The National Art Gallery

I had a fantastic visit to the Sofia National Art Gallery and the National Ethnographic Museum, both located in the beautiful former royal palace. You need two separate tickets to visit both, but it’s absolutely worth it. The ladies at the ticket offices were very kind and helpful. The art gallery has a great mix of classical and modern Bulgarian works. The ethnographic museum was a highlight — I had a lovely conversation with a passionate staff member who explained the meanings behind rug motifs like the butterfly, scorpion, and scissors, and even mentioned Turkish names for some of them. I hope she can visit Cappadocia one day, as we discussed! Don’t miss the Cosmos-themed floor in the ethnographic museum — it’s unique and fascinating. Both museums are well-presented with English descriptions, and together they offer a deep look into Bulgarian culture and heritage. Highly recommended!

Beautiful place both for the interior and exhibitions they do. The lady working at reception was unkind. Maybe she should change the workplace.

Nice cozy gallery, too much baroque splendor for me, but few paintings actually pleased my sight. Very comfortable place. Exhibition on wars make my knees tremble and I left soon. Go look only if you like this topic.

If you are in Sofia, this gallery is definitely worth a visit. You can also see the contemporary art exhibited in the same building.

The museum is one of few parts of the national gallery, this one, together with ethnographic museum is located in former royal palace, on the first floor. 6 rooms contain art pieces from royal collection. Other ones are dedicated to lives of Bulgarian kings- a lot of reading, interesting history. The visit took about 1h

I found this a worthwhile museum both historically and artistically. On one side was the Ethnographic museum which was a fascinating glimpse into the world of pre-war, rural Bulgaria with clothes, tools, weaving demonstration, silverwork, and many other aspects of a by-gone life. On the other side is the art gallery which had the most amazing photo artistic journalism of a maximum security prison in Bulgaria. There is a wide spread of period art from classical portraits of royalty to contemporary art. The current theme of war was appropo and a strong reminder of why we should avoid it. We went on 2 separate days since each side was a lot to see.

If I could rate this lower than a one star I would. If you are visibly Muslim and a person of colour please do be careful entering these spaces. We went here and since the moment we entered we’ve been followed by security. Eventually four other staff joined in and followed us around. They said the reason they followed us around was because we were taking pictures of the place. We asked to see the rules or where the signs are and they ignored our requests. They weren’t able to provide us with the rules stating so or show us the signs saying no pictures. Many other people have been taking pictures and as you can see in the other reviews, people always take pictures at these places. I love galleries and museums and have been to many and I know there is moments you aren’t allowed to take photos or touch items however there is ALWAYS a signs showing it isn’t allowed or they tell you. We asked another staff member who provides information and he said we can take pictures. We asked other Bulgarians who speak English and they said they have been taking pictures and are allowed to take pictures. The level of disrespect was astounding. Never felt so uncomfortable before in my life. We paid for this experience and left early because of how uncomfortable they made us feel. Attached a beautiful photo of one of the women giving us a dirty look for simply doing what everyone else was doing, taking photos.

An old lady with glasses who sells tickets for the art gallery was very unpleasant and disrespected me. She made fun of me because I didn't speak Bulgarian. unbearable to put such people at reception and behave in such a way with tourists👎🏼. First Time this is happen when I'm travelling