10th Anniversary Crafts Fair Opens in Bulgarias Gabrovo

The ethnographic complex "Etara," near Bulgaria's central city of Gabrovo is an open-air museum. Photo by BGNES

The Speaker of the Bulgarian Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva, opened Thursday the 10th anniversary edition of the International Crafts Fair in the central city of Gabrovo.

The forum is organized by the Culture Ministry and the Architectural and Ethnographic Complex Etara in Gabrovo, under Tsacheva's patronage.

Over 80 masters from Bulgaria and abroad will present their craftworks made with traditional tools and/or the processing of specific materials. There will be demonstrations of pottery, cutlery, coppersmiths, cornhusk weaving, basket weaving, dyeing of wool with natural dyes, and plumbs baking, among others.

It is expected that the 2012 Fair will attract over 13 000 visitors.

The architectural ethnographic reserve Etara was opened on September 7, 1964. It is the first museum of its type in Bulgaria, and its main purpose is to present the architecture, lifestyle, and economic development of the Gabrovo region during Bulgaria's National Revival period - in the second half of the 18th and in the 19th century.

During that period the products of the 26 local crafts are exported to cities like Vienna, Marseille, and Cairo.

The open-air museum includes over 50 buildings and facilities such as typical houses, water mills and craftsmen's workshops. Some of them are located at their original place, whereas others were brought from elsewhere in the region, and assembled in the Etara; still others were constructed as replicas of the original objects.

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