The people that have had a great impact in revealing the history of Varna and some of the history of Bulgaria, the Skorpil brothers, founded the Varna and Bulgarian archeological science. The younger brother Karel found and established the location of the main buildings in the first Bulgarian capital of Pliska. They are of Czech origins but until the rest of their lives they remain good friends of Bulgaria. It is said that they both came to Bulgaria out of slavic solidarity similarly to a number of other Czech artists and politicians and notable people that added to the culture of the country.

The Skorpil brothers are descendants of a family famous in Czechia. They were educated in small towns in Czechia, while they graduated high school in Prague. Hermann then started studying in the natural science department of the Polytechnical institute while Karel graduated with mathematics.

Path to Bulgaria

Karel was born in 1859, while Hermann was the older one and was born in 1858. After arriving in Bulgaria Karel worked as a teacher in a number of schools and after his retirement in 1915 until his death he was a director at the Varna Archeological museum. Apart from that he also teached in the maritime machine school and the Merchant gymnasium. He died in 1944 and was buried in Pliska.

Hermann arrived in Bulgaria in 1880 and was initially a teacher in the Plovdiv gymnasium. He found out that a mathematics and physics teacher was sought after which prompted him to find a way to bring his brother to Bulgaria too and they were reunited in 1882 when Karel arrived in the country.

Both men were quite smart and able to analyse all eras, so they started travelling across Bulgaria. On horses, mules and donkeys they started documenting all ancient ruins. The first city plans of the old capitals were made by them. They also had a big impact on archeology in the country as they described not only the capitals but also the old Bulgarian and mediaeval christian regions, monuments in Varna and Karel claims that tsar Boris I was buried around Varna and dedicated his last years in attempts to find it, which he wasn’t able to.

Cultural impact

Their accolades are immense and some of them are that they managed to found the Varna archeological museum and the Varna archeological establishment. While Karel was a long-lasting director, Hermann was the chairman of the establishment for 17 years, which served to benefit the people of Bulgaria as it searched for, preserved, and studied monuments of the past so that they can be popularised for the people.

These noteworthy men were truly an inspiration for history explorers for this reason. If you wish to visit this monument you can take advantage of My Rent a Car by getting a car of your choosing anywhere from Varna Airport, the centre itself, Golden Sands, St. St. Constantine and Helena, Sunny day or other points within Varna.