"I am not more interested in tolerance than anyone else. I was just surprised to find that, in Bulgaria, there is such ethnic, linguistic and religious tolerance; a diversity without which Bulgarians would not have survived the last 800 years. I mean that this somehow even predates Ottoman rule, that something in the Bulgarian DNA made it possible for different people to live together. I know Katunitsa exists, and not only Katunitsa; I know what some people think. But I think that many of the ways in which Bulgarians have behaved during the ages are an example for tolerance," Stefano Benazzo surmises. He is sitting in his office in the Italian Embassy in Sofia, but he does not speak as the Italian ambassador to Bulgaria, which he has been since 2008.

Benazzo is talking about the main idea for an exhibition that he and three Bulgarians are mounting in the Archaeological Museum in Sofia. The show, which runs from 10 to 30 January 2012, features 40 models of significant religious and civic buildings in Bulgaria and a number of other countries. The Sofia Central Synagogue, the crumbling synagogue in Vidin and Tombul Mosque in Shumen are among them. A model of the Rila Monastery made by Plamen Ignatov from six million matches is another. It took him 17 years to make. There is a model of the Roman Theatre in Plovdiv by Vihren Mihaylov, because, as Benazzo puts it, "this building brings together the social and historical perspective of the exhibition – it introduces the Roman period and reminds of the entertainment aspect of life, which also implies tolerance from the audience." The models presented are made from wood, cardboard and ceramics.

In the beginning, the model makers considered showing mainly churches, both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic ones, covering the period from Late Antiquity to the 20th Century and several countries, plus Bulgarian Revival Period houses. But then Benazzo was struck by an idea. "I thought: 'Why only churches?' I decided to add some mosques and synagogues, and then the step towards tolerance as the concept of the exhibition became evident." Benazzo himself made the models of Tombul Mosque and the Sofia Central Synagogue, using photographs from Vagabond Media's book A Guide to Jewish Bulgaria as a reference for the latter.

Todor Nanchev made the Vidin synagogue model. "We chose Vidin because it was abandoned. Our decision is also a political statement; I wanted to include the synagogue in the exhibition as a gesture, to show that it exists, to raise concerns about the possibility of finding funds for restoring it. I don't care whether we are talking about a synagogue or a mosque, the point is to show that these things are there."