The President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Prof. Julian Revalski, Member of BAS, is part of the delegation to the 19th World Meeting of the Bulgarian Media organized by the Bulgarian News Agency. This year’s forum is taking place between 18 and 21 June in three cities in Ukraine – Odessa, Bolgrad and Izmail where there are large Bulgarian communities.

In Braila, Romania, the Bulgarian delegation celebrated the 155th anniversary of the founding in the city of the oldest institution of modern Bulgaria – the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences established under the name of Bulgarian Learned Society in 1869 even before the Liberation, in a house on the site where the Church of the Ascension, called the “Bulgarian Church”, was built. Prof. Julian Revalski described this as a landmark event. He noted that the house of Varvara Hadzhi Veleva was located on this spot and the founding meeting for the establishment of the Bulgarian Learned Society took place.

The celebration which took place in the courtyard of the Bulgarian church in Braila was also attended by the Ambassador of Bulgaria to Romania H.E. Radko Vlaykov, the Mayor of Braila Viorel Marian Dragomir, the Rector of Sofia University Prof. Georgi Valchev, the Directors General of BTA and BNR Kiril Valchev and Milen Mitev.

I am very grateful that BNA, BNR and BNT, taking an almost ten-year path in order to celebrate the 1350th anniversary of the founding of Bulgaria and “14 centuries of Bulgaria in Europe” included the anniversary of BAS as one of the first to be commemorated along with the 200th anniversary of the “Fish Primer”, said Prof. Revalski and presented the journalists from 14 countries with the first Bulgarian textbook – “The Fish Primer”.

The participants in the meeting also honoured the memory of Hristo Botev by laying flowers at the monument and the place where the house of the Bulgarian poet and revolutionary was.

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences will mark 155 years since its foundation with an official celebration on October 12 – the programme includes a series of initiatives among which also a visit to Braila by representatives of the Academy in the autumn.

Photo and video: BTA