THE VLADIMIR DIMITROV 'THE MASTER' ART GALLERY Kjustendil has the unrepeatable chance to preserve the echoes of its 80-century history within the dynamics of its development. It is one of the 'eternal' towns of Bulgaria. In the words of mediaeval cartographers, the town is situated in the foothills of the 'Silver Mountains', i.e. the Ossogovo Mountain Range, at the bottom of the Holy Hill of Hissarluka near to hot, curative, mineral water springs where the town has survived and influenced its surroundings like gravity during the ages. It has been an administrative, spiritual, curative and cultural centre since early Antiquity. Archaeological finds have dated the beginnings of settlement here to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic eras - 6th to 4th millennium BC. The magnetic effect of the thermal springs gave birth to the famous cult spa, Aesclepion of Pautalia, which inherited the votive traditions of the Thracian tribe of the Denteletii. Temples were dotted around springs dedicated to Apollo, Aesclepius, Chigia and Tellesphorus, sacrificial sites to the gods of the Thracian and Greco-Roman Pantheon. During the Roman period, the grandiose fortification system of Pautalia was built north of the Aesclepion. It protected a town with a rich civic culture: the houses were decorated with mosaics, frescos and sculptures, and their central heating was based on the thermal springs. During the Mediaeval period, the time of the First Bulgarian Empire, the town was known under a Slavic name as Velbujd and was the centre of a vast region. More than 1000 heritage sites have been registered, declared and mentioned as dating from this period. At the end of the fourteenth century, the town passed to the Ottoman Empire and received a new name: Kjustendil. After the Liberation, not only the recovery of the town, but also artistic life as a whole, gained tempo. The beginning of the development of representative art is dated to 1903 when Vladimir Dimitrov 'The Master' held his first independent exhibition. In 1944, an archaeological museum and art gallery was opened in the Mosque of Ahmed Bey. The collection consisted of works by Kjustendil artists and 50 canvases by The Master. On 24 May 1959, a building was set aside for a civic art gallery sited in the former synagogue. The collection contained 152 paintings by 18 Kjustendil artists. In 1972, on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Dimitrov, the largest gallery in the country was opened which had been specially built for the purpose and had natural light sourced from the ceiling. Nowadays, the art gallery owns an exceptionally well-balanced collection both in terms of quantity and quality. It owns 3180 works by 585 artists, of which 1357 are by The Master, Vladimir Dimitrov. The rich and diverse collection has been divided into a number of sections: - Kjustendil artists - Bulgarian artists - Greco-Roman, Mediaeval and Renaissance art - Foreign art. Together with its collecting, a scientific archive and documentation has been created and systemised at the gallery. The main representative activity of the gallery is the organisation and opening of exhibitions which are diverse in genre. Since its foundation to date 506 one-man and group exhibitions have been organised for artists from Kjustendil, throughout Bulgaria, and well-known European and worldwide cultural centres and institutions. More...