Local culture

Bansko is quite different from the classic mountain resorts as it can impress with significant cultural heritage spanning from architecture to poetry and ancient christian arts.

Bansko is an important cultural centre for the region. According to historic records, the settlement was first established about 9th -10th century A.D. on the site where ancient Thracian settlements had existed. In the 18th century it was mentioned as a large and prosperous village of thriving crafts and trade reaching as far as the Aegean and Europe.

In the 18th and early 19th century talented painters and woodcarvers created works of art in the houses and churches of Bansko, the Rila Monastery, the monasteries on Mount Athos, Serbia and Macedonia.

The city can impress with authentic fortified and artistically decorated houses from the 18th and 19th century, built almost entirely of stone, with small barred windows, tall walls, heavy metal-plated gates and interconnected by narrow and winding cobble-stone streets.

The Sveta Troitsa church, the bell tower with the big clock, the midlevel church "Assumption of the Virgin Mary" with its remarkable wood-carved iconostasis make for fine accents in Bansko's atmosphere.

Also noteworthy are the museum houses and collections, souvenir shops and romantic holiday residences, hotels and taverns cuddled in the narrow and picturesque streets.