The renewed Art Gallery in Samokov is named after prominent Samokov artist and researcher of the cultural heritage of Samokov prof. Vassil Zahariev. The permanent exhibition of the Art Gallery “Prof. Vassil Zahariev” includes objects from the collection of the Town history Museum – Samokov: samples from the collections of prominent and not so famous Samokov artists of the XX century. The aim is to present the cultural processes in our town after the Bulgarian Revival period, to emphasize continuity in the artistic traditions of Samokov painters and color of a local identity with its special place in Bulgarian cultural history of the XX century. This art connoisseurs can see paintings of famous artists from Samokov – Naum Hadjimladenov, Hristo Ionchev-Kriskarets, prof. Vassil Zahariev, Pavel Frantsalisk,i Slavi Genev, Georgi Belstoinev, Alexander Milenkov, Zafir Ionchev a.o., as well as our contemporaries Vasil Chakarov and Christophor Peychev. Their paintings are living history of Samokov with its old streets and houses, with the faces of the people and the collective memory in images and colors, with the greatness of Rila mountain in aquarelle and the complex relationships between these gifted individualists expressed in mutual portraits or proud self-portraits.

Samokov municipality gives annually on May 24 National Award for Special Achievement in the field of art, named after the prominent Bulgarian Revival artist “Zahari Zograf”. The award “Zahari Zograf” was established in 1970.  The first statuette was awarded in 1973 to Academician Svetlin Rusev, the chairman of the jury, which determines each year the winner of the award after its restoration in 2000. From 2013 initiated by the Municipality of Samokov is held a Children’s drawing contest within the National Award.

Used text and pictures prepared by the Town history museum