Wandering around Koprivshtitsa, Bulgaria

– This is a guest post by the wonderful and inspiring Jeni – young and curious Bulgarian girl with many interests and passions. She blogs at Jenny The Dreamer about everything special in her life. This time, she will take you on a private walk around the beautiful small town Koprivshtitsa in Bulgaria. Enjoy! – 

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As the car engine goes on, I feel the excitement filling up every part of my body. Me and my family are travelling to the little Bulgarian town Koprivshtitsa and I can‘t wait for us to get there, because I‘ve never visited this place before.

While travelling, I try reading a book, but I easily get distracted by the view. All I see are mountains, covered with the colours of autumn – yellow, orange, red, brown. Our car is the only one around and it feels like time has stopped, like we are the only people able to see this breathtaking landscape. For a moment I feel sorry, because I‘ve forgotten my camera, but then I realize you don‘t need photos to remember moments like this one. I still can see the painting of the nature by just closing my eyes.

It didn’t take us a lot of time to get from Sofia to Koprivshtica. When we enter the town we feel like we have entered another century – everything about this place is so different, compared to the city life we know – the architecture, the nature, the people… All the houses are in Bulgarian Revival style, even the school and the restaurants match the town‘s outlook. Koprivshtitsa is placed in the highest parts of Sredna Gora mountain, so the air there is really refreshing. All the people are friendly and happy. I wonder what is it to live in a town like this one, where problems seem to not exist…

The places we explore are mostly museums (there are 6 or 7 of them) and parks around the Topolnitsa river. I am fascinated by the beauty of this small place – every single house is unique on its own. I fell in love with the streets, the small paths, the interesting details in every building. If I have to choose a favourite destination in Bulgaria, I will say Koprivstitsa for sure.

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Me and my mom start our little tour around Koprivshtitsa from Lyuben Karavelov‘s house. He was a poet and a rebel and has published a lot of Bulgarian newspapers during the Revival. Being in the home of such an inspiring person is a feeling I wouldn‘t trade for anything.

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Our next destination is the Oslekov house – this is the home of a famous family of tailors. It is probably my favourite place in Koprivshtitsa – the house has a big number of rooms and all of them are wealthy decorated. The walls are full of murals and every one of them is unique. They are made by Mincho and Kosta Zograf.

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Next, we visit the houses of Dimcho Debelyanov and Todor Kableshkov. They are also famous and inspiring people from the Bulgarian Revival period.

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My second favourite place in the town is probably the Lyutov house. It is as beautiful, inspiring and impressive as the Oslekov house.

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Sadly, I have no pictures to show from Koprivshtitsa‘s Museum of Revival‘s education, neither from Georgie Benkovski‘s home, but I swear, these places are as amazing as all the others!

Our final destination is the statue of Georgie Benkovski. It‘s placed on one of the highest spots in the town. A lot of stairs lead to the place. The view is amazig – you can see the whole Koprivshtitsa from above and it feels like magic.

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I am looking forward to wander around Koprivshtitsa again!

Would you like to travel someday to this small Bulgarian town?