MEDICAL HISTORY MUSEUM

The museum display is housed in the building of the first charity hospital in Bulgaria. It was built thanks to the donation, made by Paraskeva Nikolau, a citizen of Varna, who broke free from the bonds of Turkish yoke and made a significant profit as a merchant in Odessa (Ukraine). The money he left was a pretty large sum for that time - 126 900 silver roubles. On 8 September 1869 the new building was announced a city donation hospital and the first patient was admitted in.
A lot of years have passed since then. The building has been constantly used for medical care of Varna citizens. It functioned as a choleraic insulator, military hospital, infectious hospital, maternity hospital, a Pasteur Institute, health and anti-epidemic centre, and now - Medical History Museum.
The museum display occupies three halls, which together with the vestibules spread on an area of 400 m2, preserving the chronology of events - from 1 000 A.D. till nowadays.

The assumption of medicine as an eternal companion of man is implied in the very beginning of the tour - the groundfloor vestibule, where there are built in plaques, reflecting life and first medical achievements of the people, who inhabited those territories in the past. Visitors are also attracted by various other exhibits - ranging from the flint knife to the tasimeter.
The paleoanthropological collection is one of the richest and most diverse in Bulgaria. There are plenty of bone fragments, preserved in glass windows. The explanations below tell what diseases were most common in those days. The same hall houses votive tablets, bronze and iron medical instruments, coins dating back to the Thracian times, period of Greek colonizatoin, Roman administration and the creation of the Bulgarian state.
The upper floor has preserved the history of the Bulgarian people during the period after the fall of Bulgaria under Turkish yoke until the end of WW II.

One can trace the development of medicine during the National Revival period. There are portraits and biographical reference books about outstanding medics. Visitors can acquaint themselves with objects and instruments, dating back to the period of the War for Liberation (1877-1878), as well as medical equipment from the beginning of health-catering in liberated Bulgaria.
The Medical History Museum disposes of a library for old medical books, magazines, newspapers, atlases, etc., translated into different languages. Some of them have become a bibliographical rarety and a valuable source for those, interested in the history of medicine.
The museum display creates specific, unique atmosphere, that touches every visitor, offering him profound knowledge and aesthetic perception.