Medieval Bulgaria. Art and Civilization. On the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state. Exhibition catalogue.
Grand Palais, 13 June–19 August 1980.

La Bulgarie medievale. Art et civilization. A l'occasion du XIIIᵉ centenaire de la fondations de l'État bulgare. Catalog d'exposition. Grand Palais, 13 juin – 19 août 1980
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Medieval Bulgaria. Art and Civilization. On the occasion of the 1300th anniversary of the Bulgarian state. Exhibition catalogue. Grand Palais, 13 June - 19 August 1980.

The catalog was printed at the Vanderperre printing house in Paris in the first half of June 1980 with the highest quality at that time. Sold in over 40 stores that Grand Palais has in Paris and in France, including their store in the Louvre Museum. The catalog was not intended for sale in Bulgaria - one copy is given to the museums participating in the exhibition (a total of 30, and the "Cyril and Methodius" National Library), as well as to all members of the honorary committees and the organizing committees from Bulgaria and France country, as well as the authors of the texts, as well as the scientific consultants, the curators of the exhibition and the heads of the technical groups. Only the National History Museum, which is the main organizer of the exhibition from the Bulgarian side, received more copies, including several pieces that are used as working ones.

The organizational structures of the exhibition are at the highest possible level. The honorary committees for the exhibition include the ministers of foreign affairs of Bulgaria and France - Petar Mladenov and Jean-Francois Poncet respectively, the ministers of culture of both countries - Lyudmila Zhivkova (Chairman of the Culture Committee) and Jean-Philippe Leka, as well as the ambassadors of Bulgaria in France Konstantin Atanasov (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of Bulgaria in France) and the French Ambassador in Sofia Yves Barbier.



The organizing committees of both countries include deputy ministers of foreign affairs and culture of both countries, heads of departments in the ministries of culture, directors of national museums.

The chief curators of the exhibition are Ancho Anchev, director of the National History Museum, as well as Jean-René Gabori, chief curator of the Department of Sculptures* at the Louvre Museum, and the curator of the same department, Dominique Benazette.

All the exhibits are collected by the curators of the National History Museum, who for half a year tour consecutively all 30 museums presented in the exhibition, accompanied by security. During this time, the exhibits included in the exhibition are stored in the National History Museum, where the packaging for their transportation is prepared. At that time, the National History Museum occupied the building of the former Soviet Embassy in Sofia - according to an agreement between the Soviet and Bulgarian governments, after the embassy was moved to a new building, the old embassy building on "Moskovska" Street was given to Bulgaria to be used for cultural and scientific purposes purposes.

Authors of the texts and the scientific apparatus in the catalog are also collaborators of NIM - Violeta Dimova, Evelina Genova, Galina Germanova and Teofana Matakieva, editors in the departments "Bulgaria during the Middle Ages" and "Bulgarian lands during the Renaissance". Scientific consultant is Prof. Borislav Primov.

In a special note to the catalog, gratitude is expressed for the help in compiling the scientific texts of seven famous scientists and cultural figures from Bulgaria and France, including Prof. Andrey Grabar.

The catalog for the exhibition "Medieval Bulgaria. Art and Civilization" is preceded by a preface and four significant scientific articles:
– Preface written by Ancho Anchev;
– Medieval Bulgaria, by [doc.] Vasil Gyuzelev;
– Medieval Bulgaria and Europe, by [doc.] Borislav Primov;
– The Art of the Bulgarian Middle Ages, by [prof.] Atanas Bozhkov;
– Archaeological monuments from the Bulgarian Middle Ages, by [Ph.D.] Dimitar Ovcharov.

The catalog of the exhibition includes a total of 624 of the most impressive medieval archaeological monuments, among them a significant number of monuments of Bulgarian medieval painting - murals and icons, as well as numerous manuscripts. The time span of the exhibition is from the XNUMXth to the XNUMXth century, that is, the entire Bulgarian Middle Ages is represented. Included are black-and-white and color images of all exhibits with relevant background information about them, accompanied by short or longer texts and relevant scientific apparatus.

The catalog is at an extremely scientific level, it includes all the top achievements of the Bulgarian medieval civilization discovered at that time, without exception - the Preslav gold jewelery treasure from the 1185th century, the gold pectoral cross-reliquary from Pliska, the Madara belt ornaments, the belt from the sarcophagus to The Great Basilica in Pliska, the golden discus from Veliki Preslav, the silver cup of Sivin County, pectoral crosses, icons and reliefs from the time of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom (1422-XNUMX), the Nikopol treasure from the end of the XNUMXth century, the treasure from the village of Druzhba, Vidinsko, also from the end of the XNUMXth century, the Kaloyan ring from the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, the cross of Sevast Berislav from the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries.

The exhibition "Medieval Bulgaria. Art and Civilization' at the Grand Palais - as well as dozens of other exhibitions there over the past 60 years - became possible after part of the north wing of the exhibition palace was converted in 1964 for the purpose of hosting temporary exhibitions. The redevelopment was dictated by the very history of the building, which was built as an exhibition complex for the World's Fair in 1900 - with huge glass-roofed areas designed exclusively for large-scale exhibitions of fine arts, technical and industrial exhibitions. After the reconstruction in 1964, the northern wing can now host temporary exhibitions dedicated to archaeological discoveries.

The exhibition "Medieval Bulgaria. "Art and Civilization" becomes an exceptional event for the French capital and for France - dozens of newspapers and magazines, radio and television programs and devote enormous attention during the two months of its presentation, hundreds of thousands of Parisians and guests of the French capital flock to the Grand Palais to see her. Only one or two more Bulgarian exhibitions abroad in the following years can rival the success of the Bulgarian medieval exhibition in Paris in 1980.
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* In French, the word can have a much wider meaning.

Text: Ivan Petrinsky