Brief History Coming into the world on April 1st, 1972, the House of Humour and Satire (HHS) is a proud successor to the local folklore humour and the merry carnival traditions of the town of Gabrovo - the Bulgarian humour capital. Today it is an international cultural centre that successfully combines some features of a museum and more of those of a busy art gallery. The House is a place that serves not only to perpetuate the celebrated Gabrovo anecdotes, but it is also a meeting ground of examples of contemporary humorous and satirical art from the world over. Here we honour the joke, merry-making and carnivals; collect humour and satire in cartoons, photographs, paintings and sculpture from all four corners of the world; hold international humour events, and encourage both young and established artists to create humorous works; exhibit, promote and sell humorous art; publish albums and collections of visual and verbal humour; offer educational programs for small and "grown-up" children; maintain lively contacts and beneficial cooperation with similar institutes in the world; and though we hold that humour is a serious business to do, we make earnest attempts to look at the funny side of human problems. Therefore, our motto is THE WORLD LASTS BECAUSE IT LAUGHS. The building of the HHS rises on the foundations of an old tannery, and houses 10 exhibition rooms of an overall area of 8,000 sq.m. Otherwise, the humour capital of Bulgaria has already secured its future reserving an extraterrestrial piece of land - just in case. It is GABROVO planet, a small asteroid discovered on April 1st, 1976 and named after the town that has become famous for its folklore humour and traditions.