The exhibition is devoted entirely to Bakam carpets, also known as Garibalda. It is the result of more than ten years of research by Jacob van Beilen, a Dutch public figure, philanthropist and collector, rightfully known as “the Dutchman with a Bulgarian heart.” Having dedicated his life to preserving Bulgaria’s traditional carpet-making heritage, Jacob has built one of the richest collections in the world, comprising more than 80 Bakam masterpieces and over 1,000 authentic carpets from different Bulgarian weaving traditions.

Do not miss this unique event, where you will encounter three centuries of history — textiles that have survived the trials of time and preserved the memory of generations of Bulgarians. These carpets are paintings without equal. Their “artists” were anonymous women weavers who worked without a predetermined pattern, weaving directly from the heart and from their imagination. This makes every piece utterly unique.

And, last but not least, the exhibition is part of an important cause — another step towards Jacob van Beilen’s great dream: the establishment of a National Carpet Museum in Bulgaria.

Welcome to the exhibition “Bakam – Garibalda (The Oldest Bulgarian Carpets)”, and to an infinite world woven from colours, symbols and stories of human lives!

The exhibition opens on 7 October 2026 at 6:00 p.m. at the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv. Jacob van Beilen will share with you his collecting journey, scholarly research and aesthetic pursuits.

The material Bulgaria’s Oldest Carpets Come to Life at the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

“Revive the Past” is the common theme of the two workshops taking place on September 26 and 27 on the Three Hills. The idea is to bring cultural heritage to life—not simply to preserve it behind glass, but to experience it hands-on.

At the “World of Irons” exhibition at 20 Saborna Street, conservator Marin Bekirski will demonstrate how old and valuable objects are restored. Participants will learn about different materials and techniques and will then have the opportunity to try restoring a museum object themselves.

The workshop will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Participation is free with admission to the exhibition. Advance registration is required for the practical session at +359 889 003 174.

At the Kuyumdzhioglu House at 2 Dr Stoyan Chomakov Street, the focus will shift to traditional construction methods. Demonstrations will showcase techniques using stone, clay and adobe—materials once used to build traditional Bulgarian homes.

The demonstrations are part of the “From Stone and Wood” project and will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. An exhibition featuring photo panels of abandoned Bulgarian homes will also be presented in the museum’s main hall.

“The two initiatives focus on experiencing cultural heritage through direct participation. We want the knowledge and skills passed down through generations to be accessible both to Bulgarian audiences and to visitors to the city,” said Assoc. Prof. Angel Yankov, Director of the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv.

Admission to both initiatives is free with a ticket to the respective exhibition.

The material Bringing the Past to Life at the “Festival of the Hills” is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

We look forward to welcoming you at the Kuyumdzhioglu House and at our branch at 20 Saborna Street, where we can celebrate this special day together.

The material Opening Hours of the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv on September 22 is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

Until the end of October, visitors can see the iron-shaped candy box at the museum’s branch at 20 Saborna Street. The initiative is part of the museum’s “Object in Focus” series, which highlights individual objects from its collections and explores their history, purpose, and distinctive features.

The ceramic iron-shaped candy box is an intriguing example of Italian decorative art from the 1960s and 1970s. It was produced in Bassano del Grappa, a city renowned for its centuries-old ceramic traditions, dating back more than 300 years.

The object is also connected with the history of the Italian confectionery company Pallarini. The joint idea of the ceramic manufacturers and the confectionery company was to create a luxurious festive box for chocolates. Initially, the candy box was intended as a gift for various celebrations, but it later became a household object, used as a storage container.

The production of the ceramic iron involved several stages. The clay was cast in plaster moulds, in which the body and lid were formed. The pieces were then fired at a temperature of approximately 1,000°C, after which they were covered with an opaque white glaze. The artisans painted floral motifs onto the glazed surface, and during the second firing, the colours were fixed and acquired their finished appearance.

The ceramic iron-shaped candy box combines traditional Italian ceramics with decorative art, transforming an apparently ordinary household object into an unusual and memorable form of candy box.

The material An Italian Candy Box in the Shape of an Iron Among the Exhibits at Plovdiv’s Iron Museum is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

The exhibition is part of the project “Of Stone and Wood – The Architectural Heritage of Abandoned Settlements”, developed by the Institute for Cultural Heritage Foundation. It transforms the museum space into a visual narrative about one of Bulgaria’s most fragile and rapidly disappearing treasures: the architectural heritage of depopulated mountain villages.

The project is the result of field research conducted in more than 40 settlements in the areas of Gabrovo, Dryanovo, Tryavna, and Veliko Tarnovo, in the Central Fore-Balkan region. Throughout the fieldwork, the team documented abandoned houses, barns, courtyards, verandas, stone walls, wooden structures, and architectural details that are gradually disappearing from the cultural landscape.

The photographs do not simply depict ruins. They tell the stories of the people who built and inhabited these places, of traditional construction techniques, of the relationship between people and nature, and of knowledge passed down from one generation to the next.

Behind every stone wall, wooden beam, or overgrown courtyard lies a human story. Today, these places are almost deserted, yet their architecture continues to preserve memories of work, craftsmanship, family, and belonging.

This is why the exhibition’s title — “A Glorious Past, a Forgotten Present, a Possible Future” — raises a question that goes beyond photography and documentary heritage: What do we do with the heritage we have inherited when the people who created it are no longer there?

The exhibition offers a different perspective on depopulation — not merely as a loss, but also as an opportunity to rethink our relationship with small settlements, traditional architecture, and cultural memory. Within the ruins, we may discover not only a sign of an ending, but also the potential for new life, education, cultural tourism, and future revival.

The project brings together academic research and artistic practice. The team includes archaeologist Stilian Stanimirov, historian Yulia Dabkova, ethnographer Damyan Hristov, cultural heritage specialist Nikolay Karagyozov, field researcher Nadya Kukoryakova, and photographer Kiril Kolev.

The photography exhibition is part of a broader cultural project that includes a documentary film, a digital photo archive, and a digital exhibition featuring audio descriptions in Bulgarian, English, and French. The project has already been presented in various cities across Bulgaria, as well as to an international audience in France.

The exhibition in Plovdiv will be open to visitors until 4 October 2026.

The material Abandoned Villages of Bulgaria Come to Life in a New Exhibition is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

To mark the occasion, admission will be free for all visitors throughout the day. We invite you to celebrate this special day with us and discover the rich cultural heritage of Plovdiv.

The material REM – Plovdiv: Opening Hours on September 6 is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

“The main goal of the programme was to offer children an alternative to the digital environment through direct engagement with cultural heritage, creativity, play, experimentation and hands-on experiences in a museum setting. The workshops were designed not only to provide children with knowledge, but also to make them active participants – encouraging them to create, explore, ask questions, work as a team, and develop practical and creative skills,” said Malina Gadjeva, Deputy Director of the museum.

As part of ETHNOteka, a wide variety of formats were offered, including “The Museum of the Five Senses,” the “Discover Bulgaria” ethnographic quizzes and educational games, the improvisational theatre workshop “Colourful Tales,” a comic-drawing workshop, as well as workshops in felting, eco-resin, pottery and other activities.

The music workshops proved particularly popular, as did the activities involving an old photographic technique – cyanotype – and the therapeutic bread-making workshop held in the museum courtyard, entitled “No One Is Greater Than Bread.”

The museum’s restoration workshop also attracted a new audience. It became a special space for older students, who discovered an interesting and different alternative for spending their holiday at the museum.

ETHNOteka took place in several locations throughout the museum complex – in the courtyard of the Kuyumdzhioglu House, in the main exhibition, and in the museum’s newest space, “The World of the Iron.” The different locations added to the sense of adventure, especially during the games, in which participants had to discover hidden symbols, messages and treasures.

External specialists were also involved in delivering the new museum educational initiative, including master craftspeople and museum partners, as well as students from the Ethnology programme at Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv.

The material Huge Interest in the Summer Workshops at the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

“Pseudonature 2.0 has found its place, its home in Plovdiv. It turned out even better here than in Venice,” said architect Yasen Markov, the creator of the provocative project, during the exhibition’s official closing ceremony at the museum last night.

For two months, the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv demonstrated that museum spaces traditionally associated with cultural heritage can also be adapted to contemporary art. The museum’s interior and courtyard became a kind of laboratory, where unconventional installations invited visitors to reflect on climate change, order and chaos, overdevelopment, artificial intelligence, and the place of modern humanity amid these rapidly changing phenomena.

The snow installation attracted particular attention, turning a summer day into a winter scene. “Thousands of people came to see the snow machine, which provokes reflection and raises questions about the relationship between humans and nature, as well as the actions—or inaction—of people that lead to disasters, natural anomalies and other unusual phenomena in the world around us,” said the museum’s director, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Angel Yankov. The exact number of visitors is yet to be calculated, but the project has clearly attracted considerable public interest.

The snow proved especially popular with the youngest visitors. Children delighted in the unusual spectacle, while many adults also allowed themselves to become children again for a moment, letting their imaginations run free. Behind the fun, however, lies a more serious question: what happens when natural phenomena that we take for granted begin to change as a result of human activity?

The message proved particularly relevant during a summer marked by extreme weather events—including storms, heatwaves, hailstorms, wildfires and floods. According to the project team, these events demonstrate that the climate crisis is much more real and much closer to us than we would like to believe.

PSEUDONATURE represented Bulgaria at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2025 and was realized with the support of the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture. PSEUDONATURE 2.0 is the project’s first exclusive presentation following its appearance in Venice and was realized in partnership with architect Yasen Markov’s team and the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv, with financial support from the Plovdiv 2019 Municipal Foundation.

The final opportunity to see snow in the museum courtyard in the middle of summer will be on August 15. After that, the snow will melt and the installations will be dismantled—but the questions raised by “Pseudonature 2.0” about the role of architecture, technology and our own influence on nature will remain.

The material A Snowy Summer at the Ethnographic Museum in Plovdiv: Thousands Came to See “Pseudonature 2.0” is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv

13 August | 7:00 PM

The material PSEUDONATURE 2.0 final is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.

The exhibition features Bakam carpets from Chiprovtsi, recognized as the earliest known Bulgarian carpets. Several of the exhibited pieces have been officially designated as part of Bulgaria’s national cultural heritage, highlighting their exceptional historical and artistic value.

The collection belongs to Jacob van Beijlen, a Dutch collector with a deep connection to Bulgaria and a passionate advocate for Bulgarian textile heritage. Among the highlights is one of the oldest surviving Bulgarian carpets, woven as early as the 17th century.

Opening in early October 2026, the exhibition invites visitors to explore a compelling story told through colours, patterns, and symbols, reflecting the remarkable craftsmanship of the master weavers of Chiprovtsi. It offers a unique journey into centuries of Bulgarian tradition, artistry, and cultural identity preserved through the timeless art of carpet weaving.

The material Exhibition at the Regional Ethnographic Museum – Plovdiv Showcases the Earliest Known Bulgarian Bakam Carpets is published for the first time on REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM - PLOVDIV.