site.btaExhibition in Sliven Shows Portraits of Notable Figures from National Revival Period

An exhibition of portraits of notable figures from Sliven Region during the period of the Bulgarian National Revival was opened in the central lobby of the Sliven Regional Library on Tuesday.

The portraits are by Peter Stanimirov and include, among others, Georgi S. Rakovski, Dr Petar Beron, Dobri Zhelyazkov, Dobri Chintulov, Hadzhi Dimitar, Panayot Hitov and Sava Dobroplodni. In addition to the portraits, the life and work of the persons included in the exhibition are presented in six showcases with photos, documentary materials and books.

Regional Library Director Rositsa Petrova told BTA that the library is seriously engaged in researching the Revival period in Sliven. "Sliven has given Bulgaria so many notable revivalists, educators, writers, doctors, independence fighters, revolutionaries, church independence fighters, very intelligent people who contributed a lot to Bulgaria", she underscored. "Because of the distant time, we have very few descriptions of what these individuals looked like. Documentary materials and photographs from this period are also few and not that clear", Petrova noted.

"We think that these people are a source of inspiration and patriotism for young people, and it is important that their images are known to them. We hope that they will be guided by these ideals and will finally change things in our country", she said. Petrova commented that the collection of the exhibition will be increased with portraits of many more famous and deserving people from Sliven. "Fortunately, Sliven still has many figures, a little undeservedly forgotten, whom we want to resurrect," she said.

She expressed her gratitude to artist Peter Stanimirov for accepting this challenge. "For those who do not know him well or rather know him as an illustrator, author of comics, we must say that for many years he collaborated not only with Bulgarian, but also with foreign publishing houses and worked on encyclopedic editions. That is why he is so accurate and fine in the drawing, and the images of our revivalists are wonderfully conveyed in this exhibition", Petrova pointed out.

In 2023, Stanimirov won the Konstantin Konstantinov National Award for overall contribution to children's book publishing.