| As the local saying goes, winter lasts for
6 months in Bansko, a small town of just under 10.000 people hidden among
the mountain spledour of snow-capped Mt. Vihren, the highest peak in the
Pirin mountain range.
Unlike many modern cities in Bulgaria today, the modern city centre co-exists
easily with the older quarters, a maze of cobbled lanes where the timber-framed
stone houses hide behind thick walls with stout double doors, built to
withstand siege.
These houses were built from a 19th century surge in commerce, when Bansko
became an important station on the trade routes between the Aegean port
of Kavalla and the Balkan hinterlands. Bansko became the home of a new
middle class of mercants, many of whom used their newfound wealth to cuild
churces or assist in the resotration of the Rila Monastery, and with their
patronage an important hub of icon painters and craftmen was formed here.
With the advent of the 20th century the trade routes moved westwards,
and Bansko settled back into rusticity, and remains an agricultural town
where donkey drawn carts jostle for space alongside modern four wheel
drives.
Since 1990 Bansko has become a popular weekend destination for Sofians,
which has prompted an explosian in family run B&Bs and family run
restaurants (or mehanas). The existance of exhilirating ski
runs just west of town is an important draw for skiiers during the
winter months, although Bansko has yet to become a major ski destination,
mainly due to a lack of modern infrastructure with which to compete against
the others runs in Bulgaria. A recent drive to upgrade and modernise the
ski resort has run into opposition from local enviromentalists who argue
that building new ski runs will adversly affect the rustic charm of the
area.
For the time being, Bansko remains very much a weekend 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.
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