A place of idyllic atmosphere and rustic architecture, for years Bozhentsi village has been a preferred getaway for people fed up with urban living

Nestled in the Stara Planina, less than 10 miles from Gabrovo, by the 1960s Bozhentsi was almost deserted. A few old people used to live in the spacious but rundown houses built by wealthy merchants two centuries previously. The younger generation had left in search of jobs elsewhere.

In 1962, Bozhentsi's old houses with their whitewashed façades, stone walls, dark brown beams, and tiled roofs caught the attention of conservationists. It was the time when old houses in richer and livelier villages and towns were being demolished in the process of establishing a "modern" Socialist lifestyle. Places like Bozhentsi had become a rarity, and this saved the village. Its houses were restored and in 1964 the village received the status of historical and architectural preservation. Tourists started to arrive.

Today Bozhentsi is small and isolated, but it was not always so. According to a legend, when the Ottomans captured the Bulgarian capital Tarnovo in 1393, an aristocratic lady called Bozhana escaped the ensuing massacre with her sons and a group of servants. They ran until they reached an inaccessible part of the Stara Planina, a valley shielded by high peaks from both the cold winter winds of the north and the heat from the south. They settled there. The hamlet grew and took the name of Bozhana, its founder.

The first documented evidence of the existence of the hamlet of Bozhentsi is an Ottoman tax register from 1611. In it, about 40 families of merchants, itinerant stone masons and moneylenders were included. Two centuries later the merchants were selling leather, wool, beeswax and honey to the Ottoman army. The village grew bigger and wealthier, and soon around the cobble-stoned streets large two-storey mansions began to appear. The villagers built themselves a church in 1839, and set a primary school there. In 1878, they established a community centre. A theatre troupe soon followed.

By that time, however, it was already clear that there was no future for Bozhentsi in independent Bulgaria. The lucrative Ottoman market was lost, cheap industrial cloth from the West stifled local production, and people began to leave the village. Communism with its forced urbanisation and industrialisation accelerated the process. 

The 1960s restorations partly reversed the process – at least at the weekends, when weary city folk come from far and near to enjoy the peace, fresh air and traditional food.

The local museum not only manages several sites, but also runs a souvenir shop and several guest houses which you can rent.

https://bojentsi.com