SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library

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The SS. Cyril and Methodius National Library is Bulgaria’s national library, located in Sofia. It was founded on April 4, 1878, and became the national library a few years later. In 1924, the Bulgarian National Revival Archive joined it. It is named after Saints Cyril and Methodius, who created the Glagolitic alphabet; the Cyrillic alphabet is named after Cyril.

The current building is a Sofia landmark. It was designed by Bulgarian architects Vasilyov and Tsolov and built between 1940 and 1953. The library is the largest public library in Bulgaria and the oldest cultural institution since the country’s liberation. It also holds a large Ottoman archival collection.

History and purpose: In 1878, Mikhail Bobotinov proposed creating a public library in Sofia. It opened in December 1878 and got its own building in 1900. Construction of a new building began in 1939, but bombing in 1944 destroyed both the old and the new buildings. A new National Library building opened in 1953 under the name Vasil Kolarov, and in 1963 it was renamed to SS. Cyril and Methodius.

From the start, the library collected Bulgarian manuscripts, old printed books, and works in Bulgarian or by Bulgarian authors in foreign languages. It later formed a fund of Slavic and other language manuscripts. Early important holdings included the libraries of historian Marin Drinov and poet Petko Slaveikov, as well as collections from churches and monasteries. The library has Bulgarian and Oriental (foreign language) manuscript collections and has served as a historical archive since its beginning.