The Ethnology and Folkloristics Institute with an Ethnographic Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (EFIEM-BAS) is a national centre for ethnological, folkloristic and cultural-anthropological research. It has rich libraries and archives (field audio, photos and video recordings, ethnographic diaries and descriptions and others) and the National Ethnographic Museum preserves tens of thousands of objects, representing the Bulgarian traditional culture in its entirety.

 

EFIEM-BAS is a leading national institution in the field of ethnology and folkloristics whose goal is to maintain the society’s conscious idea about their cultural identity and traditions and their role in today’s world. The scientists and specialists deal with research and analysis of the many aspects of Bulgaria’s cultural history and contemporaneity and with examination of the cultural events and processes in a Balkan, European and global context. Thanks to the activity of the National Centre of Immaterial Cultural Heritage and the National Ethnographic Museum, the cultural heritage is being systematically discovered, collected, preserved and displayed.

 

The collections of the National Ethnographic Museum consist of more than 55 000 exhibits. They include material objects from the culture of Bulgarians in the country as well as abroad: in Macedonia, the Western Outlands, Northern Dobrudzha, Banat, Bessarabia and other countries.

 

The museum fund is divided into the following collections: “Wood carving. Housework and furniture”, “Copper working”, “Wrought iron”, “Ceramics”, “Adornments”, “Agriculture and stock breeding”, “Embroidery”, “Small fabrics”, “Big fabrics”, “Bulgarian national costume”, “Rites and ceremonial paraphernalia”, “Foreign art” and “Visual art”.