One of the favorite places for recreation near Gabrovo is Gradishte. Only 3 km away from the city, the area is a large meadow with a children’s playground, two restaurants, and many recreation areas. The conditions are perfect for a nature outing and sporting outdoor activities with children and friends.

An eco-path leads to the ancient fortress of Gradishte from where the area gets its name. The fortress was a typical settlement for its time with a fortification wall about 4 km long. Archaeological excavations have found the remains of 45 buildings that have been located closely together. Today remains of the fortress wall of the fortress have been preserved, guarding the approaches of the Shipka Pass. There are remains of a church, functioning from the 4th to the 7th century, with crypt, additional chapel from the 5th century and remnants of frescoes. 200 meters east of the fortress are found traces of another church from the VI century and located east of its necropolis.

From the fortress, you can go to the TV Tower from where you can see a great panorama of the city, part of the Vitata wall, as well as Botev Peak. 

The Gabrovo Clock Tower is the highest in Bulgaria after the towers in Botevgrad and Bansko. Architecturally, it belongs to the so called Tryavna type. However, the extended proportions of its individual parts is an unusual phenomenon in the Revival construction practice. At its creation, the tower, 27.70 meters high, stood out sharply above the low-rise centre of Gabrovo. Passengers who came to the settlement heard its bell ringing from afar.

As early as the 17th century, clock towers appeared in Bulgarian settlements, and in the 18th century they were already an integral part of their central space. After the burning of Gabrovo in 1798 of the troops of Kapudan Hussein Pasha, only two buildings survived – the old stone bridge (Konashki Bridge from 1749) and the ClockTower. According to the historiographer Dr. Petar Tsonchev, the 18th-century tower was probably not particularly high. Evidence of the existence of a clock tower in Gabrovo in the 18th century is a notebook of Hadji Hristo Rachkov, who in 1799 carefully noted in it that Gabrovo was divided into five neighborhoods, one of which was called “Sahat”, i.e. the neighborhood with the clock.

In 1828, Gabrovians decided to build a new clock tower. In order to avoid unfair competition in craft workshops and commercial shops – for the simultaneous raising and lowering of their shutters under the blows of the “sakhat” (the clock), the place of the clock tower is chosen so that it can be seen and heard from the main street (today’s “Radetska”). In the same year, three wealthy men, “chorbadjii” and the tax collector Georgi agreed with the Kazanlak Turk Hafouz aga for a clockwork worth 2,150 Groschen. But the construction was postponed by several years due to the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829. The tower was completed in 1835 with the funds of Gabrovian philistines and the voluntary work of Gabrovian peasants. As it says on its Bulgarian inscription on the western wall – “1835 March 11 this pillar [tower] was erected upon the insistence and by the labour of Gabrovian peasants”. The first traveller to mention the city clock was the Frenchman Ami Boué in 1838, writing about the central “big, very long and poorly paved street” of Gabrovo, in the middle of which “there is something like a square with a lot of shops and a clock tower”. In 1871, the Gabrovo teacher Iliya Hristovich describes the clock tower in more detail, pointing out that “in the very centre of the city, as some guardian, the city sakhat rises high.”

The bell for the watch was delivered from Vienna, as our inscription in Latin faithfully convinces us – “Mich goss Johann Georg Fielgrader in Wien anno 1792”. In his notebook the merchant Rachko Tsankov wrote: “1835 July 1 I completed the tower of the sakhat and raised the chanat [the bell].” The watch did not have a dial until 1901-1902. It only counted the hours by ringing the bell. It was only in the first years of the twentieth century, at the direction of the Armenian watchmaker Mihail Artin Boyadzhiyan the carpenter Mincho Ivanov Kanev developed an additional mechanism for the movement of the hands of the dial, and the ironworker Matyo Ivanov – the iron parts of the new mechanism and the arrows. Gabrovo Clock Tower – this vertical dominant over the urban environment guarded the work of craftsmen and showed their growing economic strength in the future industrial Manchester of Bulgaria. Today it is among the few original witnesses to our bygone times.

One of the favorite places for recreation near Gabrovo is Gradishte. Only 3 km away from the city, the area is a large meadow with a children’s playground, two restaurants, and many recreation areas. The conditions are perfect for a nature outing and sporting outdoor activities with children and friends.

An eco-path leads to the ancient fortress of Gradishte from where the area gets its name. The fortress was a typical settlement for its time with a fortification wall about 4 km long. Archaeological excavations have found the remains of 45 buildings that have been located closely together. Today remains of the fortress wall of the fortress have been preserved, guarding the approaches of the Shipka Pass. There are remains of a church, functioning from the 4th to the 7th century, with crypt, additional chapel from the 5th century and remnants of frescoes. 200 meters east of the fortress are found traces of another church from the VI century and located east of its necropolis.

From the fortress, you can go to the TV Tower from where you can see a great panorama of the city, part of the Vitata wall, as well as Botev Peak. 

In every city’s history, there is always more than one local landmark associated with local stories or legends. These stories tell about personalities, landmarks, and memories of long-gone times.

And here in Gabrovo there is a special landmark that you must definitely visit if you come to the city. The fountain, built in 1762 by Hadji Krastyu Aprilov, a relative of the great Vasil Aprilov, the founder of Bulgarian education. They say that it is the oldest architectural monument in the city and is a unique testimony to the craftsmanship and culture of its time.

This corner fountain was built in a wonderful place, namely in the middle of the so-called “Sixth District”. The quarter in which in the past the most turbulent guild and artisan life was boiling, and in the evening the local pubs were filled with cheerful noise and bustle. According to history, the master decided that it was here that running water was most needed and rolled up his sleeves. They also say that he built the fountain with one spout to the east for shy girls who came early in the morning for water and two to the north, for those who would come later for a chat and a joke. In the period after the Liberation, it was built into the wall of the courtyard of a local house for a while. At first glance, it looks quite ordinary, made of ordinary stone and sandstone slabs, but its true wealth lies in the decorative elements. In the past, it had many elements: pigeons, rosettes, crosses, and a two-headed bird, only a part of which has been preserved to this day. The master did not accidentally place the two-headed bird because it symbolizes national pride. Equally interesting are the copper-forged spouts with handles on top, which are a true masterpiece of blacksmithing. They say that by grabbing onto them, it was easier to lift the heavy pitchers full of water.

Although time has erased some of these ornaments, the fountain of Hadji Krastyu Aprilov remains an impressive testament to the past. Visit it and immerse yourself in the history of Gabrovo, where every pebble tells its own story.