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House-Museum Neofit Rilski, Bansko, Bulgaria

Bansko Old Town, next to the Holy Trinity Church

The museum dedicated to Neofit Rilski (Nikola Poppetrov Benin) - a prominent figure of the Bulgarian National Revival is set within his birth house, known among the citizens of Bansko as “Beninata Kashta” (the House of the Benin Family). It is locate din the historic old town of Bansko, right next to the impressive belfry of the Holy Trinity Church. The house is a typical example of the traditional Bulgarian architecture in the region from the 18th and 19th centuries. The House of the Benin Family has been converted into a museum since 1981, commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the death of Neofit Rilski. He was born in this house in the far 1793. He lived here until 1811. In the next years the house was possessed and kept by his close relatives and their successors. It has preserved almost intact its original appearance of the typical for this Bulgarina region two-storey renaissance house.

The first floor is occupied by the common farm rooms and the second floor is where the family lived. It is remarkable how the house was built as a real family fortress. It has double layers of all 4 external walls and the space between the two layers was used as a secret hiding place with several entrances from the house and several exits to the courtyard. Via special secret entrances each room (even those on the second floor) is connected with this secret hiding place.

The kitchen is on the ground floor and has a distinct, uncommon for the region double oven. Next to it is the store room for keeping food products for the winter and the so called "mesilnik" - a small room where in another oven the bread was prepared. The latter has a small exit to the secret place between the walls.

The first floor has another room where the family cattle were bred. Today its interior walls are covered with frescoes, depicting the ancestry tree of Neofit Rilski. The Bulgarian artist Todor Tsanev has drawn the small Nikola (the non-clerical name of Neofit Rilski) with his mother Katherina on the one side and his father Peter on the other side. Neofit's father Peter was a local priest and teacher in the renaissance school of the town.

The second floor is occupied by the hall of a small Bulgarian renaissance school, a women's room, another kitchen and a spacious living room - the so called "Kashchi" by the locals. All doors of the house are so low that a man with average height should bend in order not to hit his head. According to the records from some old local people the traditional houses in Bansko were deliberately built with such low doors to make guests bowing their heads honoring the house-keeper. This was invented maybe for the governing Ottoman Turks, who had to bow their heads entering in a Bulgarian house.

From the spacious wooden veranda ("chardak" in old Bulgarian) in front of the house there is a direct access to the farming buildings of in the courtyard. Now they are converted into a museum with a very interesting display of documents, containing proofs that Neofit Rilski was born exactly here (in the past there were discussions whether he was born in Bansko). Here you can see original documents showing the role of Neofit Rilski in the process of getting permission and building the Iron Bulgarina Church of St. Stephan in Istanbul.