Official opening of the Museum Center

Details

Created on Friday, 15 May 2009 17:34

A ceremony held today opened the newly built Museum Center "Thracian Art in the Eastern Rhodopes" near the village of Alexandro, Haskovo Municipality. The huge complex was inaugurated personally by Their Imperial Highnesses Prince and Princess Akishino (Noriko, Fumihito Akishinomiya) and President of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Parvanov. The high-profile guests included also His Excellency Ambassador of Japan to Bulgaria Tsuneharu Takeda, His Excellency Bulgaria's Ambassador to Japan Blagovest Sendov, Minister of Culture Professor Stefan Danailov, Professor Richard Tempest from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) and many other officials.

Under memorandum notes exchanged in 2007 between the Governments of Japan and Bulgaria, the Japanese people donated 341 million Japanese yen to build a huge museum complex near the Tomb of Alexandrovo. The funds were granted under the Japanese Government Aid programme for support of culture. The construction of the museum started in February 2008. The municipality of Haskovo invested nearly BGN 500,000 own funds to build the technical infrastructure to the Museum Center "Thracian Art in the Eastern Rhodopes".