On October 8th 2009, at the National Gallery for Foreign Art opened the exhibition
BULGARIA IN THE IMAGES OF FELIX KANITZ
(1829-1904)
(Watercolours from the Scientific Archive of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
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Felix Kanitz was born in Budapest n 1829. He first came into contact with Bulgaria in 1860 when he entered the country coming from Serbia. Franz von Miklosich, the noted Slavic scholar and scholarly patron of Kanitz, procured for him the means for carrying out research work in Bulgaria. Particularly intriguing is the coincidence of Kanitz’s scholarly interests with the political interests of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which made it possible for him to obtain official financial support for his travels. An outstanding engraver, he made almost photographically accurate maps of the places he visited. Kanitz drew an ‘Original map of Danubian Bulgaria and the Balkans’, rectifying the errors committed by Ami Boue, Heinrich Bart and Auguste Viquesnel. The Russian General Staff used his maps for all military actions during the War of Liberation. For this, Kanitz was awarded the order of St Stanislaus by Emperor Alexander II. Academician Mavrodinov asserts that Felix Kanitz was the greatest authority on Bulgarian medieval culture. Kanitz was close to the Bulgarian revolutionary Georgi Rakovski and supported the struggle of the Bulgarian Church for independence. During the April Uprising he published a series of articles in European newspapers in defence of the Bulgarian people. His last trip to Bulgaria was in 1877.
Felix Kanitz died in 1904. Bulgaria lost one of its truest friends.
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The exhibition was open till October 20th 2009.
For further information, please contact:
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Antoaneta Hristova
Tel: 0887123999; +859 2 9874653
