The village of Koprivshtitsa lies 111 km from Sofia, in the midst of Sredna Gora mountain range. Koprivshtitsa has been transformed into an open air ethnographical museum and boasts 383 very well preserved and beautifully renovated Bulgarian houses from the 19th century.
Koprivshtitsa is a charming village depending heavily on tourism. Koprivshtitsa is visited by almost every foreign tourist in Bulgaria and is very popular as a weekend getaway destination for Bulgarians from Sofia and Plovdiv as well. Thus, don't expect to be in the village alone.
We arrived at Koprivshtitsa by train from Veliko Tarnovo on a late rainy afternoon. In fact it has been raining so heavily that we seriously considered jumping on the next train to Sofia but we decided to stay.
The rain stopped in the early evening so we had a chance for a leisurely stroll around cobble-stoned streets. Renovated houses dating from Bulgarian national revival period (19th century) are amazing, many of them painted in bright blue, yellow and red colours. Most of the houses stand in courtyards flanked by high stone walls, which have been originally erected to protect local women from the Turks.
Koprivshtitsa is set on the banks of small River Topolnica crossed over by several old stone bridges.
In Koprivshtitsa we stumbled upon interesting contrasts of Bulgarian life. Walking through the village we had to give way to luxury cars that locals probably earned from tourism, but also to old horse carts. We spotted a lot of brand new houses springing on the outskirts of the village, but behind those houses there were horses grazing on the meadows and small fields where locals grow their own organic potatoes. The villagers of Koprivshtitsa are happily accepting the advantages of modern life whilr preserving their traditional way of life. It is good to see that, as their traditional village life is as important part of their heritage as the old houses that made Koprivshtitsa famous in Bulgaria and abroad.