site.btaSubmerged Heritage Goes on Display at National Ethnographic Museum

An exhibition, dedicated to heritage, submerged under Bulgarian dams, will open on August 1 at the National Ethnographic Museum, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences said.

A team of researchers tells through photos the results of a four-year study of over 60 settlements, depopulated and flooded during the construction of over 20 dams in Bulgaria. Two of the flooded settlements have contributed ethnographic artefacts.

During the industrialization and the electrification of the country after 1944, dozens of artificial lakes were built to supply hydropower plants, for irrigation and water supply. The population was resettled, and the houses and public buildings were demolished. Only churches stood as silent witnesses or the people who were leaving erected monuments as a reminder that once there was a living village.

The project is financed under the Bulgarian National Science Fund with the Education and Science Ministry.