Historical notes about the development of the museum activities in Veliko Tarnovo and the region. During the development of the museum activities in Veliko Tarnovo we can distinguish several stages.
The first one (1871 – 1944)
Few private collections of local people took part in the first exposition presented in the community center “Nadejda” in 1871. The Archaeological society was founded in 1879. It had a very important role in the collection of artifacts in the last decades of the 19 th c. The first museum exposition was in the end of 1914. There were shown also the findings of the church “The forty holy martyrs”. Between the two World Wars it was decided to build a particular building where would housed the library, the museum and the art gallery. It was constructed in the period 1940-1953. The Archaeological museum of Tarnovo is housed there
The second stage (1945 – 1990)
During these 45 years are separated two sub-stages:It begins with the declaration of the museum as a state museum. In 1954 it was replaced in the new building where were presented new expositions. In the same time was arranged the exhibition “The way of life of Arbanasi” in the Konstantsalieva’s house Museum. Than began the archaeological excavations on the hill of Tsarevets. The archaeological reserve Nicopolis ad Istrum was studied too. A British archaeologists took part in it in1975. The examination of the military camp Novae near Svishtov were made by a Bulgarian – Poland archaeological expedition. The findings were kept in the museum funds. Here is the restoration and conservation laboratory. It is the second larger one. During the second stage were made the main museum expositions – the Archaeological museum, the museum of Revival and the ethnography, the museum of history of capitalism and workers’ revival activity, Museum of revival and constituent assembly etc. In the period 1945-1990 was formed the scientific group of the museum. The researchers founds were published in Bulletins and Museum annuals of North Bulgaria.
The third stage (1990 – nowadays)
The publishing of “Proceedings” of the Regional Museum of History was renovated in 1991. This makes possible the regular book exchange of the Regional Museum with over 150 European and Bulgarian museums and institutes. Since 1997, an annual conference “Museum lectures” has gathered specialists from all museums in Bulgaria.