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Teteven is a small town in northern Bulgaria, situated in a picturesque valley through which flows the river Vit. Around the city rise the peaks Ostrich, Petrahilya, Cherven kamuk and Raven kamuk. The town has preserved its ancient appearance and impresses visitors with its interesting historical museum.

The first archaeologist who excavated the lands in the region of Teteven and explored the ancient tombs and caves, was the native Rafail Popov. His efforts brought an unexpectedly rich results and his compatriots decided to gather them into a museum. In 1932 a memorial house was erected in honor of the fallen in the three wars – the First Balkan, the Second Balkan and First World War. This monument houses the historical museum of Teteven.

In "Archaeology" there are instruments from the late Paleolithic and Neolithic eras: cave bear’s skull, boar teeth, a copper axe, flint scrapers, copper needle, cult hatchet with stylized figures, heads of ram, bull and goat.

There are also bronze and silver coins from the reign of the emperors Trajan and Commodus, a treasure of over 1,300 silver coins, minted in II - IV century and the inscription, which states that Teteven was within the province Diptensia are evidence that here a Roman settlement was created.

Teteven’s name was first mentioned in written sources from 1421, and probably comes from the word "string" (“tetiva” in Bulgarian) because, from the air, the city really looks like a bow string, stretched along the river Vit.

XVI and XVII centuries were a period of prosperity and flourishing of Teteven. The city expanded, but the houses were so close together that people told man can walk on their roofs from one end of the town to the other. The works of the local masters was traded not only at the markets in Thessaloniki and Istanbul, but also to the west - in Austria and Germany. Because of that the locals started calling the town "Altin Teteven" ("Golden Teteven" in Turkish). There were 60 visitors of Jerusalem, there were thousands of pilgrims that traveled to the Rila Monastery and the Monastery "Zograph" on Mount Athos. Three evolving missionary convent was built in the town in that period.

The bloom lasted until 1801 when Teteven was destroyed and burned by Kurdzhalii bands of merauders. From 3000 only four houses survived, although the Kurdzhalii failed to seize it by force, but entered it by deception. Only a few decades later Teteven was booming again and in the second half of the nineteenth century became one of the craft centers in Bulgaria.

In 1871 Vasil Levski based in the nearby village Glojene one of the clandestine revolutionary committees, but after the Turkish Treasury heist in Arabakonak, its members were arrested and sent to Diyarbakir. The museum keeps facsimile letter from the Apostle to Karavelov on the robbery and its initiator Dimitar Obshti. The museum has preserved and another facsimile: Midhat Pasha’s recognition that the Bulgarians from the region were forced to accept the Islamic faith.

In the museum are preserved and the memorable words of Ivan Vazov "If I had not come in Teteven and I would have been alien to mother Bulgaria ... I have been in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe, I have traveled a lot in Bulgaria, but I have not seen a more fascinating place. "