Trip to Golden Tryavna

Tryavna is a city оf Central Northern Bulgaria. The population of the city is about 8000 people. Making it the third largest settlement in the district. The preserved Renaissance architecture and cultural heritage of this period attract many tourists.

A legend recorded by the local teacher Hristo Daskalov tells of many boyars who sought refuge in the Balkans, and many settlements in the area connect their origin and their names precisely with these turning points in the history of the Bulgarian people.

The oldest official information about Tryavna is from the time of Ottoman rule - XV-XVI century. In the region of today's city, a population from the surrounding high-mountain settlements settled, serving in the 13th-14th centuries. the roads through the mountain and ensured the security of the passes. Tryavna is structured as a Derventji village of people performing paramilitary functions. This state was regulated by a special Sultan's decree of April 8, 1565, in which the name Tryavna was mentioned for the first time. The order says that there is a place in the mountains called Tarnava, where it is appropriate to establish a settlement, whose inhabitants, in exchange for the obligation to guard and guard the pass from robbers, should be exempted from state burdens and customary levies. This provides residents of Trevna with tax privileges and complete freedom.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Tryavna grew rapidly.

The lack of fertile lands pushed people to seek other livelihoods and opportunities, such as trade. Gradually, with hard work and enterprise, the inhabitants of Tryavna developed and turned the artistic crafts of icon painting and wood carving into their main livelihood and construction. In addition, until the end of the 17th century, and later, the people of Tryavna were engaged in sericulture and rose production. The goods of the local artisans reached the most distant markets of the Ottoman Empire, and even beyond its borders - to Austria, Wallachia and Russia. The economic prosperity, the abundance of stone and wood and the proximity to examples of Tarnovo medieval art are the reasons for the birth of the oldest of the Renaissance art schools in the city in the middle of the 17th century - the Trevne school, which includes three main areas of artistic and creative activity: icon painting, wood carving and construction. The founder of the Tryavna Art School is Vitan Karchov, who worked in the first half of the 17th century.

In the second half of the 20th century, modern enterprises for the production of woolen textiles, knitwear, furniture, mechanical engineering and military production grew here. But the people of Trevna have been making good use of the natural resources of their beautiful region since the beginning of the 20th century. Tourism and resort activities are developing in Tryavna. The first tourists in 1896 were greeted with a bit of distrust, but soon the spirit of modernity and innate enterprise took over. In 1910, the Society for the Cultural and Economic Upliftment of the Town of Tryavna was established, which, together with the town administration, made great efforts to improve the settlement and create amenities for vacationers who come here for the beautiful nature and healthy Balkan air. In 1927 a book about the Tryavna resort and postcards were published, a film about the nature and sights of the city was also distributed. Thus, in 1937, Tryavna received the status of a "rest place" by Order of the Main Directorate of Public Health.
In 1963, Tryavna was officially declared a resort.
The unique appearance of Tryavna is due to its distinctive architecture, to the generations of master builders who built churches, bridges, schools, and created the original and beautiful Tryavna house.
The most representative building on the square with the clock tower is the Trevne School. The school is among the first secular schools in Bulgaria. The alert and enterprising citizens of Trevna did not lag behind the progressive ideas of the Revival, and with the efforts of the entire Trevna community, a building was built, in which one of the first secular schools in Bulgaria was organized, where the most modern pedagogical methods for the era were taught. Built in the period 1836 – 1839, the building is elongated, with a rectangular plan, with rooms on all sides closing a small inner courtyard. The plan of the building resembles the monastery complexes of that time.