National Museum of Military History

Sofia, Bulgaria

The National Military History Museum in Sofia, Bulgaria, has existed under various names and subordinate to various institutions since 1914. It consists of 5,000 m2 of indoor and 40,000 m2 outdoor (of which 500 m2 covered) exhibition area. Its current structure and name date from 1968.

The museum exhibitions are organized based on topics, chronology, and collections. Of the one million valuables in our collections, 28 000 exhibits are on display. In the thematic chronological galleries, recounting the development of the Bulgarian Army, the emphasis is on the participation of the armed forces in the wars for national unification. The collection halls present weapons, decorations, and uniforms – the museum’s oldest and richest collections.

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Details

Founded: 1968
Category: Museums in Bulgaria

Rating

4.7/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Matthew Willis (9 months ago)
Great museum Greta value for students only 2 lev! Friend really enjoyed it as he’s a tank aficionado!
Christian Hoffman (10 months ago)
We paid for all of the exhibits, which is what I'm giving the full 5 stars for. Seeing all the artillery, planes, helicopters and tanks was also amazing! We only spent 2ish hours there as we had other plans as well, but you could easily spend more time there.
N A (13 months ago)
You can actually walk into the front yard of this museum and have a walk around it for free, there are old fighter jets and military vihicles parked that you can see up close, even touch. Once you walk inside you're given the options to get a full ticket which includes all the buildings, of which there are quite a few, the other option is the permanent exhibition which was a third of the cost and is all you really need to see. Once you get your ticket there is access to the middle yard which has even more equipment in the form of fighter jets and missiles. The main building itself faces this yard and inside of it was a well organised and rich collection of early-historic Bulgarian war-related items and information, this moved through the centuries, eventually arriving at the wars with the ottomans, WW1, WW2, onset of socialism and other modern areas of interest. It's worth the visit in my opinion, a lot to see, learn and experience.
Karolina (13 months ago)
If you want to see whole place you should be prepared for few hours of visiting. In the "gardens" there are a lot of tanks, planes, amphibians etc. Plus 4 floors with stories about Bulgarian history.
Michael Mack (17 months ago)
Amazing Military History Museum in Sofia. I did not allocate enough time to explore this beautiful museum. Amazing planes, tanks, missile systems, helicopters, and other military vehicles. I spent about 2 hours and could have easily spent another 2-3 hours. Amazing place!!
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