A bit outdated but I found it necessery to put here my travelogue from last week with Mitko my wife Svetlana and Margarita we went for a small trip to Kalofer. We wanted to have some rest with Mitko from the very static life we live as system administrators in HP and Interoute. The initial plan was to visit Kalofer however on our way to there Margarita suggested we have a few hours visit to Koprivshtitsa is a mountain city situated nearby Klisura, Panagiurishte, Pirdop, Klisura and Strelcha. It is one of the most famous tourist hotposts in Bulgaria.

What makes Koprivshtitsa so famous is its huge connection with the Bulgarian liberation war against Turkish enslaving that wasted from 1840 until liberation of Bulgaria in 1878. Our liberation come true thanks to the Russo-Turkish War, however 1877-1878, however Bulgaria made a lot of steps until we were supported by our Russian brothers in Christ to liberate. Koprivshtitsa was a birth place of a number of notable Bulgarians like Luben Karavelov, a home of yearly Bulgarian school enlightenment. Koprivshtitsa is probably most famous with the April revort attempt to liberate Bulgaria from 5 centuries of Turkish slavery. In the small town inhabited by approximately 2300 constantly living inhabitans, one can see the Bulgarian ethnic life from the XIX century, the whole city is preserved like it used to look 150 years ago, the houses architecture is from the revival Bulgarian period and is quite unique and interesting to see.

The town used to be also a major trade center in the past and had a strong tradition of carpet weavening. Also over the centuries local inhabitants were famous for their stock breeding where historically inhabitants had the record count of about 12000.

The most interesting fact in Koprivshtitsa history is the creation of the Bulgarian revolutionary commutee – created by greatest revolutionary of Bulgaria of all times (the apostle of freedom) Vasil Levsky.

In 1876 a revolt fires up and the Turkish Commander (Bashibozluk) with the Turkish “police” slaughtered most of the citizens and the city was plundered, soon after another Turkish pasha came and robbed all unraked in the city.

Koprivshcica is a home place of the famous Bulgarian poet and author who died during the First World War. Each year in Koprvschica Balkan (Old Mounta Stara Planina), there is a Koprivschica openair folklore songs and dance festival and we were lucky to see this nice event too. It is interesting fact that according to legislation if new buildings are built in the town they have to be the architecture style of the 19th century just like the rest of the town. As the town is a mountain one there is outstanding nature all around and a river flowing nearbly …

After leaving Koprivschica we continued our trip to Kalofer another revolutionary city that played key role in liberation of Bulgaria from Turkish.

Kalofer‘s most famous thing is the museum (born House) of another of the great Bulgarian liberation revolutionaries – Hristo Botev is one of the Bulgarian most important – 100 national museums (tourists sites) of Bulgaria.

Botev is important for his overtake of the German ship Radetsky and entering in Bulgaria to rise up a Bulgarian revolt against Turkish empire.

There is not much to say about Kalofer except it is really, really cheap place for resort and it is generally beautiful city as well however it is a place if you want to have a rest from the noisy life. There is really nothing in that city to see except a 2 old Churches on the city center, few old houses in the same style as Koprivschica and a beatiful mountain nature nearby. There is just few places where you can go to buy some food and few resturants and that’s all. We found a room costing only 5 euro per person / night, and the price is outstanding. The city is divided by a river like most of the Bulgarian mountain cities. Also Kalofer is probably great place for people who like mountain hiking journeys. About 6 / 7 km from Kalofer deep in the mountain is situated a nun Kalofer monastery –The Birth of The Mother of God. Kalofer has two monasteries but I didn’t hae the time to visit the othermale monastery.

Kalofer Nun monastery is small sister-hood and the Abbotess is around 80 year old! Nun Kalofer monastery is very blessed place to go and very hard to go by car as the road to it is steep and hard to drive in.

I’ve learned that nearby Kalofer monastery there is another small Skete, where alone only one lady lives almost like a hermit.