Address:

Sofia, Opulchenska Str. 66

Museum Hours:

09:00-17:00

The National Polytechnical Museum was established on 13 May 1957 by a Council of Ministers decree, initially under the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It was declared a national museum in 1968.

Since 1992, the museum is located in a building formerly used as a museum to Georgi Dimitrov. It has been completely renovated in 2012 at a cost of 640,000 lv (326,000 euro). The National Polytechnical Museum regularly participates in the annual Night of Museums.

The museum has a collection of more than 22,000 items, but only 1,000 of them are permanently displayed. Collections are supplemented by a library with more than 12,000 books and journals, and an archive of about 2,000 documents.

Permanent collections are divided in exhibitions of time measurement, transportation, photography and cinema, optics, audio equipment, radio and television, computing equipment, communications equipment and others.

Some of the items on display include:

Ford Model A (1928), Fiat 509, Tatra 97 and Messerschmitt KR200 in the automotive collection;

Creed & Company transmitters, radio and television equipment by Telefunken, Blaupunkt and others;

Quipus, early abaci and early electronic calculators, including Bulgarian-manufactured Elka 22 (1965) and Pravetz computers (1980s);

Instruments for space satellites and space food;

Player piano, the only Bulgarian-manufactured Hammond organ, barrel organs and others.