Plovdiv, Architectural and Historical Open Air Museum - Etara and Veliko Tarnovo
During this full-day tour, we will visit some of the famous destinations located before and after the imposing Stara Planina mountain range.
This is one of the most picturesque excursions, during which we will look at the wonderful green hills, Sredna Gora, Rose Gardens, and in front of us we will see the impressive Stara Planina, which seems to rise like a wall along and wide from the west to the east.
We will cross the mountain through one of the most beautiful mountain passes - Shipka, where the road leads turn after turn, and around us we will see dense beech and oak forests.
Thus, we will imperceptibly reach the Etara Architectural and Historical Open Air Museum. We will immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the 18th and 19th centuries, where life was lived in small villages with shops, cafes, churches, houses next to each other and many artisans.
We will see water powered mills, a sawmill, many knife sharpening facilities, woodworking, a blacksmith shop, an icon painting studio, a copper shop and much more.
Then we will head to the old Bulgarian capital from the 12th to the 14th century - Veliko Tarnovo. Veliko Tarnovo is a town located on several hills, which gives an extremely beautiful picturesque view with the houses seemingly on top of each other. And below them the yantra river passes, forming beautiful meanders.
Many of the houses are from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of them are museums, others converted into cafes and restaurants, others into hotels.
We will visit the Tsarevets hill, where was the royal palace and the cathedral of the Bulgarian kings from the second Bulgarian kingdom - 12-14 centuries. Surrounded by fortress walls that were restored in the 70s of the 20th century, we will see the ruins of many residential buildings, churches, the partially restored palace and the fully reconstructed cathedral, where the Bulgarian patriarch was.