The Etar Open-Air Museum

Etar was built in the 1960s as an open-air museum of Bulgarian craft and technology, and what distinguishes it from the usual collection of relocated old buildings is that it works. A stream runs the length of the site and drives a series of water-powered installations that were once common across the Balkans: a fulling mill that pounds woollen cloth, a grinding wheel, a lathe, a bell-making forge, all turning as they did. Along the cobbled street, craftsmen occupy the shops and actually practise, so you can watch a potter, a cutler, a coppersmith, an icon painter and a baker at work and buy what they make. There is a tower clock, a church and a mill house. It is the most engaging place in the country to understand how a nineteenth-century Bulgarian town supported itself.

What you actually see

• The water-powered machinery - fulling mill, lathe and forge driven by the stream.
• The craft workshops - potters, coppersmiths and cutlers working in the shops.
• The Revival street - the cobbled row of reconstructed buildings.
• The clock tower and church - the civic and religious buildings of the site.

When to go

April to October is the best season, when all the workshops are staffed and the machinery is running; winter opening is shorter and quieter with fewer craftsmen present. Weekday mornings are calmest, and school groups arrive later.

Honest expectations

It is a reconstruction rather than a preserved village, which purists mind and most visitors do not. Not every workshop is occupied on every day, particularly out of season, so the experience varies. Gabrovo is off the main tourist routes in central Bulgaria, so it needs a deliberate trip or a stop between Veliko Tarnovo and the south.

Nearby

Gabrovo's House of Humour is close; the Shipka pass and Kazanlak lie over the mountains.