site.btaCulture Ministers of Bulgaria and Romania Discuss Bilateral Relations

Minister of Culture Marian Bachev held a working meeting with his Romanian counterpart Andras Demeter, who arrived in Sofia on Thursday at Bachev's invitation, the Bulgarian Culture Ministry press service reported. The two discussed the development and intensification of bilateral relations in the field of culture.

Demeter took office in late June 2025.

The talks focused on the possibility of partnership in the restoration of the emblematic Solakov Inn in Bucharest, a valuable monument to Bulgarian history, which needs urgent restorations.

Another highlight was the opportunity for cooperation on the restoration of the Murfatlar Cave Complex near the city of Constanta, Southeastern Romania, which is renowned as the largest stone library in early medieval Europe outside the Byzantine Empire. The monument has inscriptions left in at least three languages – Old Church Slavonic, Greek, and Latin – and at least five alphabets – Glagolitic, Cyrillic, runic-like signs, Greek, Latin.

Opportunities for cooperation on various programmes within UNESCO and the European Union, the preservation of immovable and intangible cultural heritage, the work of the Regional Centre for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in South-Eastern Europe under the auspices of UNESCO, and the Centre for Underwater Archaeology were also on the agenda. Demeter expressed interest in Romanian students and specialists participating in training courses at the Chaillot School in Paris, which partners with the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture.

Bachev and Demeter also discussed details of the draft Memorandum of Understanding on cultural cooperation between the two ministries.

The Romanian delegation visited the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where its director, Hristo Popov, presented valuable exhibits from prehistoric, Thracian and Roman times, as well as the restored second statue from Heraclea Sintica.