National Museum of Military History — Attraction in Sofia City

I think this museum is definitely one to be missed. As a collection it’s ok but as a visitor experience- rubbish. Yes there’s a whole load of planes and armoured vehicles, trucks, guns and all sorts outside. But little effort has been made other than setting it up nicely in the grounds with some outdated signage. Inside I felt I was entering the wrong building but found the ticket office. The disinterested lady pointed me to some uniforms and medals upstairs. Nicely presented as they belonged to Bulgarian generals. Back outside and I found you can only look at so many MIG21s. Another building looks like offices- nothing to suggest it’s the actual museum except an A4 printed ‘entrance‘ on one of the many doors. Concerned I was entering offices I sheepishly went it. I was the only person to do so on a summer Sunday afternoon. Half a dozen incredibly bored middle aged women (no problem with their age or gender) with no apparent interest in the subject or enthusiasm to share it shepherded me around, regardless of what I wanted to see, once they’d demanded my ticket with no form of welcome or explanation. The exhibits, especially the art were actually pretty good but marred by an effort to be interactive which can only be described as lame. Look at a boat and a sensor plays the sounds of someone splashing in a bath. Look at an exhibit covering a bayonet charge and you hear the wailing of a man who has stubbed his toe!!! Why is no-one in there? Why is it staffed by people who want to go home? When you have half a dozen BMPs, why not open the doors and hatches of one so visitors can see inside? Why not open the doors to a helicopter, why not get some veterans to show guests round, why not issue a sticker rather than demanding ‘show tickets’ half a dozen times, why not design the place from the visitor perspective? If you want some more ideas get back to me. For visitors, not worth the walk unless...

Best military history museum I have visited so far because although London, Munich, Vienna and Prague had better exposition inside this one is having best outdoor collection which is free of charge. I need to visit other big ones of course. It is not easy to reach as there is no metro station and you need to use trams or buses. When you enter in first building you will need to decide if you will see all exhibitions or only permanent ones. That first building is nothing special but second one will take several hours to explore. Those additional expositions are not something special for me (war paintings, kitchenware or medals all over the world) but it is not very expensive and it was funny how many people are working here just to ask you if you have bought full card or not. Although it was very hot sunny day we were impressed with outdoor exposition having almost all weapons. Only ships were missing but they did showed some guns and equipment taken from ships. Artillery is starting from wars with Turks and you have great selection of planes, tanks, armored vehicles, rocket launchers and even trucks or radar installations. Inside you can follow history of Bulgaria and for me it was very interesting to see how did they explained sad fact for them that they were usually on the losing side in the second Balkan and both world wars. If you are planning to see and read all materials you will need half a day or more and you will lose time to reach it so this is only for history buffs or if you have enough time in Sofia. Buildings are modern and air conditioned but what is missing is at least modes cafe or even restaurant so...

Don’t miss this museum! Comprehensive collection of military equipment planes, helicopters, cannon, mortars, guns, trucks, tanks, naval equipment, missiles etc. kept in fairly good condition. I was especially impressed with the older cannons (well before WWI, plus WWI and WWII) kept in a protected shed in the far back of the property which some visitors may overlook. Best seen on a nice day, you can stroll around for hours reading the signs and checking out equipment. Yet that is surpassed by the excellent historical exhibits inside the main building, which are so very well curated and comprehensive, I could learn about Bulgaria’s fascinating history and the many national heroes. We liked the huge collection of well preserved uniforms and many other artifacts. Congratulations to all involved in building this collection and presenting it. Tip: we saw this museum towards the end of our 5 day stay in Sofia which worked well as we recognized old, historical photos of sights in town that we had already visited which aided our understanding. Also we had seen statues of heroes and the indoor museum explained the significance of each person. Seeing an original scale model of the Tsar Liberator monument was cool after having seen the full monument a few days prior etc. etc. We don’t speak Bulgarian or read Cyrillic but the staff helped us understand how to get the most out of our visit. Our visit was almost 3 hours and could have been much longer. ...