The oldest events about Old Bulgarian studies on a Bulgarian and global level – the “Tarnovo Literary School” International Symposium – was officially opened at the ceremonial hall of “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo.
The opening session was delivered by Prof. Dr. Hristo Bondzholov, Rector of the University of Veliko Tarnovo and host of the event.
The first “Tarnovo Literary School” symposium was held in 1971 under the auspices of UNESCO and the first collection of proceedings from the symposium was published in 1976.
The symposium is held every four years and up to 2017 the proceedings have been published in ten volumes – 600 publications by 320 scholars from 15 countries. The “Tarnovo Literary School” symposium proceedings are among the most cited in papers on Old Bulgarian studies, Medieval Bulgarian literature, culture, archaeology and history globally.
The Eleventh International Symposium is hosted by the Tarnovo Literary School Research Centre, the Faculty of Modern Languages, the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the University of Veliko Tarnovo.
69 scholars from Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Russia and the USA will be participating. The reports and discussions will be in the fields of linguistics, literature studies, history and archaeology, philosophy, theology and art studies.
During the official opening ceremony the 2017 International Euthymius prize was awarded to acad. Vasil Gyuzelev – an indisputable authority in Byzantinology..
АAcad. Gyuzelev has contributed greatly to the field of Bulgarian Medieval studies, to the study of literature and culture of the Second Bulgarian Empire, the shaping of Tarnovgrad as a political and ecclesiastical centre, to source studies, to diplomacy, to palaeography, to the theory and philosophy of history. He is the thirteenth awardee of the Euthymius prize which is only awarded by the University of Veliko Tarnovo.
