Buyuk Mosque is a nine-domed temple built in 1494. The mosque was erected on the foundations of an ancient Christian monastery. It is a beautiful building, the walls of which are covered with ivy and vines. In different years it housed a hospital, a library and a printing house. Nowadays this building houses the oldest in Bulgaria Archaeological Museum, founded in 1879.
Over the years, the museum has collected an impressive exposition, which currently has more than 55 thousand different exhibits. In addition, there is the richest collection of coins in the country - more than a million specimens.
The ground floor of the Archaeological Museum is dedicated to antiquities from the Thracian, Roman, Greek and Byzantine periods of Bulgarian history. These are samples of mosaics from the cathedral of St. Sophia from the times of early Christianity, fragments of Roman and Greek tombs - sarcophagi of noblemen, tombstones (for example, a slab of the III-IV centuries discovered during archaeological excavations in Sofia and a Roman sarcophagus of the II-III centuries found in the vicinity of the town of Lovech), a bronze statuette of a deer dated to the VIII century BC and others.
One of the main museum values in this exposition is the Vulchitrun treasure - thirteen golden Thracian vessels weighing 12.5 kilograms. Historians assume that ancient priests used them for ritual purposes. The exhibits are presented in a separate guarded room.
The collection of the ground floor also includes a statue of the god Apollo found in the town of Stara Zagora. It is made of bronze, covered with gilding. The statue is missing part of a leg and both arms. Bulgarian scientists believe that the sculptor was a pupil of the great Greek master Praxiteles. The statue "Resting Satyr" is also of interest. It was discovered in the village of Riben, not far from the city of Pleven. It is believed to be an exact copy of one of Praxiteles' sculptures.
Visitors are impressed by the life-size copy of the statue of the Madar Horseman. The original is carved in a rock near the village of Madara.
On the first floor of the museum are presented samples of the Neolithic period: tools, pottery, weapons and others. There is also a collection of icons and fragments of ancient frescoes.
