An exhibition devoted to the oldest Bulgarian carpets discovered to date opens on Wednesday evening at the Regional Ethnographic Museum in Plovdiv, the museum said.
Bakam – Garibalda (The Oldest Bulgarian Carpets) is billed as the first retrospective exhibition in Bulgaria devoted entirely to these early examples of Bulgarian carpet weaving.
The exhibition features textiles produced in Chiprovtsi and the surrounding area from the late 17th century until the 1930s. Its focus is on the rare Bakamski carpets, also known as Garibalda, which reflect the aesthetics, symbols and craftsmanship of successive generations of Bulgarian weavers.
The exhibition is the result of more than a decade of research by Dutch public figure, philanthropist and collector Jacob van Beilen, who has devoted much of his work to preserving traditional Bulgarian carpet weaving.
His collection includes more than 80 Bakamski carpets and over 1,000 authentic examples representing different Bulgarian carpet-weaving traditions.
According to the museum, the carpets were created by anonymous women weavers working without predetermined patterns and developing the designs directly on the loom, making individual pieces distinct in their combinations of colours, symbols and ornaments.
The exhibition is also part of Van Beilen’s initiative to establish a National Carpet Museum in Bulgaria.
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