Regional historical museum
The museum work in Shumen dates back to 1857, when the teacher Sava Dobroplodi conducted the first expedition to Preslav and organized a museum gathering in the male grade school. Until the Liberation, the collection and preservation of antiquities continued. On June 29, 1904, a public museum was opened.
During its existence, the museum has turned into a modern multi-disciplinary institute, performing scientific, educational and socio-cultural functions. It unites in its structure 2 national archaeological reserves, the historical-archaeological reserve of the Shumen fortress, and house-museums of Shumen revivalists.
The exposition houses over 150,000 museum items and is spread over 8 halls and gives insight into the rich history of the region from ancient times to the present day. In the “Antiquity” hall, a Thracian tomb from the area of the city of Smyadovo, dated V-IV century BC, is preserved.
In the “Treasury” hall is the largest collection of Bulgarian and Byzantine seals and coins. A golden Thracian treasure and ornaments from the Middle Ages are presented.
In the remaining halls of the museum, the history of the city of Shumen from the Ottoman period to the Liberation of Bulgaria is told.
The latest exhibition “Faith and Strength” shows icons by local and Trevna painters, church confirmation. The hall was supplemented with weapons from the 16th to the end of the 20th century.
"Dobri Voinikov" house-museum
Dobri Voinikov is one of the most significant figures of the Bulgarian Renaissance. He is a teacher, playwright, public figure, musician and theater scholar, the founder of theater art and the first Bulgarian director of plays.
The home, built in 1962 with the funds and plan of Doinikov himself, is two-story and designed for the needs of the family. One room is dedicated to musical activity. In the study there are Dobri Voinikov’s preserved personal belongings – part of his library, the Slovenian oak desk bought in 1860, theater equipment, textbooks from the French college, a map of the Russian Empire. The rich documentary exhibition tells about his activity as a director and dramatist in Shumen and Braila.
Pancho Vladigerov Museum Complex
The museum complex consists of two expositions, on the development of the musical work in Shumen and the life of Pancho Vladigerov from the second generation of Bulgarian composers. He was born in Zurich but spent his early childhood in Schumann. The exposition is unfolded in one of the best-preserved Renaissance houses with a large, flagstone-paved courtyard. It is owned by the mother-in-law of the composer Pancho Vladigerov and his first teacher – a home where he entered as a 6-year-old and wrote his first piece of music.
It houses his first two pianos, letters from Stefan Zweig, Shostakovich and Karajan, the composer’s death mask.
The complex has a chamber hall with 60 seats with a grand piano, where the participants in the national and international competitions in the month of May in memory of Pancho Vladigerov perform part of their competition program. Concerts with a glass of champagne are organized as an attraction for tourists.
Lajos Kossuth House-Museum
The house museum presents pages from the life of the Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian statesman, freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth. He arrived in Shumen after the revolution of 1848 together with a group of emigrants – Hungarians and Poles and was accommodated in one of the nicest houses, that of Dimitraki Hadjipanev – merchant and mayor of the Bulgarian municipality at that time. Personal belongings and letters are presented in the documentary exposition.
There are three courtyards on different levels with separate functions, separated by high decorative walls and landscaped with shrubs, trees and flowers, which create a pleasant multi-colored frame of the large house. The building consists of two parts and with its ornate ceilings, carved doors and cupboards is a typical representative of the symmetrical house of the Renaissance period.
Next door is the “Bulgarian-Hungarian Cultural Ties” hall, where a competition for Hungarian and Bulgarian literature is held every year.
Panayot Volov House-Museum
In 1976, an exposition was opened, which tells about the childhood and youth years of the apostle of the IV Plovdiv Revolutionary District. With the help of his relative Marincho Benli, Panayot Volov received an enviable education for his time in Bucharest and Nikolaev. Later, he taught in Shumen (1873-1875) and was involved in community and theater activities. They elected him chairman of the Shumen Revolutionary Committee. He participated in the preparation of the Staro Zagora uprising of 1875 and was the chief apostle during the April uprising.
The house is a small one-story building of a simple type, located at the bottom of a yard. At the left front end is the porch, from which you enter the two living quarters – “house” and “room”. In a specially built hall, the life of the great Bulgarian is revealed through physical, documentary and photographic material.
Dimitar Srebrov House
Dimitar Srebrov’s house was built in 1872 by the local craftsman Usta Dragia, for Sava Boyarov, a wholesale merchant who traded with Constantinople and Bucharest. It is in the middle of the yard and divides it in two. Its front part has an irregular shape. The area in front of the house is paved with large stone slabs. The first floor houses the household, work quarters, kitchens and servants’ bedrooms.
A beautiful internal staircase leads to the upper floor, which leads into a large glazed hall decorated with a ceiling with wooden elements.
Dimitar Georgiev Srebrov was born in 1866. I come from the family of Zlatarevi from Tryavna. He was a teacher and a participant in the cultural life of the city. In 1880, he co-founded the “Osnova” teachers’ association.
Vasil Drumev Drama and Puppet Theater
The countdown of our national theater begins in the city of Shumen, with the performance “Mihal Mishkoed” on August 15, 1856.
In 1911 Shumen City Theater was founded. Since 1956 there is a separate building, reconstructed in 1981. the reconstruction of the theater was carried out by the Sofia architects M. Sokolovski, Ts. Hadjistoychev and E. Kamilarov.
From 01.01.2000 was transformed into DT “V. Drumev” and Puppet Theater “Patilancho” – DKT.
The theater is a state repertory theater. The rich and varied poster of DKT “Vasil Drumev” includes titles from world and Bulgarian drama, with the priority presence of titles from Bulgarian classical and contemporary drama.
Every year the city hosts the National Drum Festival in May.
The team of the Drama and Puppet Theater has won a number of honors and awards from prestigious international and national festivals, including the honorary award “Golden Book” (golden badge) from the Council of the European Scientific and Cultural Community.
Stiliyan Chilingirov Regional Library
Established as the fourth deposit library in Bulgaria on the initiative of Stiliyan Chilingirov in 1922. The first 507 deposit books and periodicals were delivered. On August 23, 1933, the first qualified full-time librarian, Vasil Klasanov, a well-known Chitalist activist, was appointed curator of the library by Order of the Ministry of Education and Culture. The book wealth of the library exceeds 750,000 library documents. In 1997, he received the name of Stiliyan Chilingirov as his patron. As a regional library for the Shumen region, it was approved by PMS No. 153/28.07.2000. Regardless of the opinion that the library is a conservative institution in its essence, it refutes this through its versatile activity, developing active publishing activities, including pre-press preparation of bibliographies and other publications. A large part of its fund is digitized. Today it is publicly available, depository library and methodical center for Shumen region. He is a member of the Bulgarian Library and Information Association (BBIA).
The building was opened in 1981 according to the project of arch. Boyana Bozduganova.
Elena Karamihailova Art Gallery
The gallery was founded in 1955. It bears the name of one of the first Bulgarian artists in post-liberation Bulgaria, born in 1875 in Shumen in the family of a well-known merchant.
Successor to a community gathering from 1947, the gallery’s collection, including painting, graphics, sculpture and applied arts, numbers over 2,000 works. Among them are works of high artistic value, significant for Bulgarian culture. The exhibition halls with a total area of 333 square meters are open for art exhibitions of a diverse nature, as well as for other cultural events.
Periodically, the gallery shows collections from the fund of different themes, styles and time periods.
Shumen symphonies
The Shoumen Symphony is the successor of the first symphony orchestra in Bulgaria, formed in 1850 by the Hungarian emigrant Mihai Shafran. The Shumen Symphony Orchestra acquired the status of a state cultural institute in 1954.
In its recent history, the orchestra maintains a rich repertoire. His concert programs feature many of the well-established names of the local and world scene. It also gives the opportunity to a number of young talents who got their career start from the Shumen scene.
The ensemble has performed numerous tours in Germany, Austria, Italy, Belarus, Greece, South Korea and others. Participated in the prestigious “Pancho Vladigerov” International Competition for pianists and violinists.
The symphonies develop a rich creative activity, performing concerts, which are traditionally held on Thursdays.
Orthodox Church "St. Ascension of the Lord and vmchk. George"
The construction of the church, according to an inscription above the entrance, is related to the reign of Bishop Antim. Metropolitan Grigoriy Preslavski consecrated the new building in 1831. The collected donations made it possible to invite painters and woodcarvers from Trevna to make the holy altar, the bishop’s throne, the pockinitaria and the icons. The floor is paved with stone slabs.
A tombstone from 1656 with an inscription in Latin and Bulgarian gives reason to date the first church to the 12th century, when colonist traders from Dubrovnik were buried around it. The old church was small, low and dug in, and during the war with Russia of 1828, the Turks used it as a warehouse, which severely damaged it.
Two princes are buried in the courtyard of the church: Dimitar Muruzi, prince of Moldova, beheaded for treason against the sultan in Shumen, and Valerian Madatov, who died during the siege of Shumen in 1828 from tuberculosis.
The church houses beautiful old church utensils of historical value: Enthroned Gospel – Moscow, 1774, Proskinitary – 1831. Trevnenska School, Chalice – 1816, Enthroned Cross. XVII-XVIII century, Icon of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, presented to Shumen by General Belokopitov during the Liberation of the city on July 18, 1878.
Temple "St. prophet Elijah"
The church is located in the “Divdyadovo” quarter, 4 km from the center of Shumen, on the road to Veliki Preslav. It was built in 1846 by Trevna craftsmen as a three-nave pseudo-basilica with one apse and a balcony.
In 1910, the craftsman Nikola Preslavski erected the belfry from local stone. The iconostasis is made of oak wood, and its decoration is concentrated around the royal doors. The icons were painted by the Shumen icon painter Nikola Vasilev.
Along with the archives, the church also keeps a small wooden carved water-holy cross with silver fittings and a seal with the inscription “Church Divdyadovska leto 1846”.
Temple "St. Aswizazine"
The Armenian Church “St. Asvizazin” (Holy Mother of God) was built in 1843 on the site of a wooden church that burned down during the war in 1828. It was built of smoothly cut white local stone. The church has one nave. The entire altar is raised 1 m above the level of the nave. In the middle of the apse there is a small iconostasis with a wood-carved stylized sun. Some of the icons date from 1860 and are painted with oil paints. A plaque on the wall gives information that the Christmas service in 1849 was attended by emigrants from Austria-Hungary. During the massacres in Turkish Armenia in 1895, a rally was held in the churchyard. Its participants, mostly women and girls, sent a telegram to England’s Queen Victoria. In the courtyard of the church are preserved marble tombstones of Armenian princes and donors from the 18th-19th centuries with inscriptions and sculptural decorations.
Sherif Khalil Pasha Mosque
The mosque was built in 1744 in the Turkish Baroque style. By type, it refers to the domed mosques that remained in the Ottoman architecture under the influence of the Byzantine one. When it was opened, it was the second largest on the Balkan Peninsula after “Sultan Selimova” in Edirne. It is called “tombul” because of its many domes covering the buildings of the inner courtyard. The ensemble consists of a mosque, a higher spiritual school (madrasa) with a library and a primary school, brought together in a single composition by the skillful overflowing of courtyards and spaces. Its walls are dotted with vegetal, geometric ornaments and inscriptions from the Koran in Arabic in gray and ocher. It has two floors, and the terrace on the second floor is intended for the women’s ward. A fountain with twelve spouts was built in the center of the inner courtyard of the madrasah.