Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2024 All Rights Reserved

National Polytechnic Museum Sofia host exhibition featuring postcards from the 20th century

Photo: National Polytechnic Museum Sofia

A Christmas greeting, a marriage proposal or news about the end of the war. All of this was written on a postcard without an envelope and a stamp and was delivered to an address. The past does not seem to be as far away as we think, reminds the exhibition "Vernissage of Vanity" of the Kardzhali Regional History Museum. The National Polytechnic Museum Sofia plays host to the exhibition.

The exhibition presents Katisha Ilieva's family collection of 137 black-and-white and coloured postcards covering the period 1913-1931. Most of them are from the period of the First World War (1914-1918) and were sent from the battle front - the so-called soldiers postcards. Others are Christmas, New Year and Easter postcards, name day greeting cards and postcards celebrating the the end of the war, the coronation of King Boris III, etc.

The postcards themselves are small works of art and the exhibition is the first initiative to show them in this light. They are an authentic reflection of historical reality, people‘s daily lives, taste and vanity in miniature, said the curators of the exhibition. Most exhibits are made by European printing houses, including printing houses from Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, German, France and Bulgaria. The messages written on the back of each beautiful postcard reflect the wide variety of human emotions.

The exhibition “Vernissage of Vanity” visits Sofia on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the National Polytechnic Museum and will continue until March 2023.

You can find more interesting facts related to the popular Christmas tradition of sending greeting cards in Radio Bulgaria’s article named "When did the first Christmas tree appear in Bulgaria?".




Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Peter Bogdan Bakshev, painted by Vasil Goranov

Presentation of the historical manuscript by Petar Bogdan at the Bulgarian Presidency

A reproduction of Petar Bogdan's manuscript "On the Antiquity of the Fatherland and on Bulgarian Affairs" - the first treatise on the history of Bulgaria, written almost a century before the famous "Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya" (Slav-Bulgarian..

published on 5/21/24 7:45 AM

Bulgarian State Delegation brings Bulgarian symbols of peace and spiritual unity to the Vatican 

Every year, on the eve of the Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Bulgarian alphabet, enlightenment, culture and Slavic literature - May 24 - a Bulgarian delegation led by the President of Parliament or the Head of State is received by the Pontiff of..

published on 5/21/24 6:15 AM
Sofia residents flock to read the royal manifesto decreeing the coup plotters' new rule.

Lessons from Bulgaria - How a military coup did not lead to "national revival"? 

Ninety years ago, on 19 May 1934, the Zveno political movement and the Military League staged a bloodless coup in Bulgaria. In the name of modernising the country, the so-called "national revival", they suspended the Tarnovo Constitution , banned the..

published on 5/19/24 7:05 AM