site.btaVice President Iotova Opens Alphabet and History Exhibition at Shumen Regional Library

Vice President Iliana Iotova, Shumen Municipality Mayor Prof. Hristo Hristov and the Director of the Stiliyan Chilingirov Regional Library Dr. Rositsa Dobreva opened the exhibition "Alphabet and History", presenting the stages in the development of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets. The exhibition is presented in the gallery on the first floor of the Shumen library and can be viewed until 5 pm on Saturday.

The exposition is a joint project of the State Cultural Institute at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ivan Duychev Centre for Slavic-Byzantine Studies at Sofia University and the Elena and Ivan Duychev Foundation. The author of the exhibition is Vasya Velinova and the exhibition consultants are Aksiniya Dzhurova and Kazimir Popkonstantinov.

The opening of the exhibition was attended by Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev, deputy mayors of the municipality of Shumen, municipal councilors, intellectuals and citizens.

"You live on holy ground. The land of the Preslav school of literature, which gave the beginning of the new Slavic civilization. Monasteries, books, transcripts are a sign of great spiritual power, which today is a sign of the divine and of breaking away from paganism with the new faith. There is a magic here, a special energy and atmosphere of the Golden Age in which we as heirs live. The Cyrillic alphabet is one of the three official alphabets of Europe and this is a source of pride and identity for us. I wish success to this exhibition. If it were not for letters and faith, alphabets and books, there would probably be no Bulgarians today. Good luck!" said Iliana Iotova at the opening of the exhibition. 

The Mayor of Shumen Municipality Prof. Hristov thanked Vice President Iliana Iotova for the opportunity to see the exhibition. "For us, the people of Shumen, today is a holiday for which we thank Mrs. Iotova for the opportunity to see this exhibition. It shows the role of the First and Second Bulgarian kingdoms in the creation and preservation of the Cyrillic and Glagolitic scripts. We cannot but be proud of this heritage and our commitment to this great cultural heritage. I thank the Vice President for this experience," said the Mayor of Shumen. 

The exhibition presents in 24 panels the stages in the development of the two Slavic alphabets - the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, the changes in them as writing systems and their role in the cultural history of the Slavic peoples, said Dr. Rositsa Dobreva at the opening.

The exhibition "Alphabet and History" is visiting Shumen within the framework of the celebration of the 1160th anniversary of the Christianization of the Bulgarian people and the 1170th anniversary of the creation of the Bulgarian alphabet and Slavonic literature, initiated by Metropolitan John of Varna and Veliki Preslav. "A new civilisation - the Slavic one - started from Pliska and predetermined the fate of Bulgaria and the whole Slavic people, Vice President Iliana Iotova said in Pliska on Friday.

"Alphabet and History" was presented at the beginning of April at the National Library in Sofia, marking the beginning of the celebrations for the 1170th anniversary of the Glagolitic alphabet.