• Bansko is the main ski resort in the country
• Work has also begun on an 18-hole golf course designed by Ian Woodsman
• The resort has excellent facilities and infrastructure
• Rental guarantees are offered by many Bansko property developers
• It has a mix of new and older Bansko properties

Since 1990 the town has become enormously popular with Sofians as an out-of-town retreat, prompting an explosion of family-run B&Bs and cosy, traditional-style mehanas or restaurants. The existence of some exhilarating ski runs just west of town is an important part of the town's winter appeal, although the difficulty of access to the pistes (unreliable public transport and inadequate ski lifts) has meant that Bansko is yet to feature in the plans of the package-tour operators. The locals plan to change all this by building a new cable car up the slopes of the Pirin range, but the project has encountered stiff opposition from Bulgaria's environmentalists, who argue that the unspoilt nature of the area -which exerts such a powerful draw over summer visitors - will be irreparably damaged by the scheme.

For the time being, Bansko remains very much a weekend ski resort, with visitors crowding into the mehanas to be entertained by local folk groups singing - traditional Macedonian songs about anti-Ottoman brigands. From Monday to Thursday however, many establishments shut up shop, and Bansko goes to bed early.

Skiing and mountain-biking around Bansko.
Skiing is practised around Bansko from December until March, though its facilities are less extensive than at Borovets, and scattered among various localities. The main areas are Chalin Valog, 4km southwest of town, which has a 1500 metre ski run with chair lifts and two 300-metre practice slopes with ski tows, and Shiligarnika, higher up the tortuous mountain road (30-40min by bus from town). Though all grades are catered for, Bansko is the best ski resort in Bulgaria for advanced skiers. Instructors speak various foreign languages and there's a range of equipment for rent - for details, ask at the tourist office in Bansko. Another activity that's recently caught on is mountain-biking, with several of the hotels renting out bikes. One popular route is to the Belizmata Reservoir, 3km south- west of town; cross the bridge near the Bansko Hotel and go straight until the first field track, or follow the road from the Aneli Hotel to the barracks and then take the I track through the field.

Bansko accommodation. Arrival and information
The bus and train stations are on the northern fringes of town, ten minutes' walk from the central pl. Vaptsarov, where Bansko's tourist information centre (officially Mon-Fri 9am-lpm & 2-5pm, although be prepared for unannounced closure due to staff shortages; 00359(0)7443/5048) lurks in an arcade below a concrete Cultural Centre. It can supply a useful brochure on the Bansko region and help with accommodation in town or elsewhere, and is also the place to get advice on skiing or hiking in the Pirin Mountains. Note that although many of Bansko's sights and hotels are signposted in English, the signs are intended for motorists and may signify a roundabout approach.

Bansko's Pl. Nikola Vaptsarov
Bansko's modern, pedestrianized zone is centred around pl. Nikola Vaptsarov, named after the revolutionary poet. On the corner of the square, near a postwar statue of Vaptsarov in a declamatory pose, is the house where he was born, now the Nikola Vaptsarov Museum (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat-Sun 8am-noon & 2-6pm), which recreates his childhood home and expounds on his life and poetry (in Bulgarian only). An engineer by training, he shared the Futurists' enthusiasm for the machine age and joined the wartime resistance with the courage of his Communist convictions. Vaptsarov's final poem was composed in a Sofia prison as he awaited execution in 1942:

The fight is hard and pitiless
The fight is epic, as they say:
I fell. Another takes my place -
Why single out a name!
After the firing squad - the worms.
Thus does the simple logic go.
But in the storm we'll be with you
My people, for we loved you so.

Ironically, Vaptsarov's father, Yonko, had connections at court from the days when he was an influential figure in Macedonian politics, but his demise in 1939 meant that no one was able to prevent Nikola from being shot by Boris Ill's lackeys. Attached to the museum is a crafts exhibition of textiles, woodcarvings and paintings by local artists, some of which are for sale. The carpets are simply patterned (with green and black stripes predominating) and nothing for serious collectors to get excited about, but as authentic handmade local rafts they make nice souvenirs, and cost less here than in Sofia.

Bansko old town. Pl. Vazrazhdane and the Church of Sveta Troitsa
Bansko's old town begins a short way uphill on pl. Vazrazhdane, dominated by a large monument to an even more renowned son of Bansko, Otets (Father) Paisii, also known as Paisii of Hilendar (1722-73), author of the Slav-Bulgarian History- Begun in 1745, when Paisii became a monk at the Bulgarian monastery on Mount Athos, but not widely distributed until over fifty years later, this seminal work exalted the nation's past glories, kick-starting the upsurge in cultural and political consciousness that became known as the "National Revival".

The growing confidence of Bulgaria's nineteenth-century elite was often expressed in the building of new churches - although the local Ottoman authorities didn't always grant permission without a bribe. The Church of Sveta Troitsa, on the south side of pl. Vazrazhdane, got the go-ahead after Bansko merchants paid off a local official to declare that a miraculous icon had been discovered on the site (which qualified it as "holy ground" suitable for a Christian place of worship). A wall was then raised to conceal the townsfolk’s' enlargement of the church beyond the size set by Ottoman clerks - for which the mayor of Bansko was jailed for five years. The resulting structure is one of the largest in Bulgaria outside Sofia; a huge lump of grey-brown stone whose appearance is softened by the addition of a delicate wooden porch around the main doorway. Icons of local origin pack the spacious interior, where an intricately latticed screen partitions off the rear of the nave where women were once obliged to pray in segregation. Bansko's grannies, many of whom dress in traditional stripy aprons for the occasion, still regard attendance at the 9am Sunday service as de rigueur, converging on the town centre as the church's belfry rings out an impressive peal of bells.

Approaching and leaving the church through the walled enclosure you'll pass a monument remembering Peyu Yavorov, the poet guerilla leader who celebrated Bansko's liberation from the Turks in October 1912 by proclaiming "Throw away your fezzes, brothers! From today you are free Bulgarians".

The Neofit Rilski House-Museum, The Icon Museum and the Velyanov House
Behind the church, a short distance along ul. Pirin, the Neofit Rilski House-Museum (daily 9am-noon & 2-5pm) remembers another key figure in the nineteenth-century resurgence of Bulgarian education and church life, Neofit Rilski. Born in Bansko in 1793, the son of the local priest, Rilski looked set to join one of the local icon-painting studios until a visit to Rila filled him with enthusiasm for the monastic life. He went on to become one of the great scholars of the age, translating the New Testament into Bulgarian (a work the Orthodox Patriarchate in Constantinople tried to ban on the grounds that it had been funded by a crafty bunch of protestant subversives - namely the Bible Society in London), and producing a mammoth Greek-Bulgarian dictionary that took a lifetime to compile. Despite his monastic vocation he pioneered the development of secular education in Bulgaria, becoming the first-ever head of the Aprilov School in Gabrovo, before moving on to establish an equally renowned school in Koprivshtitsa. As well as being one of the main popularizers of Otets Paisii's work , Rilski also introduced western educational methods into Bulgaria, adopting the Bell-Lancaster system of encouraging older children to supervise the work of younger ones. The museum holds a dully didactic display of photographs and (Bulgarian-only) text outlining Rilski's career, although the chance to pause in the lovely chestnut tree-shaded courtyard make a visit here worthwhile.

Just off the northeast corner of pl. Vazrazhdane, on ul.Yane Sandanski, the Rilski Convent (Rilski Metoh) has now been restored to the Orthodox Church and is once again a nunnery affiliated to Rila Monastery. However, the building still contains an Icon Museum (Mon-Fri 9am-noon & 2-5pm) from Communist times, showing the achievements of Bansko's nineteenth-century icon painters - a school largely centred around the Vienna-educated Toma Vishanov, who, with sons Dimitar and Simeon Molerov, travelled from village to village decorating local churches. Vishanov's exposure to western art obviously filtered through into the style of the Bansko School, which general-features more realistic human faces than those of the highly stylized Samokov School. There are photographic reproductions of the frescos Vishanov and the Molerovs painted for Rila Monastery, and a good selecion of icons produced by other local painters. One highlight is an anonymous Wheel of Time, in which everyday village scenes are encircled by portrayals of he different ages of man.

A couple of minutes' walk south of pl. Vazrazhdane, the Velyanova Kashta, at Velyan Ognev 5 (Mon-Fri 9am-noon & 2-5pm), is a typical stone house, packed with nineteenth-century furnishings and rugs, providing a good idea of how Bansko's better-off citizens once lived. Local lore maintains that the house was built for the craftsman Velyan Ognev of Debar, who worked on the iconostasis in Bansko's Church of Sveta Troitsa and decided to stay on in town - falling in love with the priest's daughter was an added inducement. Highlights include a nicely restored kitchen-cum-living room, in which the entire family slept on a single mattress on the floor, and the wonderfully decorated Blue Room, covered with frescos of fanciful cityscapes, thought to have been painted by Ognev for his wife.

Church of Sveta Bogoroditsa and the market
Across town, east of the train station, the early nineteenth-century Church of Sveta Bogoroditsa is an atmospheric, semi-submerged structure beside the town cemetery, though most of its treasures — including the central doors of the iconostasis, painted by Toma Vishanov - have been moved to the Icon Museum.

Last but not least, the market that enlivens ul.Tsar Simeon on Sunday mornings, is worth a visit for its handwoven blankets, rugs and clothing which are on sale alongside workaday objects such as cowbells, saddles and harnesses.

Eating, drinking and nightlife in Bansko
Eating and drinking are practically synonymous in Bansko, with nearly forty Mehanas offering much the same menu, and drinks served in pottery beakers. As chefs and owners change frequently, places that were good turn bad or vice versa, so you might as well choose somewhere on the basis of its music or its seating. Local specialities include chomlek (meat and potato stew), katino meze (fried meat with garlic and mushrooms) and kapama (meat, rice and pickled cabbage stew). The most atmospheric place to eat is Dyado Pene, which offers the whole range of traditional Bulgarian food in a dining room crammed with folksy decorations - and you can sit in the galleried courtyard in summer. The Baryakova Mehana, just off pl.Vazrazhdane on ul.Velyan Ognev, is equal in terms of culinary excellence, and often features stirring Macedonian folk music. The restaurant of the nearby Dvata Smarcha has a wonderful outdoor garden, while the Kapiziina Kashta, 1km south of the centre along ul. Pirin, offers decent grilled fare in a lively courtyard setting.

If you just want a drink or an ice cream or beer, a dozen cafe-bars along Tsar Simeon vie for custom. Nightlife boils down to more of the same plus whatever's cooking at the unnamed disco just east of pl. NikolaVaptsarov on ul.Tsar Simeon.

The Pirin Songs folk festival in Bansko region
One of the greatest of Bulgarian folklore festivals, second in importance only to that in Koprivshtitsa, Pirin Sings (Pirin Pee) is a two-day celebration of the music of the Pirin region held at Predel, an area of meadows and woodland 15km west of Bansko on the road to Blagoevgrad. The action takes place on a series of outdoor stages, each devoted to a different part of southwestern Bulgaria, with folklore societies from every conceivable town and village strutting their stuff to appreciative crowds. Like most such events in Bulgaria, the festival combines serious ethnographical intent with the laid-back atmosphere of a mass country picnic. Many locals pay as much attention to the numerous stalls selling grilled meats and beer as they do to the official programme, and there's usually plenty of impromptu singing and dancing to get involved in. At dusk, gypsy bands gather around camp fires to blast out tunes on the zurna, an impressively raucous wind instrument of Turkish origin. The festival was held every odd-numbered year until 2001, after which it was decided to hold a smaller (but still highly worthwhile) festival every year, with the fullscale bash occurring at four-year intervals (the next one is in 2008).

The festival usually straddles the Saturday and Sunday nearest to August 15, although it's a good idea to check precise dates before you travel. The Pirin Sings Foundation, which organizes the festival, can be contacted at Pirin Pee, Dinova Kashta, Varosha, Blagoevgrad (073/80036, www.pirin-sings.eom).

Around Bansko
Hemmed in by the Pirin Mountains to the west, the Rila massif to the north, and the Rhodopes to the east, Bansko and its surrounding countryside can boast some great walks. Bansko itself is the most convenient starting point for hikes, although the nearby villages of Dobarsko and Dobrinishte are also important trail heads - and have enough going for them to be worth a visit in their own right. The only other place worth mentioning in this neck of the woods is Eleshnitsa, site of a renowned folk festival on Easter Sunday.

Bansko |map|

Bansko Properties in the area: apartments, houses and villas, lands

to the top