Wednesday 11 September
- Reception: Welcome cocktails
19:00-
charge: 50 lev (25 euro)
Sofia University Main Rectorate Building
Thursday 12 September
- Excursions (Please select one)
15:30-
-
The National Library "St. St. Cyril and Methodius". In 2019 we saw the collection of translations of Bulgarian Classics into Japanese. This time we will be shown the the restoration room in which in real time we can see specialists at work and hear their explanation.
https://www.nationallibrary.bg/www/en/
Free of charge. -
The Central Library of Sofia University
We are still negotiating a trip to the restoration room - the whole building is being re-wired during the summer holiday, but perhaps it will be finished by September.
http://libsu.uni-sofia.bg:81/UB/?page_id=531&lang=en
The Library has a branch, named "Philology"
http://libsu.uni-sofia.bg:81/UB/?page_id=1671&lang=en
They have a space with some computers that give access to digitalized copies of old and precious manuscripts in Bulgarian, that are stored in the Monastery of Zograph - its Library preserves Medieval copies of books in Church Slavonic, which are of major significance in Slavic Studies.
https://zograf.site/en/monastery
Free of charge. -
The National Art Gallery
We visited in 2019 and were shown Iri and Toshi Maruki's "Hell" and the ukiyo-e collection of 140 pieces. This time the curator will talk about recent discoveries of the provenance of Japanese pictures and prints, and will shortly introduce a National Exhibition of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints available at five Bulgarian Galleries, that was organized for the first time last year. It gathered together all the state owned collection form the City Gallery of Sliven, Silistra, Plovdiv and the recently identified collection of the Archaeological Museum in Sofia. The exhibition was made possible with the generous supervision of prof. Junichi Okubo from Rekihaku https://www.rekihaku.ac.jp/research/researcher/j_okubo.html
Admission Fee: 10 lev (5 euro).
- Traditional dinner
19:00-
charge: 90 lev (45 euro)
Traditional Bulgarian Food Restaurant
Saturday 14 September
- Excursion to Plovdiv
13:00-20:00.
charge: 80 lev (40 euro)
The trip to Plovdiv will be focused on the The Bishop’s Basilica of Philippopolis. It is the largest early Christian temple found in Bulgaria and an important part of both the country’s and the world’s cultural heritage. The former church is famous for its magnificent floor mosaics.
The City of Plovdiv proudly hosted the title Cultural Capital of Europe in 2019 and combines ancient history, Renaissance and modern architectural masterpieces. We will make a brief visit to the Old Plovdiv Architectural reserve too. (http://oldplovdiv.bg/en/zabelejitelnosti)
The trip will start around 1 p.m. We are expected to be back in Sofia around 8 p.m.