Zheravna

Zheravna is a village in a fold of the eastern Balkan holding around two hundred houses of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, built almost entirely in timber with stone ground floors, projecting upper storeys, carved ceilings and heavy stone-slab roofs, and the whole settlement is an architectural reserve with no modern building permitted. It was a wealthy sheep-farming and trading village and declined after the nineteenth century, which preserved it. Several houses are open as museums, including the birthplace of the writer Yordan Yovkov. A large festival of traditional costume is held on a hillside nearby each August, at which participants are asked to wear period dress and leave modern items out of sight.

What you actually see

• Two hundred timber Revival houses - the whole village of one period.
• Carved ceilings and projecting storeys - the interiors and the street fronts.
• Stone-slab roofs - the heavy roofing typical of the region.
• The August costume festival - the gathering on the hill nearby.

When to go

April to October. Half a day. The costume festival falls in August and fills the area completely. House museums have limited hours and some close on Mondays. Autumn colour is good.

Honest expectations

Some houses are derelict and the village has an ageing population. Museums are individually ticketed with irregular hours. Roads in are winding. The festival weekend makes accommodation impossible for a wide area.

Nearby

Kotel is east; Sliven and the Blue Rocks lie south-west.