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Gabrovo is a small town in central Bulgaria, situated near the river Yantra. According to a legend, it was founded about 250 years ago by a blacksmith, who dwelt under a hornbeam (“gabar in Bulgarian”), hence the name of the city.

Studies show that the city existed in the Middle Ages. Similar data is also provided by the historical sources. After the fall under Ottoman rule Gabrovo was associated with violent local resistance against the Turkish government for a long time. The town is renown as a center of humor and satire in Bulgaria.

Gabrovo was one of the Bulgarian spiritual centers in the early eighteenth century. It became the cradle of Bulgarian education. Here on January 2, 1835, opens first Bulgarian secular school, and the first books, materials and tools created especially for its students are seen as a model of the later schools. From 1872 Gabrovo school grew into the first High school in Bulgaria. Since 1889, it took the name of its benefactor - Vasil Aprilov and was called Aprilovska High School.

In 1974 was created the National Museum of Education, which is housed in the old historic building of Aprilovska High School. In 1991 he officially opened the geographic center of Bulgaria. Scientists from BAS, the idea of a newspaper editor "look" through a series of mathematical models estimate that this is exactly Uzana, 25 km south of Gabrovo. There is a sign in the shape of a stylized pyramid with sheer, colored in the colors of the national flag.

But this is not enough if you have not seen "museum." This unique museum of Bulgaria is situated 8 km from the center of Gabrovo, three kilometers after the turn of Shipka, the River Siwek. Museum was opened on September 7th, 1964 with the help of Lazar Donkov whose main merit was returning to life the skills of the old Bulgarian craftsmen and artisans. The museum consists of over 50 sites, some of them have been renovated facilities located in the area, others were moved there, while others have been reconstructed in a form.

Even today, in the museum can be seen working nap, fulling-mill, lathe, sawmill and several dozen facilities, typical for the Bulgarian life of XVI - XIX century. They work with a single natural engine - water. The facilities seem elementary, but you must have serious skills to determine appropriate distances from the water, the slope of the hollow, cooling of the bearings - clever, ingeniously simple technical solutions. The main shopping street of the museum is very interesting. It features workshops traders’ houses, and examples of houses in the National Renovation style - exact replicas of real architectural models that give an idea about the lifestyle of the population of the region from the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Most are attractive retail shops - shops on the first floor offer homemade pie, bagels, pastries and coffee, which is served with the famous white jam. One of the most curious places in the museum is the room with the innards - a copy of an automated weaving workshop. They say that once a Gabrovian saw such machines in Manchester. Just by looking at them he managed not only to reconstruct them, but to improve them so that they stop when a thread broke.