Adventures In Chiprovtsi

Generally tales of adventure are about pirates, one-legged scalliwags, and treasure maps. However, a tale of a holiday in Chiprovtsi (near Montana) will rather resemble Robert Stevenson's Treasure Island, with the exception that it is all true. Holidaymakers and tourists will become part of the story of a new tourism project centred on adventure tours, on the quest of buried treasure in Bulgaria. The area near the town of Chiprovtsi will be the focus of the treasure hunt. Hopes are that the project will improve visitors numbers drastically. Last summer, no more than 2500 foreigners, mainly from European countries, visited the area . To develop the attractions, and boost bed-capacity in Chiprovtsi, the municipality has applied for EU Phare pre-accesion funding for the 250 000 euro project. Part of the money will be used to develop adventure, mine and historical tourism, in line with the theme "It Is High Time You Found Chiprovtsi's Treasures". According to the plan, tourists will be taken to the former coal mines in the Rupite Mountain to go through mines that were dug almost six centuries ago. Saxon miners inhabited the town and in Roman times was a major mining centre with rich sources of silver, gold, lead and iron ore. The natural abundance of Chiprov-tsi made it into one of the most significant ore and gold centres in the 16th-17th century CE. In those years, the works of the goldsmiths from Chiprovtsi became popular not only throughout the Ottoman Empire, but also in Central and Western Europe and Italy. According to Ivan Markov, mayor of Chiprovtsi, there are mine galleries as deep as 100-300 metres, which were left from the times of the Saxon miners in 13 and 14 century. A mine museum is to be set up, displaying the technology and instruments for extracting gold. Chiprovtsi became a very significant cultural and educational centre of the Bulgarian Roman Catholics. Excavations have uncovered a Catholic monastery dating back to the 15th-17th centuries, which was the seat of Sofia's Catholic eparchy at that time. Today, with a population of 3000 people, Chiprovtsi has a wealthy cultural heritage and beautiful landscape. Its goldsmithery school, from the Bulgarian National Revival period, the foundations of the original and unique carpeting industry and the beauty of the landscape attract foreign and Bulgarian tourists. The legends of buried treasures left by Zhelyu Voivoda, Philip Totyu and other guerillas are often source for-killing-the-time conversations at gatherings of the elderly. People believe that the Balkan Range near Chiprovtsi conceals many gold treasures in its caves. Located on the northern slopes of Chiprovtsi Mountain of the Western Balkan Range, 35 km west of Montana, the town of Chiprovtsi has a lot to offer. Once called The Flower of Bulgaria, Chiprovtsi has never lost its natural beauty and freedom-loving population. A tour in the History Museum of the town includes references to Chiprovtsi Uprising, which broke out in 1688 and was organised by Catholic notables rebelling against Ottoman domination. The Chiprovtsi monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, in the valley of the Chiprovska Ogosta river and about five km from Chiprovtsi, served as a main hiding place during the Chiprovtsi Uprising. The monastery originates from 10th century and is one of the 30 monasteries in the country to strengthen the position of Christianity and serve as a cultural and educational centre. The monastery is an attractive tourism destination with the average 20-degrees Celsius temperature in summer and the tombs of the leading guerillas in the Chiprovtsi Uprising. Proudly some local people talk of the town's name originating from the Latin word cuprum (copper) for the natural resource availability while others argue that the name originates from the Kiprovets flower (raving and spraying beauty). The town has developed all types of tourists and the local Tourism Centre has information on them all. Ecological mountaineering, village, cultural or hunting, the place offers it all. All who have visited Chiprovtsi will agree that a jewel among all the recreation-learning trips are the lessons in hand weaving carpets and dying them with herbs, which are available nowhere else in Bulgaria. At the museum you will be told about the garibald- one of the carpets with four colours yellow, white, green and blue. The world-renowned carpets of Chiprovtsi, woven on vertical looms, outdo Turkish, Egyptian, Indian and Chinese carpets. They have a rim and a central design composition with very typical floral ornaments in burgundy, red, dark blue, rarely green, yellow and brown. The craft of weaving carpets in Chiprovtsi and other locations in Bulgaria has been part of its traditions for 400 years and the skills have been passed on from generation to generation, and still presents a source of interest to manufacturers. The catalogue of the Kanatitsa Museum in Chiprovtsi illustrates 27 traditional designs. What unites them, though, are the ornaments of the carpets with geometric and triangular shapes. The carpets also feature flowers, plants, birds and animals coloured in various nuances. Carpets from Chiprovtsi are reversible and can be used on both sides and some are even aged 30 years and even more. The whole range of colours is extracted from plant paints and are prepared by the masters from Chiprovtsi and thus give a sense of coziness in every house. People of Chiprovtsi have rich authentic folklore. On September 6 all of the local people will pay a visit to their common patron Saint Rangel to make an offering of food, coloured bread and lamb meat. Travelling to Chiprovtsi without a preliminary booking is not a source of worry as tourists stay at the small family hotels, which in the last two years doubled. If you are lucky enough you can book at the Kipro-century old family hotel for as much as 12 leva a night. Pictures of tourists clad in authentic Bulgarian national costumes, self-woven rugs, self-made gold jewelry and many memories of milking goats and drinking fresh squeezed raspberry juice are some of the experiences and souvernires tourists take back with them. However, the greatest temptations are the various delicious meals from Chiprovtsi cuisine. Fresh goat's milk, pies, as well as jam and fresh squeezed juice from wild strawberries and blueberries, stuffed peppers with beans, sarmi (stuffed grapevine leaves), sheep cheese and home made blueberry jam are all included in the family hotels' menus. It is also renowned for buried treasure and the healing property of the air in the town.