Italian Cultural Institute of Sofia

The Italian Cultural Institutes are the cultural offices of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs operating abroad. In Italy, their management is entrusted to the Directorate General for the Promotion of the National Economic and Industrial System (D.G.S.P.).
Their function, defined by law, is to promote the Italian language and culture abroad in order to foster the sharing of knowledge and cultural collaboration between peoples, within the framework of Italy’s relations with the other countries.
The Sofia Institute was established in 1950, but only as an internal office at the Italian Embassy in Sofia, with no recognition by the local authorities, given the political climate at the time. The inter-governmental agreement for creating the Italian Cultural Institute in Sofia and the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Rome dates back to 2000 and the Institute has had its own location only since 2002.