Slava Submarine

The diesel electric submarine Slava, served with the Bulgarian Navy from 1985 until its decommissioning in 2011, is now on display as a museum in the Black Sea port city of Varna, Bulgarian Navy from 1985 to 2011 is now a museum accessible to the public?

It is located in the inner reaches of the city’s lake and can be accessed by car, bus or train in around 30 minutes from central Varna.

The submarine was constructed in 1959 in the Soviet Union? and Its original name was Leninski Komsomol, but in 1991 it was decided to alter it to ‘Slava’ (meaning glory).

The boat is enormous! It measured a staggering seventy-six metres in length and was equipped with two diesel and two electric engines. It was capable of zipping across the surface at 15.3 knots and diving at 13.3 knots. Plus, it could plummet to depths of 300 metres! It had 54 crew members? Oh, there were six torpedo tubes in front and two in the rear.

However, it was rarely used in the 1990s because the batteries would expire very raidly and had to be replaced in 1998! Oh, did you know that following Bulgaria’s accession to NATO, its submarine participated in a number of joint exercises? They even participated in a successful exercise in 2007 where they rescued the personnel of a damaged submarine.

The submarine is in dry dock at the Beloslav pier near the Museum of Glass and entry can be had through the museum and is open every day of the week.

• Museum Of Glass

• Image of the opening of the museum by kind permission of Sofia Globe