Museum of Wood-Carving and Icon-Painting – Tryavna

It is not by chance that the museum of Museum of Wood-Carving and Icon-Painting is located in Tryavna. This was the place where the Tryavna Artistic School, the oldest in Bulgaria, was set up. It originated at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries and developed in three directions: icon-painting, wood-carving and construction. These were also the three main crafts the local masters took up. The museum presents the three main types of wood-carving: the so-called shepherd’s carving, which is the simplest kind, the wood-carving used for home decoration, and the most exquisite, but also the hardest one to make: the church carving. Almost the entire interior of the typical Tryavna house was decorated: furniture, ceilings, doors, columns, iconostases, etc. According to tradition all houses had iconostases. The museum exhibits and keeps some of the best examples of iconostases made by Tryavna master wood-carvers. A workshop is also set up in the museum where wood-carving techniques are demonstrated and wood-carving tools are displayed.