Koprivshtitsa (Bulgarian: Копривщица) is a historic town on the Topolnitsa River among the Sredna Gora mountains in the Balkan Mountains region of Bulgaria. Koprivshtitsa is a museum town filled with Colourful National Revival houses, quiet cobbled streets, stone bridges, and small Orthodox churches.
Understand
[edit]Koprivshtitsa is one of Bulgaria’s most charming historic towns, nestled in the Sredna Gora mountains. Known for its beautifully preserved 19th-century architecture, it played a key role in the April Uprising of 1876 and remains a symbol of Bulgarian national revival.
Get in
[edit]- About 2 hours by road from Sofia
- Accessible by train on the Sofia–Burgas line (station a few km outside town)
Get around
[edit]See
[edit]- The town has a number of architectural monuments from the period, 383 in all, most of which have been restored to their original appearance. Collections of ethnographical treasures, old weapons, National Revival works of art, fretwork, household weaves and embroidery, national costumes, and typical Bulgarian jewelry have also been preserved.
- Historic homes turned museums, including those of Georgi Benkovski and Lyuben Karavelov
- the Oslekov House (1853–1856), today an ethnographical museum
- the Georgi Benkovski Memorial House (1831)
- the Lyuben Karavelov Memorial House complex (1810–1835)
- the Dimcho Debelyanov Memorial House (1830)
- the Todor Kableshkov Memorial House (1845)
- the Lyutov House (1854)
- the Nayden Gerov House
- the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos (1817)
- the Church of St Nicholas (1839)
- the Memorial Ossuary of April 20 housing the bones of those who died in the April Uprising (1926)
- the bridge where the first shot of the Uprising was fired in 1876, Kalachev most (1813)
- the Hadzhi Nencho Palaveev Community Centre (chitalishte) (1869)
- the Sts. Cyril and Methodius School (1837), the first class school in Bulgaria (1837)
- the Street of Handicrafts