Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, the Secretary General of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO), will pay an official visit to Bulgaria from 26 to 28 August 2003 on the invitation of President Georgi Parvanov. Mr. Matsuura will also be received by the Prime Minister Mr. Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotha and by members of the Bulgarian government.On 27 August, Mr. Matsuura and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Solomon Passy, in the presence of the Prime Minister, will sign and Agreement between UNESCO and the Republic of Bulgaria for nearly one million US dollars for the restoration of the Ancient Plovdiv Architectural Reserve.The Agreement provides for complete architectural and artistic restoration and conservation of seven houses in the ancient Plovdiv (the ensemble of the Bayatov and Bakalov houses, the houses of Georgiadi, Nedkovich, Clianti, Hindilyan and Stambolyan). The Project will be financed by the Japanese Trust Fund for the UNESCO monuments of culture. This is the highest sum ever made available by UNESCO for a Bulgarian project.On 28 August Mr. Matsuura will also visit the Church of the Forty Holy Martyrs in Veliko Turnovo, for the restoration of which UNESCO recently provided financial assistance.He will also visit some of the monuments included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, such as the Boyana Church and the Kazanluk Tomb, as well as some more recently discovered monuments of our cultural heritage of the type of the tomb in Starosel.These are some of the events planned for the first official visit to Bulgaria of Mr. Koichiro Matsuura as Director General of UNESCO.