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| The 14 Museum Towns of Bulgaria |
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Bulgaria boasts fourteen Museum Towns which are ‘showcases’ for houses built in the National Revival style of the 18th and 19th Century. These are towns where the past seems to come alive and are full of beauty and architectural style. It is very strange how they have come to be called ‘Museum Towns’ as this would suggest a cheerless, colourless and dull atmosphere whereas this could not be further from the truth. The towns are lively, active and inspiring places, full of life.
Arbanassi
Austere houses that resemble minor fortresses on the outside. High, solid walls and heavy gates and secret hiding-places, the houses are spacious and comfortable, richly decorated and furnished on the inside. The farm premises were housed in the ground floor made of stone. Open verandahs on the first floor typify Arbanassi style. Rooms often tiled with terracotta.
Bansko
In the old part of the town (see right) the Bansko fortified house is a masterpiece. Solidly built of stone and wood with high walls and iron-studded doors. The Pirin houses have two faces, stone facades facing the street and an open terrace overlooking the mountain and the courtyard.
Etura
Eight kms from Gabrovo, is this charming ethnographic centre where you can watch craftsmen fashion beautiful gold, silver, copper, leather and wooden items right in front of your eyes. Around this are lovely old houses, flowers on the window sills, small shops with wooden shutters and gas lanterns on the street corners. Mostly two storey buildings, the exact replicas of the homes of the old local craftsmen. The upper floors house the living area, whilst the ground floor was for workshops.
Koprivshtitsa
One of the most charming small Bulgarian towns, still preserving the atmosphere of the National Revival period, is huddled in the mountain folds 111 kms east of Sofia. No other Bulgarian museum town boasts such a large number of listed houses and monuments, most of which have been restored to their original appearance. White stone walls, overgrown with ivy and wild geranium, fence in gardens full of flowers. Heavy, iron-studded gates hide blue, yellow and red houses with verandas, bay windows and eaves, and the spacious rooms are lit up by brightly coloured rugs and cushions, carved ceilings and cupboards, copper vessels and ceramics. The houses built in the second half of the 19th century have exquisite painted facades and sunny verandahs, with carved ceilings.
Bozhentsi
An idyllic village nestling in the folds of the Balkan Range, 16 kms from the town of Gabrovo, which time seems to have lulled to sleep centuries ago. Typically here there are overhanging first floors (see left). Houses with lavish interiors and wood panelled rooms. Beautiful carved ornaments on the ceilings, doors and cupboards.
Kovachevitsa
An architectural wonder. Amazingly tall houses set on narrow lanes. Solid and austere houses with many covered yards with large stone tiles. First floors have high ceilings. Unusually even at that time houses here had an inside toilet with sewerage! From a distance the houses look the same but with a closer look it can be seen that they are all different.
Melnik
Melnik is the smallest Bulgarian town (about 800 inhabitants), picturesquely situated amidst fantastic scenery. During the 17th - 18th c. it become a flourishing tobacco and wine-producing center, whose fame spread to many European countries. The beautiful fortress-like houses with broad wine-cellars cut in the limestone rocks date from this period. Steep, strangely shaped sandstone rocks, lovely white houses perched on their slopes and a single street running along the river with steep paths leading to the houses perched above. Two or three storey houses with carved cupboards inside. Ornamental ceilings and double windows.
Nessebur
Situated on a small peninsula (in the immediate vicinity of the large seaside resort of Sunny Beach), it is one of the oldest towns in Europe.
Nessebur's greatest wealth are its many churches: the Old Bishop's Residence in an early Byzantine style (4th-5th c.), the New Bishops Residence (St. Stefan), containing valuable 12-th century murals, the Christ Pantocrator and Aliturgetos churches (13-th -14th c.).
Plovdiv
An ancient crossroads between East and West and Bulgaria's second largest city today, Plovdiv has preserved unique treasures from its 24 centuries long history.
From the city's ancient buildings - the city forum, the stadium, the amphitheatre of Philip II of Macedon, basilicas, thermae, houses and administrative buildings, mostly fragments remain today: columns, capitals, friezes, mosaics, bas-reliefs and street pavements. The 2nd century Antique Theatre,seating 3,000 has been completely restored and performances are again presented here.
Old Plovdiv on Trimontium is the centre of Bulgarian National Revival architecture at its height.
There are many more things to see in Plovdiv: the permenent exhibition of Zlatyu Boyadjiev (1903-1976), one of Bulgaria's great artists who loved and painted Plovdiv, the workshops of the traditional masters of old Bulgarian arts and crafts on Strumna Street - coppersmiths, furriers, potters.
Shiroka Lucka
The village is built in a narrow and steep valley of the Ludja river, flanked on all sides by the magnificent pastoral and sunny landscape of the Rhodope mountains.
The 19th century architecture differs from the National Revival architecture elsewhere in the country. The mountain relief does not permit sprawling buildings, so therefore the Shiroka Lucka houses are built on a small area which is compensated by height. Two-three storeys are common, each jutting out over the one below. The roofs are covered with heavy stone tiles. The exterior is highly dynamic. The high stone foundation serves as a pedestal for the markedly forward brought exquisite white facade of the first floor. Typical examples of Rhodope architecture include the Kalaidjiiska. Karovska, Ouchikova, Bogdanova, Massourska, Bagrinska and Grigorovska houses.
Sozopol
APOLLONIA - this is how it was called in 610 B.C. by its founders - Greek settlers from Miletus, who erected a majestic bronze statue of the God of Health, Sun and Beauty Apollo above the town. Numerous red and black figural vases, coloured glass vessels, jewelry, amphorae and anchors, now exhibited in the town's Museum of Ancient Art, date from the heyday of this flourishing town and state. The Bulgarian National Revival period left its own vivid marks on the appearance of this unusual town, some 30 km south of Bourgas, fine architectural ensembles of solid wooden houses.
Tryavna
This small town seems like painted on the green Balkan Range peaks by the painters of the famous Tryavna school of art.
Cross the small vaulted stone bridge and on will find yourself in dream world - over 130 National Revival period houses with scarlet pelargoniums in the window sills and tufted box shrubs in the yards. Inside the rooms the wood has "burst" into suits, "ripened" into wheat ears and "filled out" into juicy apples in the hands of skillful craftsmen.
Zheravna
The village of Zheravna resembles a wreath spread over the southern slopes of two small hills in the Eastern Balkan Range. The village houses with their broad eaves peak out behind high stone walls. All are modeled on the"wooden type" house prevalent in the entire region of the Eastern Balkan Range.
A characteristic feature is that all Zheravna houses, without exception, face south - with extensive facades in the yard's northern part, far from the street when it passes south of them, and houses turned the otherway, but close to the street if it runs to the north. The older houses are single storeyed and made entirely out of wood. Later houses, with two stories, have their ground floor built of stone. The facades have clearly horizontal lines, emphasized by the forward brought second floor and the strongly jutting out eaves.
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| Tuesday, Aug 21, 2012 |
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| » RENTALS |
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| Office Space |
€ 395 |
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| Location: |
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