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The National History Museum was created on May 5, 1973. On March 2, 1984 in honor of a 1 300 anniversary of Bulgaria's foundation the first permanent exhibition was opened in the building of the courthouse. Now the museum is housed in "Boyana" residence.

It helds more than 600 000 cultural monuments. The museum is the largest in Bulgaria and one of the largest in Europe.

National Museum of History may well be compared with the Louvre and the British Museum and the value of cultural and historical values stored in it is between eight and ten billion euro. The museum has a really extraordinary findings: unique gold treasures from the Thracian era and various artifacts - ceramics, bronze, marble and gold.

One of the largest collections of the Greek poleis is collected in "Apollo Pontica" hall - hundreds of valuable vessels, painted pottery and clay figurines. The exposures are from the Roman and Byzantine era, and the monuments from medieval Bulgaria are extremely interesting and expensive. All these exhibits are found throughout the country or in neighboring countries - Macedonia, northern Greece, Romania, Serbia, Bessarabia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Due to lack of space the museum can display at most one percent of what it has. Particular attention has enjoyed the exposure "Unexhibited treasures" in which are exhibited artifacts, unique not only for our country, but for the world.

The museum has three floors and is divided into five rooms. The first floor of the museum store objects of Antiquity and Middle Ages. In the first hall are exposed prehistoric artifacts such as tools, household appliances, bone ornaments, pottery figures and idols figures. There are also many many gold funerary ornaments.

The second hall is dedicated to the Thracians, who resided in the territory of Bulgaria from the VI century BC to VI century AD. The most famous exhibit is the Thracian treasure from Panagyurishte. Panagyurishte treasure is dated IV - III century BC. Found by chance in 1949, it consists of nine vessels, created from pure gold, and its total weight is 6 kg. The treasure impresses with its master craftsmanship and fine decoration. Archeological heritage from that period is extremely rich. Moreover Panagyurishte treasure, in the museum the visitors can see a few more gold and silver treasures from the same era, many funeral gifts, weapons, tools, jewelry and ceramics.

The third room is devoted to the history of medieval Bulgaria. Rich finds show the life of the aristocracy of the time. One of the most famous finds is the massive gold ring of King Kaloyan.

The second floor of the museum is dedicated to the church art in Bulgaria and to the National Revival. Fourth Hall follows the life of Bulgarians during the Revival, and the fifth is devoted to modern history.

On the third floor there are temporary exhibitions and ethnographic exhibitions.

Boyana Church is also a branch of the National History Museum. It is the most remarkable monument of Bulgarian medieval painting and world heritage from the era of the late Middle Ages. Other branches of the museum are the ship "Radetzky", the Zemen monastery and the church "St. Forty martyrs" in Veliko Turnovo.

National History Museum is working 9:00 to 16:45 p.m. during the winter and 09:30 to 17:30 p.m. during the summer. Entrance to the museum costs 10 leva.