site.btaFormer National History Museum Director Bozhidar Dimitrov Dies

Sofia, July 2 (BTA) - Bozhidar Dimitrov, 72, for many years director of the National Museum of History, died Sunday evening from pulmonary embolism.

Dimitrov was born of on December 3, 1945, in Sozopol (on the Black Sea). He graduated in history and archaeology from Sofia University. He defended a doctoral thesis and researched the Vatican archives in the 1970s. He headed the National Museum of History from 1994 to 1998, after which he was the anchor of a historical show on the Bulgarian National Television from 2002 to 2012. In October 2001 he returned to the Museum of History, a position from which he retired in 2017.

Dimitrov has written some 20 monographs and over 200 studies on the Middle Ages in Bulgaria, the Ottoman period and modern history.

He was Minister without portfolio responsible for Bulgarians abroad in the GERB government (July 2009 - February 2011).

He became a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party in the early 1970s and left it to run in the parliamentary elections for GERB MP.

"A contradictory person with a predilection for historical sensations and frequently questionable assertions about historical events, but one who also worked to popularize Bulgarian historical landmarks," mediapool.bg e-zine wrote.

Condolences were expressed by President Rumen Radev, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, National Assembly Chair Tsveta Karayancheva, as well as former minister of culture Vezhdi Rashidov.