Context!

Okay, first a confession – I am definitely not a military enthusiast. I’ve never read a Tom Clancy novel. I can’t identify a Panzer tank based on one blurry photograph. I’ve certainly never leaked classified data because a game got minor details about an army tank wrong (this actually happened).

However, I do have a general interest in the Cold War and propaganda – and military museums in Eastern Europe normally have both in spades. And besides – even if I can’t tell the differences between them, looking at lots of jet planes in the same place sounds interesting, no? After my jaunt around Sofia University, I had enough time to head to the Bulgarian Military Museum to have a look round. Aaaand unfortunately it’s a bit crap 😕

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What it’s like

Reaching the Military Museum is a bit awkward by public transport. There’s a tram stop not far from the entrance, but I couldn’t figure out how to buy a ticket, so instead I got off at the nearest Metro stop and walked for about twenty minutes. Fortunately the massive jet fighters and missiles are hard to miss so you’re unlikely to walk past the museum by accident.

One nice thing about the museum is that the front garden – with a decent selection of military equipment, including a Trabant for some reason, is completely free. If you’re a cheapskate, you could consider visiting this area to look at some tanks then leaving without paying a Lev.

I was visiting in early December in the late afternoon, so the combination of the evening sky and snow on the ground made the celebration of military might strangely peaceful. This feeling changed as soon as I walked inside the ticket office, which has Bulgarian military recruitment films blaring constantly.

I buy my ticket – which turned out to be 10 instead of 2 Lev – and politely spent five minutes looking through a really boring temporary exhibit about Bulgaria’s accession to NATO. I’m a Political Science graduate – I studied this sort of time for years and I still found it dull! This was a warning of things to come.

The permanent exhibition is in a separate building – ‘the one with the Bulgarian flag’ as the ticket lady described it – and is spread across four floors. It’s new and there’s clean toilets, but that’s about everything good I have to say about it.

Bulgaria’s military history is interesting, don’t get me wrong! But the museum displays do their best to convince visitors otherwise. The galleries range in themes – some are about Bulgaria’s war of Independence, others about the Balkan Wars that predated the First World War. One strangely out of place gallery is dedicated to the ancient Thracians. But sadly they’re all just really dry and uninteresting.

The exhibits themselves are well kept, but they’re portrayed in the most static way possible – there’s only one diorama, showing a WW1 trench, in the entire museum. Instead it’s weapons on racks, paintings, and uniforms. So many uniforms.

There’s not much educational value here either. The descriptions – or at least the English translations – are simplistic and blatantly biased, but not even in a fun over the top way. Nothing Bulgaria ever did is criticised, their opponents always absolute bastards. One section that made me laugh was a display on the Cold War, describing all the times that Bulgaria participated in war games with the rest of the Warsaw Pact nations… because Bulgaria didn’t take part in any real conflicts during this period. I didn’t learn much of interest about Bulgarian history in the hour or so that I wasted here.

There’s some other strange things too. For one, there’s no seating in the entire building. I’m not massively out of shape so I survived but I don’t know how the elderly were meant to manage it. Another strange thing was that the staff on every floor asked to see my Covid vaccination pass. I understand showing it once but five times?

Amazingly the top floor is perhaps the worst – it’s incredibly boring displays on medals awarded to different Bulgarian Presidents and generals. Every single one. I found this one from North Korea which made me smile but otherwise I couldn’t believe the gall they had to put on such a pointless gallery. And then did another one just like it next door. Two entire galleries filled with every award ever offered from one country to a Bulgarian politician, and every award Bulgaria can give out (there are apparently a lot).

The sole benefit of the museum building was that it gave me some decent angles to take pictures of the military vehicles outside in the evening light. I couldn’t step out onto the little balcony though. Because that would be too engaging for the Bulgarian Military Museum, I suppose.

Finally leaving the museum building, I had some time to look at the rest of the military vehicle collection – about two thirds of this is only accessible if you pay for a ticket. Again, I don’t know very much about the vehicles themselves, but they make for interesting photos. After walking around snow covered anti-aircraft guns for a while, the only tourist in the museum (I saw no other visitors my entire time there), I headed back to my hotel, to be mocked by my friend who had correctly surmised that the museum wasn’t worth his time. He had gone to a diner then had an afternoon nap – I’d argue that perhaps he spent his time better than I did.

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How was it?

As you may have guessed I’m not a big fan of the Bulgarian Military Museum. Its biggest sin isn’t that it’s biased, or that it glorifies war, or that it’s a generally unfriendly place to visit – it’s just that it’s really boring. The museum itself is one of the worst I’ve ever visited. It has no heart. It’s one of the most clinical exhibitions I’ve ever seen.

If the museum was only the main building I’d give it an absolutely terrible review – but the substantial display of military hardware on display outside, in reasonably good condition, is arguably still worth seeing if that sort of thing interests you. I especially liked the missile launchers, arranged in a star formation. If the weather isn’t too bad I’d consider a visit to see the outside portion of the museum.

Otherwise though – if you’re in the area, considering taking a detour to the main entrance to see the tanks and planes outside. Then head elsewhere. There’s far better uses of your time and money in the grand city of Sofia.

Final rating – 2 out of 5 army helmets

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Useful information

• The ticket prices online are outdated – I got charged a lot more than I expected. Either that or they overcharge foreigners. Neither of these options is alright.
• Again there is no seating in the museum. There’s benches outdoors at least.
• There’s toilets but no gender neutral ones. I’d have been shocked if they did, really.
• None of the exhibits are particularly disturbing or violent, but even so I wouldn’t take your kids to the main museum as it’s do dry.
• If you’re coming by metro, your best bet is probably getting off at the ‘Orlov Most’ stop on the M3 Green line. From there it’s a fairly lengthy walk through the Sofia streets to reach the museum. As I said, there’s also a tram stop nearby, if you can figure out how to use them.