Review: Museum of Socialist Art

If you’re looking for something quirky to do while visiting Sofia, I highly recommend checking out the Museum of Socialist Art. It’s a small display, just one room and an outdoor sculpture garden, but it’s fun to take a peek around and see what passed for art in the days of Lenin.

A photo posted by Alexandre Ravagnani (@alexrava) on May 5, 2016 at 11:10am PDT

It turns out mostly just propaganda pieces.   The garden part is just that, a plot of land with numerous sculptures of socialist workers and many world leaders from different socialist movements in history. Lenin, Mao, Marx and Stalin are all displayed here. Inside is mostly filled with propaganda posters and paintings scattered here and there with interesting commentary on how they were used to convince people to follow the various political outfits of the past.  

A photo posted by Gery a.k.a Bungle (@deteto) on May 21, 2016 at 10:09am PDT

Whether or not you agree with socialism as a political infrastructure is irrelevant; it’s just good to learn a little more about history. Nothing here is too exciting if I’m being honest, but it was a nice little trip to kill some time and I learned some interesting information I hadn’t known before.

The artwork itself is a tad mediocre compared to what you might find in the Louvre, but some of it actually turned out quite nice. It only costs €1 to get in so it’s worth a peek.

Museum of Socialist Art

7 Lachezar Stanchev Street

Sofia, Bulgaria

359 980 0093