looked like a half-century ago, something we've not seen much of otherwise.

It was after noon when we finished at the museum, so we walked about a block to the gleaming new Sofarma business tower and had lunch.  The building presents quite a contrast to the ideals embodied by the artworks in the museum's collection.  At the same time, both are part of the country's story, and I'm glad the museum exists to help tell part of that story.


* Since it is entirely possible that someone who searches for "Sofia" and "Museum of Socialist Art" online will find this page in the absence of other information, I'll give directions.  The museum is at 7 Luchezar Stanchev Street, and you can search this on bgmaps.com.  From the G.M. Dimitrov Metro station (on the red line), walk downhill (northwest) on Boulevard Dragan Tsankov.  Turn right on Lachezar Stanchev and after a short walk past the Sofarma building you'll see the sculpture garden on your right beyond a fence.  The only sign is one for the Ministry of Culture in Bulgarian.  Just go to the walk-through gate by the little guard shack and they'll send you back!  As of December 2012, the cost for the museum was 6 Leva for adults and it is closed on Mondays.