site.btaKalina Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Kitín Muñoz Visit Bulgarian News Agency Archives
Princess Kalina Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and her husband Kitín Muñoz visited the newly renovated archival repositories and newsroom of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) on Monday. They were welcomed by BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, who showed them the archive facilities, reading room, digitization centre, library and the updated newsroom.
Valchev and Desislava Sevova, Director of BTA’s Archives and Reference Directorate, presented the biographical files maintained in the Reference Unit, which contain press clippings and BTA reports on prominent Bulgarian figures. Princess Kalina viewed her own file.
The visit continued in BTA’s photo archive, where the couple saw preview albums and an archive containing some 1.8 million negatives, including images of King Boris III and his family.
The guests also toured the free for public access reading room, home to the art installation Your Audience by National Academy of Arts Rector Prof. Georgi Yankov, as well as the digitization centre, where they observed the processing of bulletins and photographic negatives.
They were shown the historical archive containing BTA’s magazines, bulletins dating back to 1921, and thematic files. Valchev presented the first issue of LIK magazine from 1965, while Sevova displayed a 1937 bulletin marking the birth of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
The visitors saw BTA’s first bulletin, whose opening news item, dated February 16, 1898 (old style), reported from Vienna on the health of Princess Clementine, mother of Ferdinand I. Valchev noted that BTA is among the oldest news agencies in the world.
In the oldest-document repository, a 1914 bulletin was shown containing a handwritten note by Princess Eleonore, the second wife of Ferdinand I.
Kalina and Muñoz also visited the BTA library, where they viewed the French volume Histoire générale de la peinture, featuring a bamboo tattoo design typical of the Marquesas Islands. Muñoz remarked that he bears the same tattoo, received during one of his two visits there.
The tour concluded with the multimedia hall MaxiM, BTA’s National Press Club in Sofia and the renovated newsroom. The couple said they were impressed by the visit and by the preserved archival collections.
/RY/
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