Craftsman Street

The architectural complex of the Craftsman Charshiya (street) puts together samples of the original architectural heritage of the Gabrovo region. In his memoirs Lazar Donkov wrote the following:

The purely Bulgarian population of Gabrovo guaranteed that foreign architectural silhouettes would not be built in the city. The Revival-style house in Gabrovo adhered to the traditional house plan. It usually comprised a workshop on the first floor and residential premises on the second one. The house would be made beautiful and comfortable, with broad eaves and stone roofing. The facades were painted in white, blue or copper and featured ample loggias and wood-carved bay-windows.

The houses in the Craftsman Street Complex are replicas of real sites that existed in the region of Gabrovo. They were reproduced on the museum's location in the period 1967–1976. The place selected for the project was desolate, because the soil here is unstable. On the one side there is a landslide with groundwater. The treatment of the terrain included construction of props and drainage, as well as laying a central canal and water-main. The construction of the charshiya (street with workshops) began with the house of a tanner, because tannery used to be the occupation of Lazar Donkov's grandfather. The choice was not accidental, since the creator of the museum knew the house very well.

The Craftsman Street gives a true idea about the Revival Era atmosphere and the spirit of handicrafts in Gabrovo. The workshops display some of the region's distinctive crafts.

Coppersmith's trade is presented in the house with a workshop of coppersmith Trifon Kanev from Gabrovo. The prototype is a building erected in 1872, south of Virgin Mary Church in the center of the city. In the museum the replica was built in 1968. Interestingly, the front door of the workshop is positioned at an angle to the street. The second floor is upgraded with bay-windows. The relatively large size of the building and its beautiful exteriors suggest the economic stability of the owner coupled with a sense of beauty and harmony.

At the time of Bulgaria's Liberation (1877-1878), four coppersmith's workshops operated in Gabrovo and their number was only two in the 1930s. The craftsmen made household articles aimed for the domestic market: plates, trays, flasks, coffee-pots, ablution jugs, pitchers, ladles, copper bowls, dishes, pots, pans, brandy and wine sets, coppers, cauldrons and brandy distillers. The decoration of the vessels was rather modest and was made with a slate-pencil. Starting from the mid-19^th century, craftsmen would work with sheet copper imported from Istanbul by merchants from Gabrovo and Veliko Tarnovo. The old technology and traditional tools of the coppersmith's craft are presented through video narration. They can also be seen during the demonstrations that are organized in the workshop.

The second floor above the coppersmith's workshop houses an exhibition dedicated to Lazar Donkov – the founder and first director of the museum. An artist, architect and ethnographer at heart, he managed to turn his dream called Etar into a most impressive tourist destination that the museum is today. He was the holder of the title Honoured Activist of Culture. On September 7, 1994, he was posthumously proclaimed Honorary Citizen of Gabrovo. The exhibition is a reconstruction of the office used by Lazar Donkov until his death in 1976. It also features his documents, personal effects, sketches and awards received by the museum.

The house with a pottery was built in 1874 in Gabrovo. Its owner was Kolyo Dragolov a.k.a. Balgariata (The Bulgaria Man). The house was reproduced in the museum in 1967 based on drafts and photographs, along with the kilns for baking articles to suggest Gabrovo's past glory as a center of pottery. In the 1870s, Gabrovo had 40–45 potters with their own kilns who worked in two neighborhoods – the lower and the upper, located in the area of today's Skobelevska Street. To the right of Konashki Bridge (today Igoto /The Yoke/ Bridge) lied the lower potters' neighborhood with about 20–25 houses, and above it near the high school—the upper potters' neighborhood.

In the early 20^th century pottery went into decline. The last pottery in Gabrovo closed shop in 1945. This ancient craft was revived in the exposition of Etar Museum. Alumni of the School of Ceramics based in the town of Troyan have brought back to life Gabrovo-styled pottery with its typical items for keeping liquids: shulets (pitcher), tonche (wine jug) and ploska (flask for brandy) decorated with shining suns. Today too the artisans at the pottery make these vessels with original decoration so characteristic of Gabrovo.

The house of Simeon Nozharov was built at the end of the 19^th century in the neighborhood of Shesti uchastak (Sixth Sector) in Gabrovo. The Etar-based house with wood-carving workshop build in 1971 is its replica. It features the process of artistic woodwork. The prime of wood-carving in the 18^th and 19^th centuries was part of the general upsurge in handicrafts and building construction in the Bulgarian lands. Wood-carving was widely applied in church architecture—iconostases, ambones, wood-carved gates, as well as in the homes of Bulgarians – with beautiful wood-carved ceilings, furniture, chests, wooden vessels, walking sticks, distaffs, cowl staffs etc. Sticking to old techniques and using original tools, today the workshop makes various articles of wood-carving—spoons, shepherd's cups, wooden seals for communion bread, boxes, panels etc.

The house from the village of Tumbalovo, Sevlievo region, was built in the mid-19^th century. It is a typical sample of a village home in a mountain region owned by someone making a living based on agriculture and stockbreeding who also runs a low-income trade – packsaddle-making. In 1971, the house was restored in the museum. The ground floor accommodates a workshop for folk musical instruments. The second floor is a model of a village artisan home from the second half of the 19^th century.

Various kinds of folk musical instruments are made in the workshop: children's whistle (pishtyalka), shepherd's whistle, duduk (a whistle characteristic of Western Bulgaria in the main), kaval (shepherd's flute, one of the most popular folk musical instruments), bagpipe, gadulka, a kind of rebec, a traditional instrument for the region's population, also called kemane and others.

The house is a typical rural artisan home from the second half of the 19^th century. The layout of the premises includes kashti (called hashevo in Gabrovo), which serves as a kitchen and living room; a room (bedroom); and a large outdoor veranda for auxiliary activities. In the corner of the hashevo there is an open hearth connected to the dzamala (a masonry indoor stove for heating). The floor is made of rammed smoothly plastered clay covered with mats (made from cornhusk). Various water containers hang on the water rack, and cooking and eating utensils are positioned on the shelves. Next to the hearth stands the paraliya (a small low wooden table) with low three-legged stools. In the premise, a chest with flour and the noshtvi (a wooden trough for kneading bread) are arranged. The soba (room) was used for sleeping by spreading out goat hair's rugs on the floor while wool blankets served as coverlets. The baby slept in a woven swing suspended from the ceiling. There is a small window in the wall between the two rooms. The tin oil-lamp placed on it illuminated both rooms simultaneously. During warmer months, the veranda was the scene of various activities related to the household and the livelihood of the family.

The semi-detached house was built in the mid-19^th century in the village of Lesicharka. The process of its reproduction in the museum started in 1969 based on sketches and drafts made by Lazar Donkov. The beautiful bay-window solution and the wooden grating make the house distinct. The ground floor accommodates two workshops—for goat's hair processing and а saddle-maker's, and the second floor features an icon-painting studio.

The craft of goat's hair processing includes apart from processing goat's hair also making articles from it—fleecy rugs, bags, saddlebags, horse-cloths, sacks. The only raw material for the trade is goat's hair picked in villages by the craftsmen or by specialized pickers. Goat's hair processing developed with the growth of crafts and trade and coupled with the wider usage of carter's caravans.

During weaving, goat's hair of various colors is used without dyeing. Goat's hair processing is unique due to that all stages of preliminary processing of the raw material, as well as weaving are performed by the craftsman in the workshop. In the history of Bulgarian handicrafts, this craft remains the most conservative one. Nothing has changed in it over hundreds of years of existence. For this reason it has always been low-income. The earnings of a goat's hair weaver could hardly cover his daily bread.

In the goat's hair processing workshop various articles are made using authentic techniques—bags, saddlebags, rugs and others. Original tools like a spinning-wheel, vertical loom, picking stick etc. are part of the process.

Saddle-making is one of the most complex crafts from those including animal hide processing. The name of the trade derives from the Arabic word sarach meaning saddle. Its origin was related to the use of the horse as a draught animal and for riding. Saddle-makers made horse tack, leather straps, suitcases, bags, belts, cartridge pouches, saddle-bags, leather sandals etc. For its basic material the trade relied on cattle hides, as well as on sheep, goat and swine hides, and also on a range of auxiliary materials: felt, wood for horse-collars, saddle-maker's threads, sackcloth, rye chaff, glues and tar. Horse tack decoration reflects the true love and respect for horses. Decoration items include metal nuts, colorful buttons, tassels, bells. Apart from their decorative function they are also meant to be protective—defending the horse from evil eyes, black magic and harmful influence. All saddle-making articles are made in the workshop using original tools.

On the second floor, above the saddle-making workshop, is the icon-painting atelier. Iconography in Bulgaria emerged during the 9^th century in relation with the newly-adopted Orthodox Christianity. Because of the strict regulation by the church, this type of art went through several different stages of stylistic development. After the Ottoman conquest of the Bulgarian lands in the 14^th century and the religious discrimination that followed, iconography went into decline to come back to life during the Bulgarian Revival Era (from mid-18^th to end-19^th centuries). Three icon-painting schools were established within the bounds of the Bulgarian lands – the Debar, Bansko and Tryavna schools. Today the icon-painting atelier in Etar's Craftsman Street combines the old traditions in iconography which involve the hermenias (ancient manuals) with certain modern elements added to familiar iconography patterns and biblical storylines.

The house with the furriery workshop was built in the village of Batoshevo in 1865. It is one of the loveliest houses, a veritable masterpiece of Revival architecture, with wood-carved consoles and doors, two loggias, elegant staircase, sink and toilets, as well a small and cozy courtyard. Work on its reproduction at the museum began in 1970.

The ground floor accommodates the furriery workshop in which one can follow the entire technological process for the making of fur articles: fur caps and hats, gloves, etc. The second floor features weaving from the region of the Central Balkan Range.

During the Bulgarian Revival Era the trade of furriery fully catered for the needs of the local population and fur shops were scattered across the whole of Gabrovo. On the eve of the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation (1877–1878), there were 55 fur shops in the city. The furriery workshop features a rack or bench (pishkyun) on which the craftsman sat the Turkish way (with legs crossed) to sew and cut out fur. Sewing was originally done by the hand, and the late 19^th century saw the introduction of Singer sewing machines. Today visitors of the furriery workshop at Museum Etar can follow the whole technological process of making articles from processed animal hides – Wallachian, Troyan, Dobrudzhan and Macedonian fur caps, hats, slippers, gloves, pouches etc.

In the past, every other Bulgarian woman would craft herself all necessary fabrics for the family using wool, flax, hemp, silk and cotton. Her hands turned the raw material into a thread (in its natural colour or dyed with natural dyes) needed for weaving, knitting, sewing and embroidery. Applying various techniques and motifs, she expressed her sense of beauty by weaving clothing fabrics, coverlets (blankets, rugs, diapers), mats (rugs and carpets), household items (bags, swings, tablecloths), and gifts (kerchiefs and towels). "There is no end to a woman's work", the saying goes, which is why even on cold winter evenings knitting socks, slippers and scarves was her requisite home occupation. Today, a home loom with a rug in the making is exhibited at the museum workshop and willing visitors can test their skills with the help of a shuttle. On display is also the traditional toolkit used during different stages of wool processing: carding, spinning, winding of skeins and spools and twisting.

The house was built in 1880 in the village of Gachevtsi (today a neighbourhood of Gabrovo). In the past, the entire ground floor served to make traditional vehicles: carts and wagons.

Today, the workshop's display features tools and articles representing the craft of blacksmiths. It was among the first handicrafts to emerge in Gabrovo, which, under a Sultan's ferman (decree) from the 1870s, set up a guild of its own. Legends link blacksmithing to the beginnings and development of the city. The most popular among those legends argues that Gabrovo was founded by Racho Kovacha (Racho the Blacksmith) from the village of Bozhentsi, who first settled on the road leading to the Balkan Mountains.

In the 1860s, the number of blacksmith workshops in Gabrovo exceeded 500. They made:
– agricultural tools: ploughshares, hoes, pick and cutter mattocks, spades etc.;
– household items: trivets, chains, picks for troughs, pothooks;
– woodworking tools: axes of different sizes, wedges, hooks;
– ceremonial objects: candlesticks, crosses;
– handicraft tools: hammers, cutters, pliers, scissors, chisels, levers;
– construction articles: forged nails, door and window hinges, locks.

Blacksmithing declined rapidly in the 1950s and later, as mechanized land cultivation was widely introduced. The saturation of the market with cheap, factory-made tools and other ironmongery products was also detrimental to the craft.

The exhibition "Artisan Home, 20^th Century" occupies two premises – kashti and soba (room). They have separate entrances, but are connected by a transitional interior door. After the Liberation of Bulgaria (1878), the European lifestyles were gradually introduced to the country. Changes occurred in construction, furniture and clothing. High tables and chairs replaced the paraliya table and the three-legged stools, carpets – the mats, wardrobes – the chests, wooden cradles – the textile swings, small cooking stoves – the fireplace, heating stoves – the dzhamal brick stoves, wooden flooring – the earthen floors, gas lamps – the oil-lamps. Beds were also made available – either wooden or metal, covered with bedspreads, as well as hangers with mirrors, towel hangers and charcoal irons. The hearth, the water rack (a board with wedges on which water containers were hung), the bedding fabrics, quilts and coverlets, the crockery, the old way of opening doors and windows continued to be in use though.

The house with a jewelry workshop is modeled after the house of Gabrovian Maxim Kosev which was built circa 1860. The original Kosev house was located southeast of Igoto (The Yoke) Bridge. The house in the Craftsman Street was built in 1967 with a bay-window featuring cut angles and with two-level consoles merged with girders which end with swallow-tails. The ground floor houses the jewelry workshop. Access to the residential floor is provided by a wooden staircase with trimmed railing.

In the workshop the artisan practices goldsmith's trade—processing of precious metals (gold and silver) and dyukmedzhiistvo—processing of non-precious metals (copper, zinc, lead and dudiya – zinc & tin). However, just like in the past, there is no clear distinction between these two groups of skills. In the early 19^th century, the jewelers were already organized in a guild. In the 1860s, 35 jewelry shops were run in Gabrovo, and in 1927, only 6 remained.

The jewelry workshop at Etar Museum uses original technology and traditional tools to make clasps, belts, earrings, bracelets, rings, necklaces, church plate, all sold as souvenirs. By means of several techniques—molding, forging out and filigree, the jewelers make chapraz (belt buckles), bracelets, earrings, rings and church plate. Remarkable skills are needed to make sokay. This women's headgear, characteristic for the region, is put on the bride's head on the third day after the wedding (Wednesday), after taking the bridal veil off. According to historical evidence, there was not a single house in the region of Gabrovo without sokay headgear.

The house with a tannery was built in Gabrovo in 1870. Its owner was Ivan Golosmanov, maternal grandfather of Lazar Donkov, the founder of the Etar Museum. Its reconstruction in 1967 marked the beginning of the construction of the Craftsman Street (Bazaar). The ground floor presents leather working – one of the very first organized crafts in Gabrovo. In the 1860s, there were more than 100 master artisans in the city, who were running their own tanneries and employed almost 400 staff. Until the Liberation, they made four types of leather: shoemaker sole leather from buffalo and large ox skins; kyusele – semi-processed sole leather for sandals from smaller bovine skins and horsehides; morocco leather from goatskin; and morocco from sheepskin for shoe uppers and lining. In addition to the original tools and equipment, there is a short film showing the main stages of traditional leather working, which has for a long time been out of practice. "Pull skins" is a popular expression used in the past to refer to the entire process. Bilingual information captions and multimedia applications complement the exhibition's narrative. The presentation of the craft continues on the veranda of the second floor, where the skins are dried and prepared for packing. Inside the house, a display traces the development of tanning from a handicraft to an industry through important dates from its history and with the various types of skins produced in the late 19^th and the early 20^th centuries. A multimedia application features famous tanners and tanner families, promotes Gabrovo jokes dedicated to colourful artisans of the past and offers advice on how to tell real from artificial leather. A special place has been allotted to handicrafts using the leather processed by tanners through their typical articles.

The house with the cow-bell making workshop was built circa 1880 in the village of Nova mahala. Its exteriors and interiors correspond to the prototype of a traditional Balkan Range house. Its restoration at Museum Etar took place in 1971. Its ground floor accommodates a bell-making workshop where various sizes and shapes of bells are made.

The articles of cow-bell making as a handicraft in general include wrought-iron bells and cast bells. In the region of Gabrovo the trade is limited to wrought bells from sheet iron and is known with the name hlopkarstvo (from hlopka meaning cow-bell). It is confined to the village of Nova mahala. According to narratives of craftsmen, the first cow-bell was brought to the village (today a neighborhood of Gabrovo) by merchant bothers Georgi and Tsanyo Pavlev. They gave it as a gift to their brother Donko Pavlev Kovachev. He teamed up with other masters and they started making cow-bells in the aftermath of the Balkan War (1912). The first cow-bells were called traki (rattles). They were flat and shaped with cold hammering, so they did not boast a sweet voice. For that reason, demand for them was low. Another kind of bells are the horned ones. However, round bells used to be the most popular, as their ringing was the best. The cow-bell making workshop uses original technology and traditional tools to make all kinds and sizes of cow-bells.

The house with the sharlan-making workshop was built in Gabrovo in 1873 by Yonko Kolchev. It was located in the park northwest of Virgin Mary Church. Its reproduction at Etar Museum began in 1970. The entire ground floor comprises a single premise—a workshop for the production of sharlan (unfiltered oil). An interior staircase leads up to the second residential floor. A corridor divides the four residential premises by two on each side. It leads to a neat loggia on the façade.

The stages of processing and extraction of sharlan are presented at the sharlan-making workshop through texts, photographs and original facilities. To make sharlan, Gabrovians used walnuts. They were first roasted in an oven, ground in a mill driven by a horse; then boiled with water in a cauldron to separate the slag and finally put onto a fleecy sack to the pressed. Sharlan oil matured in earthen vessels sunken into the earth. Because of the long, complex and costly process of production, the workshop is static.

Extracted oil was traditionally used in households for cooking and lighting (poured into oil lamps). The remainder of solid mass after pressing called kyuspe (oil-cake) was used as fodder for domestic cattle and as bait for fishermen. The production process in the traditional sharlan-making workshops was uninterrupted. Processing of one dose of 75 kg of walnuts took about 10—12 hours and the oil yield was 60 liters. The sharlan-making workshops could also process sesame, flax and poppy seed, as well as sunflower.

The house with confectionery and a coffee-shop was built in Gabrovo back in 1850. Lazar Donkov used drafts, sketches and photographs of his uncle, architect Atanas Donkov, to be able to reproduce it at Etar Museum in 1968. In the 1870s, Gabrovo had 10 coffee-houses, and one of them was Motkovo coffee-house. The façade of the building is diversified by a loggia, wood-carved columns and doors. With its attractive exteriors it revelas the welath of the Revival Era architectural style. Every coffee-shop was a little parliament of a kind. It was the place where men would take proper rest and discuss world and local affairs over a cup of coffee. Starting in the 1860s, coffee-shops served tea and the traditional white candy in water to their customers. Today visitors are offered Turkish coffee brewed on sand and cookies with the aroma of the past.

The first confectionery shops in Gabrovo originated in the first half of the 19^th century. Confectionery skills were transferred from Romania by Gabrovians Gavril and Yonko who opened their own shops. Until then, halva, Turkish delight, walnut & grape must sausage and other treats would be imported from Romania and Istanbul, while the Gabrovian women opted for homemade fruit jams. At the beginning, production of white candy in water and other confectionery items was weak, because consumption was limited—during name days, weddings and engagements. Based on traditional technology the confectionery workshop makes lollipops, sesame sticks, brown halva, Turkish delight, walnut & grape must sausage and other treats.

The first floor of the Sakov House today, and likewise in the past, accommodates a shop offering traditional handicraft articles. The house is among the largest ones in Gabrovo. Merchant Dimitar Sakov built it next to Baev Bridge in 1850. The structure is an example of the Mediterranean influence in architecture during the late Bulgarian National Revival era – the facade displays painted columns and 21 windows on all sides of the house. The open veranda is transformed into an indoor lounge (vestibule) with a kiosk, and the house also sports an internal toilet and a bathroom. Dimitar Sakov's sons – Ivan and Petar, a former volunteer in the War of Liberation, inherited the house. Demolished in the early 1930s, the building was restored in 1969—1970 based on original photographs and sketches at the Etar Museum to serve as a model of an urban Revival house.

The furniture represents a collection of furniture and objects from the homes of wealthy Gabrovo families from the 1920s and 1930s.

The wealthy Gabrovo people raised their lifestyle requirements. European influence in everyday life altered the interior of houses, and weekdays and holidays took place in a new, different rhythm. With the advent of central water supply and sewerage in the city, bathrooms and toilets started to be built inside homes. The balcony extended into an indoor room with an internal staircase, separate rooms were made for the children, beds grew larger and more comfortable, and nightstands were introduced as well. The tables came in a variety of shapes and sizes surrounded by upholstered chairs and armchairs. Exquisite porcelain and glass sets were being used alongside copper and clay utensils. Gas and electric lampshades replaced tallow lamps, and musical instruments, mirrors, clocks, etc. were regularly imported.

The exposition includes a spacious lobby with an elevated section (kiosk), from which one enters the living room and the hearth room (hashevo) which is transitional to the bedroom. In the lobby and the kiosk, the family would drink coffee and welcome guests. Hosts and guests hung their outerwear and left their umbrellas on the Viennese hanger. The large mirror allowed anybody entering and leaving the home to get assured about their good looks. The wall clock measured the increasingly valuable time, and the telephone, very much in the vogue, demonstrated the high standard of the house's inhabitants.

The guest room was furnished with items from Vienna, Bucharest, Odessa and Constantinople. It was heated with a stove, while a chandelier illuminated the exquisite Czech porcelain set arranged on the table. The wooden floor was covered with a splendid Kotel carpet. The double curtains of imported fabric and lace, the lacquered table, the upholstered furniture and the beautiful sideboard were a token of affluence and cosiness. In this pleasant atmosphere, guests were welcomed; they listened to music from a gramophone with a spring, and drank tea from a samovar. The food was served in special plates, the drinks were poured into glass and silverware, and cutlery was in use. The traditional tunic, the full-bottomed breeches and homespun mantles give way to fashionable and elegant women's and men's suits.

A small space for the matron and her assistant is set aside in the transition to the bedroom. The sewing machine was still needed for minor clothing repairs. The tableware made of brass and porcelain with Chinese motifs served for decoration mainly. The hearth is a remnant of the mid-19^th century, when it was multifunctional and served for both heating and cooking.

The bedroom was furnished with late-secession double beds. The dresser with a mirror has a marble top. It features the owners' porcelain jug and toilet basin. The wardrobe and the screen were imported from Vienna, and the bedspread and lace trimmed pillowcases came from Bucharest. The bedroom floor is lined with Chiprovtsi carpets. To complement the atmosphere in this cosy commercial home of the 1930s, there is a family portrait, as well as books and a few stylish accessories.

The house was originally built in Gabrovo in 1874–1875. It was reproduced in the museum in 1969 based on photographs and drafts. The floor plan is subordinated to the requirements of the trade of bakery. A semi-spherical oven has been built on the ground floor—it is heated with wood and various pastry articles are baked in it. Above it, on the second floor, is the premise where kneading and shaping bread products take place. There are also residential rooms. An indoor wooden staircase leads to the second floor. The idea of Etar Museum's creator was to resume the production of simid buns associated with the romantic past of the population from the late Revival Era to the mid-20^th century. The method of making simid is a subtle job and requires high quality ingredients—fine white flour, chickpeas to obtain yeast in the course of 10 hours and other details. The chickpeas add to the unique aroma of simid buns. It was also known as steamed bread because it is left to rise inside cupboards under steam. Every morning Etar's Craftsman Street smells sweet of simid which comes as a proof that our children and grandchildren will be privileged to know its flavor too.