Bulgarian Cultural Heritage: Interpretation and Presentation Problems and Prospects Dr. Minka Zlateva Associate Professor, Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” Anka Zlateva Researcher, Institute of History - Bulgarian Academy of Science 1. Introduction Founded on the crossroads between the East and the West, the 1320-year-old Bulgarian state has always experienced their cultural influence. What is more, Bulgaria is the cradle of one of the most ancient civilizations, the Thracian one, monuments of which even nowadays reveal still new and new aspects of the initial stages in the development of the European culture. In the 9th century Bulgaria became home of the Old-Bulgarian and Slavonic script - work of the Cyril and Methodius brothers - which absolutely covered “the principle of complete correspondence between symbol and letter” and in which even to this day 10 per cent of the world population write (Micheva, 1998:8). Romans, Byzantines, Koumanians, Tatars, Ottoman Turks left their traces on the Bulgarian lands. Over the centuries the original Bulgarian culture with its unique archeological and architectural complexes and literary heritage, valuable pieces of fine art, applied arts and crafts, ethnography, music and dancing originated and won recognition. For that reason we can talk of the presence of a rich, many-sided and significant Bulgarian cultural heritage, for the documentation and interpretation of which generations of Bulgarian scholars among whom academicians Ivan Duychev, Vassil Zlatarski, Dimitar Angelov, Dimitar Dimitrov, professors Christo Gandev, Petar Dinekov, Nikola Mavrodinov, Petar Tivchev, Velizar Velkov, Alexander Foll, Vassil Gyuzelev and others have contributed with their research efforts, talent and dedication. 2. Problems Today, at the turn of the 21st century, due to the new information technologies humanity entered the age of information globalization. Bulgaria is taking a still more active part in the intensive process of European globalization occurring on our continent. At the same time we are witnessing a regional cultural revival. That is why the boundaries in which the Bulgarian cultural heritage can be interpreted and presented should become considerably wider, the possibilities more varied and the responsibilities more scaled. “Globalization in the field of culture should be viewed as a triple process on its own. On the one hand universalization and cosmopolitization of the culture are being imposed. On the other, national and ethnic cultural traditions are being revived and on third a process of merging of the previous two tendencies to the level of cultural hybridization is being consolidated” (Petkova, 2000:83). The establishment of all-European spiritual values could be largely considered as the very hybridization of the cultural traditions of the European nations. One of the key issues both to Bulgaria and all European countries is how to preserve the national identity participating at that in the overall process of exchange of cultural values which through the Internet is part of the global exchange in the spiritual sphere. (Featherstone, 1990). This problem should be solved in the conditions of a still stronger engrossment of the traditional social and cultural spaces by the Internet, of the more growing sense of cosmopolitanism by the web consumers, of a still more detailed fragmentation of public communication through individualization and personalization and through segmentation of the audience into electronic societies of interests (Burkart, 1998:496). An effective means for each nation to preserve its national identity in the present conditions is the ability of that nation to tap new sources of national self-confidence disconnected from the historical background, but which refer to the present and are directed to the future (Petkova, 2000:143). The National Strategy for Accession of the Republic of Bulgaria to the European Union includes the following main tasks in the sphere of cultural and audiovisual policy: “Adequate participation of our national culture in the all-European cultural space through activation of the bilateral and multilateral cultural and audiovisual cooperation between Bulgaria and the EC based on the principles of decentralization and transparency of the cultural policy, equality of the cultural subjects (state, municipal, private, non-government), market-oriented attitude of the cultural institutions and stimulation of the market competitiveness of the national cultural production, with priority orientation to: • participation in the EC programs for cultural cooperation KALEIDOSCOPE, RAPHAEL and ARIADNE, • assistance with the help of the PHARE program in reforming the Bulgarian cultural sector to establish a Euro-Bulgarian cultural centre and a Euro-Bulgarian fund for development of the arts.” (“National strategy…”,1998:14). A most pressing problem connected with the cultural heritage is the necessity of a new legal regulation of that vast special subject matter, which should arrange for the protection of archeological finds from unscrupulous treasure-hunters; claim responsibility from institutions or individuals that through their action or inaction were instrumental to destroying or plundering cultural monuments; delegate responsibilities to institutions that protect, preserve, restore and use objects of cultural heritage; provide tax relief for companies and organizations which invest in cultural heritage. The cultural heritage is state-owned, but its preservation is entrusted with the municipalities. Since the municipalities by tradition dispose of very limited financial resources, it is their practice to allot minimum funds from their budgets for that important activity. The majority of the municipal councils have not yet become aware of the big economic and social advantages of the so-called cultural tourism. For the time being only 1% of Bulgaria’s tourism is related to cultural objects. However, opening the tomb of Sveshtary with the help of ICOMOS has shown that it has been visited by 50 000 tourists for a short period of time. If the share of cultural tourism in Bulgaria increases, for which there are large and various possibilities, this will provide not only revenues for the municipalities, but will open extra and many new jobs, contributing in this way to the regional and national prosperity. 3. Cultural heritage interpretation As is known culture has two dimensions - material and spiritual. It is easy to explain why the care of the material preservation of our culture (architectural monuments and complexes, museum collections, etc.) is traditional in our country with well established for the purpose institutions. Organized work on discovery, study, preservation and popularization of the cultural monuments in Bulgaria started with the adopted Law of discovery of historical monuments and assistance to the scientific literary organizations of 1890, followed by the Law of historical monuments of the Kingdom of Bulgaria of 1911 as well as with the activity of the 1892-founded National Museum of Archeology in Sofia and became most effective and scaled in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century with the 1969-established National Institute of Cultural Monuments with its 4 departments and subsidiaries in Plovdiv and Veliko Tarnovo. It took on the conservation and restoration work as well. That institute is member of the International Council of Monuments of Culture and Sights (ICOMOS) and is actively engaged in the international cooperation in this sphere. (Alexandrov, 1980: 228-231) Over 40 000 cultural monuments are made known, seven among them: the Thracian tumulus near Kazanlak, the Boyana Church, the Madara Horseman, the Churches cut in the Rock near the village of Ivanovo by Russe, the Rila Monastery and the Thracian tumulus near the village of Sveshtari (Fig. 1) feature in the world heritage list according to the UNESCO International Convention adopted in 1972. Fig. 1 Fragment of paintings in the tumulus of Sveshtary: A Thracian king was proclaimed hero, 3rd century BC The care of preservation of the spiritual monuments of culture, which, for instance, are the monasteries and cultural community centres (chitalishta), is considerably more complex and this fact makes their documentation and presentation before a wider international audience difficult. In 1999 Bulgaria joined the movement “European Heritage Days” - a joint initiative of the European Council and the European Union. Taking into consideration the specific conditions in the South-East European countries in their transition to democracy, the Bulgarian National Committee of ICOMOS offered within the framework of the European Heritage Days in 2000 the implementation of an international project “The Balkans - joint heritage/Cultural routes of South-eastern Europe”. The Council of Europe highly estimated the idea and presented the project in its website. “The European Heritage Days” in 2001 in Bulgaria passed under the sign of the main theme “Children, Young People and Heritage”. A workshop with the participation of Bulgarian and foreign specialists in heritage pedagogy was organized in Sofia. The exhibitions “Children and Cultural Heritage”, which opened at the Euro-Bulgarian cultural centre in Sofia, presented three different forms of creative study of the heritage: through photographs, works of art and scientific research. School children became guides in the museums of Gabrovo for two days. On 29 and 30 September 2001 a great number