The Varna Archaeological Museum is situated in a historic building designed in the Neo-Renaissance style by the noted architect Petko Momchilov and built in 1892–1898 for the Varna Girls' School. It became state property in 1945, and since 1993 the museum has occupied the entire building, parts of which it had been using since 1895.
One of the largest museums in Bulgaria, it has 2,150 m2 of exhibition area with exhibits from the prehistoric, Thracian, Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman periods of the region's history, as well as from the times of the medieval Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires, Ottoman rule and the Bulgarian National Revival (including about 900 medieval and Revival icons).
The Museum's arguably most celebrated exhibit is the Gold of Varna, the oldest gold treasure in the world, excavated in 1972 and dating to 4600-4200 BCE, which occupies three separate exhibition halls.
The museum also manages two open-air archaeological sites, the large Roman baths in the city centre and the medieval grotto of Aladzha Monastery at Golden Sands Nature Park.
Four other sites are undergoing conservation and will be added to the museum roster: the 4th-5th-century episcopal basilica on Khan Krum Street; the basilica and monastery of the same period at Dzhanavara; the 9th-10th-century Theotokos monastery and scriptorium of the Preslav Literary School at Pchelina; and the Mediaeval fortified settlement of Kastritsi at Euxinograd.
The museum has also a library, a children's study museum, a gift shop, and a cafeteria. Its courtyard lapidarium hosts the annual Varna Summer International Jazz Festival.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.