Ethnographical Museum Etar

...the wonderful and charming Etar Ethnographical and Architectural Museum? Situated about 5 miles south of Gabrovo (a mountain town allegedly founded by a blacksmith), the museum is an out-door complex consisting of workshops, where you can watch the craftsmen and women in action and then buy their traditionally made stuff. The museum stretches alongside a diverted part of the river Sivek, and is in narrow woodland valley, affording a very scenic day ...
...you haven’t got a car, then taking a public bus from Gabrovo is possible, but it’s probably less stressful to get a cab. The fare shouldn’t cost more than 5 levs (about £1.80). If you do have your own wheels, keep your eyes peeled in all directions for signs and be prepared for fisticuffs in the car as you will undoubtedly get lost several times before you get there. I reckon the Bulgarians think it’s some kind of joke to put their road signs a) ... more

Next time you’re passing through central Bulgaria and have an afternoon to spare, why not pop into the wonderful and charming Etar Ethnographical and Architectural Museum? Situated about 5 miles south of Gabrovo (a mountain town allegedly founded by a blacksmith), the museum is an out-door complex consisting of workshops, where you can watch the craftsmen and women in action and then buy their traditionally made stuff. The museum stretches alongside a diverted part of the river Sivek, and is in narrow woodland valley, affording a very scenic day out.

Getting to Etar isn’t easy. If you haven’t got a car, then taking a public bus from Gabrovo is possible, but it’s probably less stressful to get a cab. The fare shouldn’t cost more than 5 levs (about £1.80). If you do have your own wheels, keep your eyes peeled in all directions for signs and be prepared for fisticuffs in the car as you will undoubtedly get lost several times before you get there. I reckon the Bulgarians think it’s some kind of joke to put their road signs a) pointing in two opposite directions simultaneously, b) only visible from the opposite side of the road or c) not at all. In Bulgarian, the signs read
“Архитектурно-етнографски комплекс Етър” or just “ЕМО Етър” and they are brown.

Once you’ve finally made it, you’ll need to either a) tip your taxi driver for his trouble and arrange for him to pick you up later, or b) find a parking spot. There is a designated parking area, which is free, but it’s rather small. Etar is a hugely popular site and the carpark fills up sharpish, but it’s fairly easy to park in the street alongside the museum. Just be careful you don’t reverse over the side of a ditch into the stream that fuels the museum’s waterwheels, or you’ll have some tricky explaining to do. There is a loo in the carpark, but don’t be tempted- the ones inside the museum are less offensive.

As you approach the gate and ticket office you’ll be greeted with the usual stand of post-cards and a big board displaying the prices in both Bulgarian and English. At this site, there is no difference in price. (Well done Etar!) The price for adults and children is 4 levs, and children under 7 go free. The last time I went I was with my baby and my parents. They let my mum and dad have a family ticket (also 4 levs) and a single ticket for me, so we all got in for 8 levs (£2.85), which you can’t really sniff at. The price board also states that the following people may enter free of charge: disabled people, soldiers and children from public houses :0) Students pay 1 lev, which I think even the stingiest of students can afford (30p) and you can get a guided tour in English for 10 levs. (I’ve never done this though).

Once inside, you will find yourself transported back in time. Etar is a reconstructed village where every building is a working model of a different craft workshop. There are also a few other bits and bobs which I’ll mention below. It was opened in communist times, in 1964, after a local guy, Lazar Donkov, decided to gather together objects which illustrated the rich cultural heritage of Bulgaria, typically from the era of the Bulgarian National Revival (or Bulgarian Renaissance), which is generally accepted to span from 1762 to 1878. This period is critical in Bulgarian history as it marks the beginning of a reawakening in national pride and culminates in Bulgaria’s liberation from the Ottoman Empire and the foundation of the Republic of Bulgaria. Donkov chose a site where there was already an old watermill (called “Karadzheyka” from the Turkish word “kara” meaning “black”, because the milled flour was very dark in colour), which dated from around 1780, and he then set about looking for other examples of traditional machinery, tools, implements and examples of craftwork. His ambition was to make a living museum so that the Bulgarian people would not forget their past and would be able to experience firsthand the methods used by their ancestors. In 1967 the centre was made a National Park, and in 1971 a Monument of Culture.

The first building you come to on entering is a restaurant. You can observe bread-making done in a large outdoor oven and, of course, sample some bread yourself. The smell is wonderful and the queues long, so we decided to get some on the way out, but of course they’d sold out by then! Etar is basically one street which runs by the side of river, since almost all the workshops use water to power their machinery. As you may expect, there are several waterwheels of various sizes churning away, and many channels diverting the water to where it is needed. Every building is a reconstruction of an original, and in some cases the actual stones were removed and rebuilt to create an authentic construction. Not every structure is a working atelier (although the majority are), but all of them contain tools and machinery and display an information board stuck to the wall (in Bulgarian and English) explaining what the function of the building is/was.

There are about 30 buildings to poke your nose into. Some examples of the crafts displayed are:

Wool dyeing
Spinning and weaving
Carpentry
Lathe-turned Wooden Vessels
Silverwork
Leatherwork
Musical Instrument making
Hat making
Furriers
Pottery
Flour Mills
Rug Making
Copperwork
Herbalists
Wood Carving
Sweets and Cake Making
Goats hair products
Cutlery Making
Saw Mills
Braiding

Each building is tiny, damp and fairly cramped, but full of all kinds of wonderful stuff. You might be able to watch a craftsman at work (see pictures), admire his/her handiwork and perhaps buy a souvenir or ten, watch old mills, looms and other machines whirring around and marvel at actual relics from the past. There are also plenty of other tourists loitering about, so it’s a pretty slow moving experience, but it hardly matters. It’s intriguing to watch the craftsmen at work and amazing to see their skill. These are people who are extremely resourceful and have good survival skills too. If we had some kind of global disaster tomorrow, these people would be in the strongest position- do you know how to single-handedly fashion your own knife, hunt and slaughter a wild boar and then turn him into a spicy sausage, build your own stone oven, whip up a quick cutlery set and a copper pan, and sit down to dinner on your home-made table and chairs? Hmm, thought not.

The other bits and bobs mentioned above add another angle to the Etar experience. There is a consecrated church (pretty, but not that interesting), several cafes and restaurants, picnic sites, toilets (clean, but you have to pay 0.40 levs- 15p), a clock-tower, an exhibition centre and even a hotel. The exhibitions change regularly and you can check out what’s on in advance by looking at the Etar website www.etar.org. When I was last there the exhibition was about salt-mining on the Black Sea coast. The exhibitions travel around Bulgaria and are aimed at Bulgarians, so there is little in English unfortunately. But still, they are quite interesting with plenty of photos and artifacts to while away 10 minutes or so. The website also gives details of demonstrations which take place regularly, for example, the dark art of goats’ hair weaving or the making of Martenitsi (traditional red and white bracelets worn during March in Bulgaria). The 3-star hotel “Stranopriemnitsa” can be booked via the website and a double room costs 60 levs (£21). I have never stayed there so can’t comment! Personally I think it’s a bit weird to stay in a hotel inside a museum, but maybe that’s just me… The church is more important during the Christian festivals, which form a major part of the Etar calendar. Easter is the most important holiday in the Orthodox Christian church, and there are huge ceremonies and rituals held within the centre.

The whole complex is about 7 hectares and an afternoon is ample time to amble around comfortably. Expect to climb quite a few steps up to the second storey of many of the buildings, so avoid bringing buggies. (My dad carried Poppy in her baby back-pack thing, and that worked out fine. She got a birds’-eye view of everything and loved it.) These traditional style houses used the ground floor for the shop or workshop, with the living quarters housed upstairs, usually with a balcony overhanging the street below.

The museum claims to be open 365 days a year, although I can’t verify this. My last visit was last week, but previously I have also been there in the middle of winter. The streams and waterwheels were frozen over and most of the ateliers were not working, but it was still an interesting day out and there were some pretty impressive icicles hanging around…

All in all, a very pleasant afternoon out for the family.

PS My title comes from the Etar Website which asks "Do you want to feel the whiff of the past?" :o) 

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