Other architectural sites and facilities

In handicraft and commercial centers during the Bulgarian Revival Era, single-floor and two-floor buildings prevailed in towns and cities, and this made public and religious buildings stand out—notably, clock towers, churches, schools, stone fountains, stone bridges etc. In the general layout solution of the museum's grounds, Etar Museum reserves spaces for sites of public and religious importance: a city clock tower, Krastnikkolchov Inn, Epiphany Church, five stone fountains, two stone bridges and others.

It is curious to know that while building the mountain plank house, the houses of Rusana Georgieva, Bona Merdzhanova and Petko Kolev—all of them from the village of Etara and built in the 19^th century, served as reference for its floor plan and architectural silhouette. The mountain plank house has a larger size because under the museum's concept the ground floor was adapted to serve as a Revival Era tavern which opened on 19 November 1966. The reproduction of the mountain plank house on the grounds of the museum started in 1965.

The first floor is built of river stones weld together with wooden beams called santrak planks, and the second one is frame-built lined with manually cut planks. The old way of assembly by using wooden nails (chavii) is displayed. The second floor features a floor plan typical of a mountain house: a living room with a hearth (kashti), soba (bedroom) and a larder. A Revival Era tavern operates all-year-round on the first floor offering traditional food—bean soup, buffalo yoghurt, meat grilled with charcoals, singed round flat bread.

At the mountain plank house, an oven for bread baking has been reproduced. The oven is semi-spherical and built one meter above the ground. The grill for skewer kebab was made by machine technician Hugo Onderlicka based on an idea of Lazar Donkov. By means of a system of gears, 10 skewers are put into motion by a small waterwheel.

The hay stack in the yard of the mountain plank house illustrates one of the ways of keeping hay in the past. It is put on an elevated loggia so as to protect hay from decay. The last time it was replaced was in 2016.

Two stone bridges have been built at the museum—one-arch and two-arch, representing typical bridge structures which were in existence in 19^th-century Gabrovo. As part of the overall urban planning solution of the museum grounds, under the leadership of Lazar Donkov and based on his idea, one-arch and two-arch bridges were reproduced at both ends of the Craftsman Street. These embody the mastery of stonecutters and builders. A commemorative plate on the two-arch bridge carries a quote by Bulgarian Revival leader Georgi Rakovski reading: Never leave your home, never look down upon old traditions!

The public fountains in the past had predominantly utilitarian functions and only later in time assumed decorative, memorial and symbolic meaning. Very often they represent autonomous architectural highlights in city, town and village squares or are modestly incorporated into stone fences and walls. They were located in the center of a town or village or by the roads outside them. Building public fountains is a highly appreciated work. Fountains were often financed by affluent citizens who immortalized themselves by doing public good. The museum displays five working stone fountains from the 19^th century which existed in Gabrovo and were reproduced in the museum.

The yard of the Revival Era tavern displays the fountain from the yard of Petsata Hadji Hristov from Gabrovo. It was originally built in 1843 and boasts rich decoration. Its front side is made of two whitewashed stone blocks. On them an icon of the Holy Trinity has been hewn and above it – a sun, moon, crosses and an inscription. Its tub displays semi-upright lions facing each other, and between them there are branches with an eight-leaf rosette. The fountain is an expression of gratitude to a whole generation of masons and weavers who perished in the 1834 Velchov Plot against the Ottoman authority.

Priest Georgi fountain dates back to 1870 and was preserved in the yard of Iliya Pop Stefanov where from it was transferred to Etar Museum. The relief decoration features rosettes, a dove and an inscription reading Priest Georgi 1870.

Two lions are chiseled on the stone tub of the third fountain as well as the year 1864 where its name comes from.

The fountain from Gunchev House is close to Epiphany Church. It was built in 1882 in the courtyard of the Gunchev family from Gabrovo. It has one spout and the names of Iliya and Marko are written on its cornice. A chiseled cross divides the year into two parts.

Crosses and plates of the fountain from Hadji Dragan's house courtyard have been moved in the space between the braid-making workshop and the dolapkinya water-mill.

In connection with the 30^th anniversary of Etar Museum in September 1994, a bas-relief of the museum's creator Lazar Donkov was made and placed over a fountain. Its author is Gabrovian artist Mityo Solakov.

From among a few inns operating in Gabrovo in the 19^th century, Krastnikkolchov Inn was the busiest one. It was named after its owner Kolcho Ktastnikov. Standing on the left bank of the River Yantra, it was connected with the central marketplace with a narrow street. Traveling merchants and guests of the city opted for accommodation in the inn. Some important deals were made here over a cup of coffee. In the winter of 1869, great revolutionary Vasil Levski stayed at the inn. In 1914, the Bulgarian Workers Social-Democratic Party (Narrow Socialists fraction) bought the building and until 1923 the Hristo Botev party club occupied it.

The inn's architecture is unique for the lack of a few characteristic elements of this type of buildings: an internal yard and a loggia all along the structure where from rooms can be entered. Both floors of the building were aimed to accommodate guests contrary to the usual practice of using the first floor for stables and cattle-sheds. The inn's exteriors and interiors are not different from the appearance of residential buildings and this creates a sense of homeliness. From the river the vista is breathtaking, because the high stone wall rises directly from the water and merges with its reflection in it. The Krastnikkolchov Inn was built at Etar Museum in the period 1974–1977, and was adapted to the needs of the museum's administration.

Stockbreeding was one of the main livelihoods of the Balkan Mountain people. The presence of abundant forests for grazing, water and natural meadows have favoured sheep breeding locally. The Balkan Mountain dairies used to be primitive two-storey buildings located along the ridge of the Balkan Range. They were related to the summer pasture breeding of sheep and milking animals by shepherds. Their inventory comprised copper cauldrons, wooden vats, troughs, milking buckets, pots, cloth strainers, etc. In dairies, milk was collected and processed into dairy products — white cheese, yellow cheese, butter, cottage cheese, etc.

The Balkan Mountain dairy at the museum features appliances and vessels used for milking sheep and goats, for processing of milk and for the storage of white cheese, yellow cheese, butter, cottage cheese and other products prepared by it. The dairy displays objects and appliances used for the preparation of dairy products: wooden stirrers, copper cauldrons of different sizes, wooden vats, buckets, milk cans, iron scales, a churn for beating milk, a wooden box for storing cheese and tables for its preparation. Here one can see a paraliya low table with wooden spoons and the three-legged stools on which dairy workers and shepherds would sit and have meals. While studying existing dairies in the Central Balkan Range, information and the few photos suggest that the structure of the dairy at Etar Museum is close to a mountain dairy, which existed in the village of Toplesh, in the municipality of Gabrovo, at the end of the 19^th century.

The plum smoker comprises a hearth duct with a length of 3-4 meters, and a width and depth of 0.5 m. In the region of the Central Balkan Range, it was used mainly for prunes. Its dimensions are consistent with the need to dry and smoke plums without however burning them. At one end of the facility there is a hearth, at the other—a dug-in wooden rack with a wooden lid. Plums are placed on the rack, a fire is lit, the smoke goes along the ducts and dries them up. The hearth duct is covered with stone slabs and brushwood. The rack has a capacity of up to 30 kg of plums. The drying process lasts 24 hours, after which the plums dry up for 2-3 days in an open place, in the sun. Processed fruits can be stored for up to 10 years. Some of the plums were usually for sale, and certain quantities were reserved for own consumption.

Fruit growing was the main occupation of the Balkan Mountain people from Gabrovo. The fruits harvested every autumn from the trees were used in the household in both a fresh and dried state. Drying plums in special dryers was popular in this region, as a way to preserve them for a longer time. The Havelka dryers emerged in the 1930s and were built in the form of small houses made of mud or adobe and covered with stone slabs. The hearth is located at the back of the facility and is connected to a duct that goes across the entire length of the dryer. The duct is connected to other narrower ducts which converge in a common chimney bringing the smoke out on the roof. Above the hearth, a square opening facilitates the process of combustion. Above the hearth duct, the wooden racks or grills (lesi) are arranged. They are closed with wickets at the front side of the building. A vent to regulate temperature and humidity is located on the karatavan (a ceiling of beams and slats). The fruits dry up by means of dry and hot air. The racks are made of beech, which does not change the taste of the fruit.

The prototype of Epiphany Church with a school is the church in the village of Radovtsi, Dryanovo Municipality, built in 1868. The architecture of the building is impressive with its exterior of a mountain house later adapted to serve as a church with the construction of an external apse for an altar and combined with a school on the second floor.

The church was built in the period of 1998–2004 with financing from the museum and donations of Etar craftsmen, citizens and the Bishopric of Veliko Tarnovo. The exponents are original, and part of them (four icons, gonfalons and candelabras) comes from the church in the village of Radovtsi, while the iconostasis with the holy gates is the work of Tryavna masters in the late 19^th century. On 24 June 2006, Epiphany Church was inaugurated by His Grace Grigoriy, Metropolitan of Veliko Tarnovo. The second floor features a late-19^th century Bulgarian school.

Construction of clock towers in Bulgarian centers of crafts and trade began in the 18^th century. Their purpose was to define the beginning and the end of the workday. In this way guild boards prevented dishonest competition by extending working hours. The clock towers also served as watch-towers against fires or assaults in turbulent times. Unlike the towns and cities in Western and Central Europe, where clocks were placed on the buildings of town and city halls and on church towers, Bulgarians who did not have the available public buildings for the purpose, would build dedicated towers for the clocks.

The idea for building the clock tower came from Lazar Donkov, because a structure of this kind was part of the squares during the Bulgarian Revival Era. Hugo Onderlicka, a famous master in Gabrovo, designed the clockwork. Made with utmost precision it is wound up manually—by means of a metal lever and weights. The bell has a curious fate and centuries-old history. It was cast in 1904, in a suburb of St. Petersburg, Russia. The money for it was raised by Ivan Rasheev, member of a famous Gabrovian family. The bell's role was to urge laymen to visit liturgical service in church. The clock tower at Etar Museum is a copy of the one that used to stand in the town of Dryanovo—built in 1778 and brought down in 1946. Its construction at the museum began in 1975.

The mosaic panel in front of the museum's central entrance spreads on an area of 54 sq. m and features 120,000 pieces in diverse colors. The nuances of gray are 5, and of green—4. The artwork depicts two young women in elongated proportions—one of them holding a blessed round loaf of bread, and the other—a scale model of a house. Up above them the golden rays of the sun shine generously. The eternal symbols of life—bread and sun, are intertwined to suggest the powerful Bulgarian spirit. An inscription reading Etar has been added too. The mosaic panel was built in 1975. Its authors are artists Angel Angelov from Sofia and Ivan Donkov from Gabrovo.