site.btaSofia University Calls on Czech Authorities to Reconsider Closure of Czech Centre in Sofia

The Academic Council of the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski has unanimously supported an open letter calling for the continuation of the Czech Centre in Sofia, after the institution announced it is about to end its operations in the Bulgarian capital. 

“With great sadness, we inform you that, by a decision of the Director General of the Czech Centres network, the Czech Centre in Sofia will be closed and will bring its cultural and educational activities in Bulgaria to an end,” the institution said earlier on Monday. 

According to the announcement, planned events will continue to be carried out until the end of May.

The Czech Centre in Sofia, which is the oldest Czech institution of its kind abroad and one of the longest-running foreign cultural organisations in Bulgaria, marks its 77th anniversary on May 5.

The centre recalls that on May 5, 1949, under an intergovernmental cultural agreement between Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria (1947) and a related protocol (1948), an art and craft shop called Ceskoslovenska tvorba Orbis was opened at 100 Rakovski Street in Sofia, alongside Bulharská tvorba in Prague. Following the emergence of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic as independent states in January 1993, the Czech Republic established the Czech Centres as successors to the former Czechoslovak cultural centres abroad.

Against this background, the Academic Council of Sofia University expressed strong concern over the planned closure and urged that the decision be reconsidered, stressing the centre’s historical and cultural significance and its role in maintaining long-standing Czech-Bulgarian cultural relations.