Bulgaria: Cultural Minister Krastu Krastev holds meeting with Mayor Ditimar Nikolov

The Minister of Culture in Bulgaria, Krastu Krastev, held a working meeting with the Mayor of Burgas Municipality, Dimitar Nikolov. The two discussed the possibilities of developing the study of underwater archaeology in the maritime city.

During the ongoing working meeting, Mayor Dimitar Nikolov shared that starting this year, the Branch of the National Academy of Arts in Burgas will reveal bachelor’s and master’s programs in underwater archaeology, and the Municipality of Burgas is prepared to provide bases for the development of the study of underwater archaeological in the Black Sea.

As per Mayor Nikolov, This can be implemented jointly with the Ministry of Culture as an institutional partner in implementing the project – through the National Center for Underwater Archaeology in Sozopol.

This will create an opportunity for marine municipalities to emphasize programs related to creating underwater research capacity in Bulgaria – as one of the leaders in the region pertaining to researching underwater heritage in the Black Sea.

Mayor Nikolov presented to Minister Krastev the project of the Municipality of Burgas to build an archaeological student campus at the Akve Kalide tourist complex.

Talks have already been held with the leadership of five Western universities majoring in Archaeology. They have voiced their willingness to send their students to internships at the Akwe Kalide Archaeological Park. The site is unique with five historical layers from different eras – prehistoric, Thracian, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman.

The idea of the project is to build a multipurpose archaeological training camp building in the Akwe Kalide area to be a base for both field archaeologists and archaeology students from all over the world. There will be bungalows set up for archaeology students, which will be fully adapted to the environment. The integrated project will include green technologies in line with the region’s cultural heritage and environmental protection.

Krstu Krastev and Dimitar Nikolov also discussed the need to establish territorial units of the National Institute for Real Cultural Heritage (NINKN) in the planning regions, through which the joint work to preserve cultural heritage will be optimized.

The possibility of strengthening the partnership between the Ministry of Culture and local authorities in implementing cultural policies in Burgas and the country was also discussed during the meeting.

The Minister of Culture, Krastu Krastev, also met with the representatives of the cultural institutions in the Municipality of Burgas. They discussed guidelines for developing artistic projects and programs, as well as preparing the budget for 2024.

The deputy attended the meetings with the minister and the mayor. -the minister of culture arch. Chavdar Georgiev, Amelia Gesheva – Advisor to the Minister of Culture, dep. -Mayor of Culture, Tourism and Sports Diana Savateva, Chief Architect of Burgas Municipality Tihomir Raichev and Radovesta Stewart – Head of Tourism Department; Directors of Adriana Budevska Dramatic Theater Borislav Chakrinov, State Puppet Theater – Hristina Arsenova, State Opera – Burgas – Alexander Tekeliev, Regional Historical Museum – Dr Milen Nikolov and the Regional Library “P.\n To. Yavorov” – Yana Krshiyska.