The Night of Museums will take place in Bulgaria on Saturday, with tens of museums and galleries opening their doors until midnight for visitors to explore their exhibitions for free.

The European Night of the Museums is held annually around the International Museum Day, which is marked on May 18.

The European Night of Museums was organised for the first time by the French Culture Ministry in 2005 and successfully spread throughout Europe.

Bulgarian museums and galleries have been participating in the initiative since its beginning and this will be its eleventh edition in the country.

Among the participating museums and galleries in Sofia are: the National Historical Museum (NIM), National Archaeological Museum, National Museum of Military History, Sofia History Museum, the Ethnographic Museum, the National Anthropological Museum, the National Polytechnic Museum.

An exhibition of theatrical photographs by Simon Varsano will be unveiled at the Lovers’ Bridge on Saturday.

The visitors of NIM, which will be opened between 18:00 and midnight, will be able to see both its permanent collections as well as its exhibition “Aristocrats and warriors: the silver belts of the Bulgarians, VII – VIII century”.

A special initiative will also present the national and European dimension of certain museum objects.

The medieval churches beneath the Tsarevets fortress will also participate in the Night of Museums, which will take place in the former Bulgarian capital Veliko Tarnovo on Friday.

The event will be dedicated to the 830th anniversary of the Uprising of Asen and Peter, which liberated the country from Byzantine rule and led to the reestablishment of an independent Bulgarian state.

Bulgaria’s national hero Vasil Levski will be in the focus of the Night of the Museums in the Black Sea town of Kavarna.

The museums in most of Bulgaria's cities and towns will also take part in the international initiative.