site.btaEtar Open Air Crafts Museum Celebrates 59th Anniversary

September 7 marks the 59th anniversary of the opening of the Regional Ethnographic Open Air Museum Etar, comprised of houses, craft workshops, buildings and facilities, revealing the ancient lifestyle and culture of Bulgarians living in the central parts of the Balkan mountain range from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century.

Curator Georgi Georgiev reported that the Museum's research archive contains correspondence between Lazar Donkov, who founded the Museum in 1964, and Hristo Vakarelski, one of the leading researchers of traditional culture during the socialist era and director of the National Ethnographic Museum in Sofia between 1945 and 1948.

In a letter dated August 9, 1965, Vakarelski stated that with the opening of the museum, "Gabrovo resolves and accomplishes an extremely important from a historical and educational [...] point of view task of national importance". Vakarelski pointed out that Bulgaria was trying to catch up with countries like Sweden, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands and Romania, while also ranking ahead of many others in terms of museum development.

Experts at the Etar Museum are confident that it preserves the spirit of Bulgaria. The museum is the only outdoor museum of its kind of the Skansen type in Bulgaria. Over the years it has established itself as a centre for the study of the traditional culture of the Balkan people from pre-industrial society to modern times.