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:Rosenborg Palace was built in the period 1606-34 as Christian IV’s summerhouse just outside the ramparts of Copenhagen. Christian IV was very fond of the palace and often stayed at the castle when he resided in Copenhagen, and it was here that he died in 1648. After his death, the palace passed to his son King Frederik III, who together with his queen, Sophie Amalie, carried out several types of modernisation.
The last king who used the place as a residence was Frederik IV, and around 1720, Rosenborg was abandoned in favor of Frederiksborg Palace.Through the 1700s, considerable art treasures were collected at Rosenborg Castle, among other things items from the estates of deceased royalty and from Christiansborg after the fire there in 1794.
Soon the idea of a museum arose, and that was realised in 1833, which is The Royal Danish Collection’s official year of establishment.