On the 18th February 2020 (Tuesday), just before the anniversary from the hanging of Vasil Levski, the Central Library of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences donated to the Public Library “Detko Petrov” in Tsaribrod 28 volumes of books – scientific literature and fiction. The donation was presented during the lecture of Prof. Kiril Topalov “The Bulgarian literarure of the National Revival in the context of the Balkan National Revival and Еnlightenment XVIII-XIX century” in front of lots of people and in the presence of H.E. Mr. Radko Vlaykov, Ambassador of Bulgaria in Serbia. On the next day Mrs. Yasminka Manchev, director of the Public Library “Detko Petrov”, officially signed the statement of donation. She and her colleagues Mrs. Albena Milev and Mrs. Elizabeta Georgiev expressed their gratitude to the biggest scientific library in Bulgaria and also their willingness to continue the cooperation between both institutions.
Tsaribrod has a rich library tradition. The local chitalishte in the town was founded in 1898 on the initiative of the dramatic society, which itself was established in 1888 in order to buy books for the library with the money from the organized performances. According to some sources there had been a chitalishte in Tsaribrod even before that time. After the First World War, in accordance with the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine from 1919, Tsaribrod became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. These historical conditions had a strong influence on all spheres of life and culture of the local population. Because of the socio-political changes in 1919 the people of Tsaribrod moved their chitalishte and library in Dragoman, Bulgaria. Since the 6th November 1920 it was transferred again, this time in Sofia, where was established the Tsaribrod Refugee Chitalishte. During the Second World War was established a new chitalishte in the city, as well as several ones in the villages nearby. In November 1941 was established the Tsaribrod National Chitalishte “Otets Paisiy”, which one year later merged with the Tsaribrod Refugee Chitalishte from Sofia. After the Second World War was created the library “Hristo Smirnenski”, which for many years continued to work as a part of the Cultural Centre in Tsaribrod. In 1996 it was set up as an independent municipal department. In 2004 the librarywas named after Detko Petrov – a famous writer from the Tsaribrod region. As an independent institution, it expanded its activities and there was opened also a Museum Collection. Since 1996 the institution took up publishing activities. From 2000 to 2015 there was also has a Poetry Workshop for the youngest readers of the library – different talented children who love to write, draw, recite and act. As a result were created seventeen collections of children’s literature in Serbian and Bulgarian, dozens of plays and exhibitions, TV shows “Children and kids” and “Poponajci”, were received many awards from literary competitions in Serbia and Bulgaria. The library organizes a number of literary programs, meetings with authors, conferences, exhibitions. The library’s task is to establish relations with similar institutions in Bulgaria, to organize programs for the promotion and preservation of the Bulgarian language and culture, to inform the local community about the development and trends in the contemporary Bulgarian literature. The Public Library “Detko Petrov” in Tsaribrod has a collection of nearly 40 000 books, 15 000 of which are in Bulgarian.
