Zheravna

About this place

Zheravna is a village in a small valley at the foot of the eastern Balkan Mountains, lined with dark one- and two-storey timber houses under jutting tiled roofs, enclosed by stone walls, with cobbled lanes running between them. It lies at 579 m and is an architectural reserve of national importance, with more than 200 wooden houses from the Bulgarian National Revival of the 18th and 19th centuries. It grew up between the 12th and 14th centuries and by the 18th had become a cultural and craft centre, whose wealth shaped its present look. It has the early 18th-century house of the merchant Rusi Chorbadzhi, the 1834 Church of St Nicholas and the house of the writer Yordan Yovkov. You wander the lanes among the timber houses, visit the museum houses and eat in traditional taverns. A folk-costume festival is held here in summer. It is about 20 km in a straight line north of Sliven. Respect the residents, as the houses are lived in.