Koprivshtitsa

Koprivshtitsa (Копривщица) is a preserved mountain town in the Sredna Gora and the place where the April Uprising against Ottoman rule began, which has made it a site of national memory. Nearly four hundred protected buildings stand along its cobbled lanes and humpbacked bridges, most of them merchant houses in the Bulgarian revival style, painted ox-blood red, deep blue and ochre with carved wooden ceilings and walled gardens. Six of them are open as museums furnished as they were. The town holds a national festival of folklore that draws performers from every region. The valley around it stays open pasture.