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The
village of Cherni Osam, famous for its National Science Museum, is situated
at the foot of the central part of the Balkan Mountains on the two banks
of the river Cherni Osam.
The village was established by freedom-loving and
rebellious Bulgarians 300 years ago. It has kept its striving for national
independence and turned to be a fortress
of the Bulgarian national spirit. In the region of the village there
is the National Park "Central Balkan" and the reserve "Steneto"
- an alpine area with wonderful sheer rocks where pine spruces grow
touched only by wind. Wild goats climb up the rocky mountains and eagles
hover high in the sky. Royal stags, hinds, bears, wild boars and other
animals live in the forests. In 1956 Iliya Hristov Iliev, a local teacher
of Biology, started researching and collecting information with the
help of his students from the Biology circle. For visualizing Biology
classes many birds and mammals that lived in the Balkan have been stuffed.
The interesting collection, arranged along the school corridors, attracted
many nature lovers from all over the country. In the spring of 1976
the collection was displayed at an edifice especially built for it.
On 1st January 1977 this building was reorganized into a section called
"Nature" which belonged to the Regional History Museum in
the town of Lovech. In 1992 it obtained a statute of a “Natural Science”
museum. More than 700 exponents are displayed in the three halls of
the museum. In the attraction hall are shown big mammals. There are
also records of birds' songs, a bear's roar and a wolf's howling.
By means of photos the nature landmarks from the
region are shown in the first hall. All species of fishes, reptiles
and amphibians that live in the Central Balkan Mountains are also exhibited
in glass windows.
The collections of insects and the different 120
species of birds are of a great interest to all visitors.
On the second floor there are spatial displays with
large photos that show the
environment where mammals live. The family of hinds, Royal stags, a
stag of a fallow deer, bears, wild boars, wolves, jackals, wild cats,
weasels, martens are exhibited there too. The main goal of the museum
is to show the fauna of the Central Balkan Mountains. For an hour you
can see more animals than can be seen in nature for 10 years.
Showing the beauty and the variety of the animal
world, the museum is a magnificent place for education of aesthetics,
love and care of nature.
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