Koprivshtitsa - the museum town
Sunshine colours and romance are what characterise the typical 19th century atmosphere preserved and lingering in Koprivshtitsa. Every single house here is part of Bulgaria’s history. It was here that the first shot of the April Uprising against Ottoman rule rang out in 1876. Although drenched in blood, the uprising resounded in all of Europe. The Toromanov, Djogolanov and Buzel houses, the houses of Grandpa Liben, of writer Lyuben Karavelov and of revolutionary Georgi Benkovski (built in the first half of the 19th century) have two storeys with a stone ground floor and wooden top floor, with two rooms in each.

Two new important architectural elements were added - the salon on the ground floor and the verandas on the second. The salon was where the Koprivshtitsa dwellers received their guests, where they fostered their business and trade contacts, while the veranda formed a summer living room, complete with a small extended platform - the future balcony. The columns, consoles, fireplaces, hearths, wooden doors, windows and grids lack the purely decorative elements, which were to come later. Koprivshtitsa is the place where one can best trace the various stages of evolution in Bulgarian National Revival architecture

Around 1930-1950 the influence of the Plovdiv symmetric house put an end to the development of the “wooden house” in Koprivshtitsa, changing the nature of construction, as well as the interior. The houses dating from the second half of the 19th century are exquisite with their multi-coloured facades and sunny verandas, with their protruding eaves and recesses, carved ceiling and stylish European furniture.

The scheme comes close to that of the “Baroque” Plovdiv house - the centre is occupied by the increasingly larger and more representative salon, whose height had more than doubled by this time. The Koprivshtitsa houses never gained the scale of the Plovdiv ones, but then their aim was different - more intimate architectural compositions with dense colours and harmonious contrasts.

The result was carved decorative elements, colourful weaves, painted walls and niches in warm shades, depicting medallions, flowers, garlands and columns, complete with decorative frames. The Oslekov, Lyutov, Kableshkov, Madjarov, Stariradev and Kantarjiev houses are all fine examples of late National Revival architecture.