If you want to feel the breath of the past, to see the marvellous power of water, put in canal, to delight at the renaissance architecture, to see an old national custom -visit ARCHITECTURICAL-ETHNOGRAPHIC COMPLEX “ETAR”. The Ethnographic museum Etar is the first open air museum of this kind opened in Bulgaria. It was established on September 7th, 1964. The museum is situated 8 km South of the town of Gabrovo. The preliminary design and methodology were done by the Gabrovian Lazar Donkov (1908 – 1976) who was also the first director of the museum. “In the museum exhibitions so far the visitor was not placed in an immediate contact with the past – Mr. Donkov writes. That is how I came to the idea of establishing an active museum in the open air … so that the past becomes visible, easy for perception and understanding and the vast national wealth in kept.”
Do you want to feel the whiff of the past, to see the miraculous power of the water, flowing in a chute, to enjoy the Renaissance architecture, to observe ancient national customs, then visit the Ethnographical Open Air museum “Etar”, 8 km. Southwards from the town of Gabrovo. The museum territory comprises 50 sites – water technical equipment, houses with craftsman’s workshops, places with social importance. The aim of the museum display is showing the architecture, the life style and the economic past of Gabrovo region during the Revival period – the second half of 18 and the 19 centuries. More than 26 main crafts were developed in the town and the goods were sold in different parts of the country and in the region – Bucharest, Vienna, Marseille, Anatolia and other.
The first secular New Bulgarian school was opened in 1835. During the 30-ies of the 19th century under the favourable economic and political changes in the Ottoman empire Gabrovo grew as an important economic, educational and commercial center in the country. The Ethnographic museum Etar was build and organazed by means of three methods;on site restoration; on site preservation; transportation of originals and restoration of buildings.
Etara is a place where we do not only preserve the folk tradition, but also provide for visitors the opportunity to experience them, touched by the ancient flavor of folklore, feeling a real Bulgaria.
On St. George’s day (6-th of May) the museum meets the day decorated with beech sprig, as is the old Bulgarian tradition. On this day rituals and customs are reproduced, connected with the coming of spring and the rebirth of nature.
Also full of joy is the greatest summer holiday – Enyovden (Midsummer Day). Everyone can go through the wreath for health. All day the air in the museum is sweet with the odour of the herbs and visitors can learn more about their medicinal properties and meet and talk to famous herbalists and healers.
Craftsmen from all over the country and other European open-air museums gather for the Autumn International Crafts fair in September to show their skills.
Visitors of the museum can see the periodically changed exhibitions of both Bulgarian and foreign exhibitors throughout the year. The permanent expositions and the restored celebrations of festivals make one touch upon the traditions and life of old Bulgarian mountain-dwellers from the time of the Revival.
Tannery is the workshop where raw hides are processed. It is usually a rather spacious room.
Hides of buffaloes, oxen, cows, calves, horses, donkeys, mules, etc. are used in the leather-working trade. In their long processing the following materials are used: lime and ashes, dog and hen excrements, oak barks, “palamud”- chalice of an oak acorn, sumac, sea-salt and bran.
Until the Liberation from Ottoman domination four types of leather are produced in Gabrovo. And these are: sole-leather from buffalo and large ox hides; “kyusele”- semi-processed sole-leather for making sandals from smaller cow and horse hides; “sahtieni”-from goat hides and “meshini”-from sheep skins for vamps and linings of the shoes.
The processing of hides includes three main stages: steeping and cleaning of the hides; treatment with lime and tanning. All this is done with help of big and small wooden troughs, a copper, “postav”- a rectangular wooden chest, a vice, tubs, buckets, weighing devices, sieves, poles, trestles, etc. Behind the workshop there are 5-6 wooden or stone vats, built in the ground for lime solution.
Besides the already mentioned equipment and instruments, necessary for the processing of raw skins, in the museum’s exposition you can see several types of iron tools for scratching and cleaning the skins on their reverse and upper side. There are and some marble slabs with tanner’s clips that are used for stretching the leathers tight and a pole- “kavale”- on which skins are placed for mechanical processing.
At the expense of the smaller living-quarters on the 2nd floor, the balcony here is larger than in the other houses, as it is used for the drying the leathers.
The reconstructed museum’s tannery is a replica of Ivan Ivanov Golosmanov’s workshop that was built around 1865-1870 in Gabrovo.
Despite the great fire of 1798, XX century Gabrovo has a clearly defined urban appearance. Due to the fact that its population was entirely Bulgarian foreign architectural outlines cannot be found in the town. The Gabrovo Renaissance house was nice comfortable. Gradually it moved out of the back yard and was built to face the street so that the craftsman could have a direct contact with their clients. In this rush forward the street line was curved into an arc. The streets were narrow, compact and at places the eaves of the houses touched each other. Another characteristic of the houses of that period were the second storey of the houses – considerably large and coming out above the ground floor, thus providing more light and space. The houses from the Renaissance period – two storeyed, with wood-carving and consoles, with rosettes on the doors and large balconies – show their owners’ good financial status and increased self-confidence.

The house of the merchant from Gabrovo Peter Saka was built in 1858 near Baev most (bridge) in Gabrovo. It was reproduced in the museum in 1970. it is an example of Mediterranean influence in architecture – there are many painted columns on the facade, many window – 21, the open balcony turns into a room called “kiosk”.
There is a shop on the first floor, in which articles made by the craftsmen in the street are sold. The second floor displays the interior of a merchant’s house.