Would you like to return to the time when Sofia's streets were dotted with carriages and swaying crinolines and a tsar ruled over the recently liberated and peaceful country? An exhibition at the Sofia city gallery - Gardens of Memory - presents artefacts gathered by four institutions that have kept pieces of the capital's history and are now jointly presenting them to the wider public.

Sofia History Museum, the City library, Sofia State Archives and the gallery, all of which have a common origin, bring to light books, documents, photographs, old maps and archaeological finds, paintings and sculptures chronicling 80 years of Sofia's life.

In 1928, when Sofia celebrated 50 years of liberation and 1000 years from laying the foundation of Bulgarian literary tradition, the then-mayor General Vladimir Vazov established Sofia county museum.

Various buildings housed the museum in the period from 1929 until 1941 when it was finally moved to 3 Banski Square. This building, unfortunately, did not survive the 1944 bombings. Four years later part of the museum's contents were transferred to the newly-established National Gallery of Fine Arts.

In the current exhibition visitors can see what appears to be an identification card belonging to Tsar Boris III, issued on October 10 1932. Occupation: Head of state; features: height - medium, eyes - blue, hair - brown.

The exhibition, which runs until October 3, also presents paintings by Bulgarian painters Zlatyu Boyadzhiev and Vladimir Dimitrov - the Master. Some of the artefacts include a gospel-book translated by Neofit Rilski, a Bulgarian monk and painter (1793-1881) as well as a fan made of ostrich feathers.