Bozhentsi

The Bozhentsi Ethnographic and Natural Reserve is nestled between the green hills of the Stara Planina Mountains. Bozhentsi is one of the few villages in Bulgaria that has completely preserved its ancient appearance, valuable architectural and ethnographic monuments. The village has a 600-year history. Arriving in Bozhentsi, you find yourself in a place where time has stopped and everything remains, as it was in the era of the Bulgarian Renaissance. Here, every stone, every street tells legends about bravery and courage, about faith and love.
The legend tells how in 1393, tragic for the Bulgarian people, when the capital of the Second Bulgarian State, Veliko Tarnovo, fell under Turkish slavery, the widowed noblewoman Bozhena, together with her nine sons, sought refuge. The only place of salvation and freedom is in the mountains. And here, among the dense forests of the Stara Planina mountains, by cold mountain streams, far from the oppressors, she laid the foundations of the village, which was named after her.