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Behind the Church of Sveta Troitsa, 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) texts outlining Rilski's career, although the chance to pause in the lovely chestnut tree-shaded courtyard make a visit here worhwhile. 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 generally 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 selection 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 the 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.
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