This is the slogan we use to welcome tourists in Bansko!
* See the beauty of a typical Balkan town with amazing architecture, beautiful nature and rich cultural heritage.
* Hear the folk group from Bansko and the humor of Pirin mountain.
* Taste traditional dishes and hospitality of local people.
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Architectural and ethnographical sights and museums.
We have preserved architecture from the 18th and the 19th century of the type “Bansko Fortified House”. The houses are originally fortified, built almost entirely of stone; they have small windows with bars, high wall fences, heavy forged gates and narrow and twisting cobblestone pavement streets. Traditions of Bansko people have been preserved behind the thick walls.
Bansko is a real treasury of national values. Bansko has many remarkable cultural monuments with original architecture and high artistic and historical value.
There are approximately 150 cultural monuments; 5 of these monuments have national significance:
- Holy Trinity Church, built in 1835; the church has unique wood-carving iconostasis;
- Our Lady Assumption Church built in 1774;
- Monument house of N. Y. Vaptzarov;
- Monument house of Neofit Rilski;
- Velyan House – architectural and ethnographical museum.
The museum complex in Bansko has 4 museums:
- Nikola Vaptzarov monument house – historical and cultural monument with national significance. The works of Nikola Vaptzarov place him among the most popular poets in the 20th century. Vaptzarov is the only Bulgarian who received the International Peace Award in 1952.
- Neofit Rilski Monument House – architectural, historical and cultural monument. N. Rilski was the author of the first Bulgarian grammar; he made the first globe and was a patriarch of new Bulgarian enlightenment and education.
- Velyan House – architectural and ethnographic museum with decoration pronounced as cultural monument with national significance. This is the most original Bansko fortified house from the age of the Bulgarian National Revival (end of the 18th century), preserved until present. We see a special value in the murals of the “Blue Room”, skilful veranda wood-carving, geometrical and plant motives in the southern room.
- Permanent icon exhibition “Bansko Art School” – the house had the functions of a nunnery associated with the Hilendar Monastery. There are six exhibition halls where we examine the development of Bansko Icon-Painting School – original icons of its most prominent representatives and photocopies of original Rila Monastery murals.
The Holy Trinity Church is a big church with a nave and two aisles; it is the second largest after Aleksandar Nevski Cathedral in Sofia. The church was built in 1835 by local mason masters. The Church has murals created by the most prominent masters of the famous Bansko art school – Master Velyan Ognev, Dimitar and Simeon Molerov. The unique wood-carving iconostasis, column, walls and dome murals are preserved today. This is an active church with independent church choir.
Marriages and baptisms are performed here on Saturday and Sunday.
In the yard of the church in 1850 there was built a 30 m high tower (bell tower). There was installed a clock made by a self-taught master from Bansko in 1866; this clock is working precisely even today.
Protected natural objects and territories in Pirin Park
Bansko is a “business card” of Pirin National Park – a treasury area of wild nature.
Bansko municipality includes the largest areas of Pirin Park (36% of Pirin Park area, 83% of this area is woods), including:
- 1 natural reserve,
- 1 protected area,
- 13 historical places,
- 11 natural landmarks (including 2 caves, 3 waterfalls, 1 venerable tree) which impress thousands of tourists each year.
Pirin National Park (40,467 ha) – the largest Bulgarian National Park with local and international importance. The Park has been included in the List of UN National Parks and Reserves and in the UNESCO List related to the Convention for Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
