Payless

Since the liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule until the late XX century the country lost for various reasons a number of talented poets. One of them, often called "the poet with the quilt", is Penyo Penev.

He was not born in Dimitrovgrad, but in Dobromirka village, Sevlievo, where he had childhood that can not be called happy. This, as well as failures in marriage and personal life, perennial problems caused by informers are probably the reasons for his melancholy. Penyo Penev arrived in Dimitrovgrad in 1949, he spent his best years in the city and became the great poet Penyo Penev. On April 27, 1959 he committed suicide, but people from Dimitrovgrad not only did not forget him, but turned his home into a museum, while maintaining the chamber in which he lived and worked.

His home in Dimitrovgrad became a museum in 1964. From 1969 it has the status of a permanent exhibition of the local history museum. In 1987 the museum was restored and renewed, and the exhibition was opened again.

The museum exposition is built on a chronological basis, following the life of Penyo Penev. Expositional plan ends with a room that the poet’s family inhabited. The exposition occupies an area of 171 square meters, which combine two apartments of a residential block. Of these 25 sq.m. are dedicated to the museum’s fund.

There is a small exhibition of photographs, memories, pictures, poems and portraits painted by the poet’s son Vladimir Penev. The museum keeps more than 1 200 exhibits, of which 300 are original manuscripts, letters and personal belongings of the poet.

The museum organizes various cultural activities, poetry competitions and educational programs. The most important among them are the Days of Poetry "Penyo Penev."