Welcome to Stara Zagora - a city of 8 000 years! A lot of the people traveling around Bulgaria consider Stara Zagora an exit on the way to Sofia or the seaside. However, if you set aside some time and visit the city you will be pleasantly surprised. It's a warm, calm and beautiful city, which preserves treasures since the dawn of civilization up until today.
You can download the map of the city with the 20 top landmarks here or you can pick up your free copy at the Tourist Information Center in Stara Zagora (27, Ruski Blvd.)
Download Stara Zagora tourist map
One of the first European civilizations was born in Stara Zagora and the surrounding region. The Museum preserves more than 100 000 invaluable historical artifacts that bear witness to more than 8 000 years. The Museum was built over an authentic Ancient Roman street.
Open hours: Monday –Sunday 10:00 to 18:00
Contacts: +359 42 919 214
Address: 42, Ruski bul.
One of the most well preserved expositions of the European Neolithic period includes the dwellings of our prehistoric ancestors and dates back to 6 000 B.C. The Museum exhibits unique items belonging to three families that reveal interesting details about their lives.
Open hours: Tuesday – Saturday 9:00 to 12:30 – 13:00 to 17:30
Contacts: +359 42 622 109
Address: 20, Armeyska str.
This is a unique place where the different religions have succeeded each other over centuries. Starting in the early-Iron Age up until today, people worshipped their gods at this exact same place in Stara Zagora. Cults, paganism, Christianity and Islam merge at the Museum of Religions.
Open hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10:00 to 18:00
Contacts: +359 884 477 072
Address: 115, Tsar Simeon Veliki bul.
The magnificent vestiges of the glorious Roman times are preserved in the Antique Forum Augusta Traiana. This beautiful city named after Emperor Trajan existed between 2nd and 6th century and it was the second largest center in the Thrace province.
Open hours: Free access
Address: 33, Mitropolit M. Kusev bul.
The Beer Museum opens its doors wide and welcomes warmly its visitors with glasses filled to the brim with beer. Authentic items from the start of the brewery in 1902, as well as a special tour of the degustation hall where beer lovers can try unpasteurized and unfiltered brew, will await you.
Open hours: Friday – Sunday 12:00 to 18:00
Contacts: +359 884 477 072
Address: 41, Khan Asparux str.
‘Baga-Tur,’ located in Stara Zagora, is a one
of a kind pre-Bulgarian training school. The complex built in an ancient style is a recreation of a pre-Bulgarian temporary fortification and works as a spectacular arena where the past meets the present.
Open hours: every day
11:00 to 18:00
Contacts: +359 886 763 129
Address: Ayazmoto park
This handsome white Bengal tiger is the only one in the country. Also, 400 animals from 80 species and almost all continents can be seen at the Zoo in Stara Zagora.
Open hours: every day 8:30 to 17:30
Contacts: +359 42 649 162
Address: Ayazmoto park
This park is the life work of Metropolitan Methodii Kusev. At the end of the 19th c., he contacted religious communities all around the world and asked them to send him seeds from all kinds of different species of trees. That is how he created one of the largest and most beautiful parks in Bulgaria.
Open hours: Free access
Located amid the picturesque beauty of the Ayazmoto Park, the chapel is the home of one of the few mosaic frescoes in a Bulgarian temple. According to the legend, this is where Kniaz Boris converted to Christianity in 864 and, subsequently, it became Bulgaria’s official religion.
Address: Ayazmoto park
One of the most impressive historical monuments in Bulgaria commemorates the heroic feat of a handful of Bulgarian voluntary army units and the Russian officers who defended Stara Zagora in the epic battle of 1877. The imposing structure of the flag of Samara towers over Stara Zagora.
Open hours: Free access
Address: 65, Rodopi str. (parking)
The Hilendar Convent was created in the second half of the 18th century and it is the first cellar school of its kind in the region of Stara Zagora. It is a holy place where Levski, the Apostle of Freedom, spent three years studying, learning religious singing and ministration.
Open hours: Tuesday –Sunday 9:30 до 12:30 – 13:00 to 18:00
Contacts: +359 42 919 214 - reservetion needed
Address: 1, Pop Bogomil str.
One of the most innovative museums in Bulgaria presents a rich exposition of photographs, documents and objects from Geo Milev’s life
in an impressive audio-visual way. It creates a modernist atmosphere revealing the personality of the brilliant poet, painter, modernist and patriot.
Open hours: Monday – Friday 8:00 to 18:30
Contacts: +359 42 623 450
Address: 37, Geo Milev str.
The ‘Green Balkans’ rescue center has been pro- viding medical care, rehabilitation, biodiversity conservation, and habitat restoration to rare and endangered animal species. The visitors can learn about the center’s activities and its inhabitants.
Open hours: every day
8:30 до 17:30 - reservetion needed
Contacts: +359 877 999 192
Address: 21, St. Patriarch Evtimii bul.
The State Opera Stara Zagora is a stage where some of the most prominent Bulgarian and world-renowned opera performers triumph - the prima donna Vesselina Katsarova, a master in the atrical costume making from La Scala and ballet dancers from Japan, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Taiwan, USA, Canada, Albania ect.
Programme: www.operasz.bg
Contacts: +359 887 444 360
+359 885 509 829
Address: 30, Miropolit M. Kusev bul.
The theater life in Stara Zagora started even before the Liberation Wars, and at the core of the first troupe were revolutionaries from Levski’s Committee. At the beginning of the 20th c., the Theater provided Geo Milev’s artistic genius with a stage and now it bears his name.
Programme: www.dtgeomilev.com
Contacts: +359 886 899 061
+359 42 622 283
Address: 28, Miropolit M. Kusev bul.
The marvelous home of puppets in Stara Zagora is the rightful recipient of some of the most prestigious awards at international festivals. The Puppet Theater is an exceptional place for the art’s younger and older admirers with its rich history, and a repertoire of classical and alternative plays.
Programme: www.pierrot-bg.com
Contacts: +359 42 620 420
Address: 46, Gen. Gurko bul.
The modern gallery houses more than 4 000 artworks by almost all Bulgarian painters of the last two centuries. The Gallery has built a rich collection of amazing works of art – fine examples of painting, printmaking, sculpture, applied arts and iconography.
Programme: www.artgallerystz.com
Contacts: +359 42 622 843
Address: 27, Ruski bul.
In the center of Stara Zagora you can see an amazing late Antiquity mosaic from 4th century in a private Roman home. It is believed that the composition has borrowed from Ancient Hebrew symbolism and that it depicts cosmogony scenes.
Open hours: - reservetion needed
Contacts: +359 42 919 214
Address: 117, Gen. Stoletov bul.
Today, the private Art Nouveau home of the illustrious architect Hristo Dimov is a welcoming contemporary art space. It is a favorite meeting point for Stara Zagora’s alternative (counter) culture; it is a creative social gathering place for ideas and a stage for talented young people.
Open hours: every day 10:30 to 23:00
Contacts: +359 887 450 340
Address: 37, Sava Silov str.
