Karlovo
It is located 20 km from Banya /20 minutes/, with buses to Karlovo and from Karlovo to Banya every hour from 7:00 to 20:00. In Karlovo you can visit the house of Vasil Levski.
The house of Vasil Levski: Hidden behind the white wall, nestled among the boxwoods and the vine, it seems even today to have been arranged by the caring hand of its mistress. Several stone steps lead down to the “zimnik” — a room built almost entirely into the ground. The whole family lived in it during winter. Upstairs the house has two rooms — in one they slept in summer, and the other was a guest room. Right next to the house is the workshop — a low building consisting of a room where braids were woven and which served as a storehouse for goods, and a semi-open room for dyeing. Here, on 18 July 1837, Vasil Ivanov Kunchev-Levski was born, founder of the largest organisation in the history of the Bulgarian liberation movement.
Uninhabited for a long time, the Apostle's birth house collapsed in the years around the Liberation of Bulgaria. It was restored to its original form in 1933 thanks to public initiative, the enthusiasm of the people of Karlovo, relatives of Vasil Levski, the Karlovo association and the “Vasil Levski” National Committee in Sofia. Opened as a museum in 1937, Vasil Levski's birth house became one of the most visited memorial museums in Bulgaria, an inseparable part of every Bulgarian's idea of the Apostle of Freedom, a place for preserving valuable belongings, documents and works of art, and a natural centre for scientific and creative events.
Today, every visitor to the “Vasil Levski” National Museum, besides the Apostle's birth home, can also see:
- the museum exhibition hall, which displays materials dedicated to the birthplace and family of Vasil Levski, his life and his role in the national liberation struggles of the Bulgarian people in the 19th century, the image of the Apostle in works by generations of Bulgarian artists, valuable copies of scientific and literary works about Vasil Levski;
- the Chardaklieva House with a video hall and a stand for souvenirs, art and scientific literature about Vasil Levski and Karlovo. Temporary thematic exhibitions are presented here;
- the memorial chapel “All Bulgarian Saints”, where the Apostle's hair is kept;
- the monument to Vasil Levski's mother Gina Kuncheva.