site.btaBulgarian Cultural and Educational Centre in Hungary to Be Unveiled on May 25

After two years of construction, a Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Centre will be officially unveiled in Hungary on May 25, BTA learned from Svetla Kyoseva, translator of Hungarian poetry and prose, lecturer in Budapest and editor-in-chief of the Hemus Bulgarian-Hungarian magazine for culture and social life.

In her words, the centre completes the ensemble of buildings that form a small Bulgaria. The new building will house the educational and cultural institutions and NGOs of the Bulgarian community: the Bulgarian bilingual kindergarten, the Bulgarian mother tongue school, the Bulgarian Cultural, Documentation and Information Centre, the Bulgarian Research Institute, the Bulgarian Theatre (Malko Teatro), the Bulgarian Gallery, and the Administration of the Bulgarian Republican Self-Government.

The construction of the building was supported by the Hungarian government and the Bulgarian State. The new building was constructed using modern technologies and is heated by geothermal energy. Designers were involved in the interior furnishing.

The construction of the new Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Center is the result of the efforts of the leaders of Bulgarian organizations and institutions, and especially of the Chairman of the Bulgarian Republican Self-Government, Dr. Dancho Musev, Kyoseva noted.

"Thanks to the authority of the Bulgarian horticultural emigration and the personal efforts of Dr Musev, Bulgarians in Hungary enjoy authority and receive all-round support for their educational and cultural activities, for the preservation of the Bulgarian community and its traditions," she adds.

The opening of the centre will be honoured by the Presidents of the two countries. Bulgarian head of State Rumen Radev will visit the site on May 25. On the same day, the traditional picnic of Bulgarians in Hungary will take place in the common yard of the church and the cultural and educational centre.

After the establishment of the Society of Bulgarians in Hungary in 1914, it was mainly the horticultural community who raised funds to build a church, a school and a cultural centre for the community. In the following years, a Bulgarian church-school community was also established, and in 1918 the first pupils crossed the threshold of the newly established Bulgarian school, Kyoseva recalled. The war and the inflation that followed, however, postponed for decades the implementation of the plan to create the material base of the Bulgarian institutions. The centenary dream of the Bulgarians in Hungary - the Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Centre - will come true on May 25, she added.