Sboryanovo – Nature and Monuments, Gods and People Exhibition at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria – Introduction
On the 24th of February 2009, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the opening of the exposition Sboryanovo – Nature and Monuments, Gods and People. The exposition is part of the Travelling Exhibitions Programme run by the Institute of Culture at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Radion Popov opened the exposition and was followed by the reading of Deputy Minister of Culture Ivan Tokadjiev’s Address. Senior research fellow Diana Gergova, author of the project, discussed the long research history of the unique Sboryanovo topos. The opening was attended by members of the diplomatic corps, scientists, artists and public men.
Sboryanovo – Nature and Monuments, Gods and People comprises twenty one posters presenting the main monuments of the archaeology reserve: the Thracian city, sanctuaries, natural environment.
The Sboryanovo reserve and the work on its monuments make up a peculiar encyclopaedia of the Bulgarian archaeology and ethnography. In the course of decades, substantial evidence of the early Bulgarian culture and historical layers over the Bulgarian lands has been discovered. There is evidence of the ties of the Bulgarian lands with the Orient and the Eastern religions, the propagation of some of these influences in the West and the North of the European continent. The co-existence of monuments of various ethnicities and religions in the reserve is a vivid proof of the conventional tolerance of Bulgarian cultural tradition.
The exposition also provides an overview of the application of innovative methods of research and preservation of cultural heritage. It gives credit to both the doyens of Bulgarian archaeology and the dynamic cooperation with different institution from France, Poland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, Japan and other.
The author of this conception is senior research fellow Diana Gergova from the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences who has been an archaeologist and reserve researcher for many years. Photographers Mehmed Azis, Kr. Georgiev and J. Atanasov provided the photographs and young Bulgarian designer Ran Manolov contributed with his work on the stage-setting.