Bulgaria Inside

If you are looking for something unique to explore in Bulgaria, you might consider heading to the town of Asenovgrad where you will discover a one of a kind museum. Some of the artifacts exhibited there are matchless on a global scale and will give you more information about the beautiful Bulgarian nature and the past of the territory.

Asenovgrad’s paleontology museum was founded in 1990 as a subsidiary to the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. Most of the collection was created due to the efforts of a single man named Dimitur Kovachev.

Kovachev worked for many years as biology teacher in the Asenovgrad high school. He decided to get his 9th grade students excited about science. Together, they began searching for paleontological remains and bringing piece by piece a vast collection into existence.

The museum is readily accessible. When you reach Asenovgrad’s roundabout look for information boards indicating the road to Kurdzhali and head in that direction. Follow the road, which moves uphill. The second street on the left will take you to the museum. The road is steep and will direct you to the top of a hill, where the museum is located. A small parking lot is situated right next the building.

On the outside, the building is typically socialist and might deceive you about the treasures hidden inside. The museum collection starts from the second floor.

The first section, or the introduction as Kovachev calls it, is dedicated to invertebrates. The collection includes various fossils.

Shortly after this introduction, visitors are directed to the most significant museum collection – the one dedicated to various types of vertebrates. This trip starts eight million years ago. A picture positioned in one of the halls recreates the ambience and shows the animal species that inhabited present-day Bulgaria. Most visitors are surprised immediately, since the picture depicts rhinos, giraffes, wild horses, elephants and tigers.

More than eight million years ago, these types of animals inhabited the region and the bone remains and fossils presented in the museum prove their existence.

The first several halls you will explore will let you get a grasp of the uniqueness of this place. The hundreds of exposition items and animal remains, the beautiful nature recreations and the pictures will lift the curtain and take you to a parallel universe that existed long time ago.

One of the truly unique items you will see is the only entirely preserved hyena skeleton in Bulgaria. The museum also protects the only skull of a saber-toothed tiger in the country. This type of tiger was one of the predominant and most dangerous predators during the period.

Asenovgrad’s museum preserves a truly unique piece of great importance to science. It protects the only fully preserved Metailurus skeleton worldwide. Metailurus is a genus of saber-toothed cats that existed 8.98 million years ago. Since the finding is of exceptional importance, the museum displays a replica of the skeleton. The original is preserved in Sofia.

The remain of Kalimantsia Bulgarica are also worth paying attention to. Scientists initially believed that the remains discovered near the Bulgarian village of Kalimantsi were of another species already known to science. Subsequently, French experts came to Bulgaria to study the remains and concluded that the species and more importantly, the genus was unknown. As a result, the animal was named Kalimantsia Bulgarica after the place where its remains were discovered.

Examine another pride of the museum – Mesopithecus Delsoni. In 2003, the discoverer of this type of monkey, professor Delson, came to the museum in Asenovgrad and confirmed that the skeleton displayed there is one of the best preserved worldwide.

A separate collection is dedicated to proboscidean (trunk nosed) mammals. It contains the remains of mastodons and a deinotherium. The deinotherium is a massive mammal that inhabited swampy areas eight million years ago and was one of the predecessors of the present-time elephant. It weight exceeded 12 tons. The entire skeleton was discovered near the village of Ezerovo. Initially, the jaws of the animal were uncovered on November 6 1965. A new expedition took place two years later and excavation works were renovated. The entire skeleton of the animal was uncovered and scientists recognized the deinotherium.

The Bulgarian specimen is unique, since it contains the biggest number of original bones. Upon the discovery, only several ribs, vertebra and the left leg were missing. Asenovgrad’s museum displays a replica, since the original skeleton is still being studied in Sofia.

It is hard to describe the emotion that will overcome you upon exiting the museum. This small, modest place treasures evidence of our distant past and the remains of gigantic animals. The skeleton of the deinotherium will take your breath away and the kind museum guides would love to show you around and tell you more about each exhibition item.