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Immediately behind the Vrachanski statue is the Ethnographic Museum (Etnografski muzei; Tues-Sun 9am-noon & 2-5pm; US$1.50, ticket also valid for Historical Museum) housed in a National Revival-period former girls' school, a fine half-timbered structure vaguely reminiscent of Tudor architecture. Inside is one of provincial Bulgaria's best collections of folk costumes and crafts, strong on local marriage customs: exhibits include the enigmatic svatbeni bardeta or "wedding pitchers", twelve earthenware jugs hanging from a two-metre-long wooden pole. One entire floor is devoted to brass band instruments, imported from central Europe by village ensembles at the turn of the century; while, outside, a pavilion displays nineteenth-century carriages and carts (and a particularly ornate bright-blue ceremonial sled) built by the local Orazov factory, Bulgaria's leading coachmakers. Next door to the museum is an ethnographic complex : a clutch of National Revival-style houses grouped around the Vaznesenska (Ascension) church , which itself contains a display of icons from the Vratsa area. A couple of the houses are open to the public (same times as museum); one displays the work of local jewellers, while the other features exhibits on Vratsa's silk industry . Silk was the region's major source of income a century ago, when each family would keep a tree for silkworms in the yard - a practice still continued in a few outlying villages. Examples of Vratsa-made fabrics are on show, alongside fading English-language posters offering handy hints on how to tend the worms.
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