Description of the attraction
The House-Museum of Neofit Rilski is located in the town of Bansko, near the Church of the Holy Trinity. The opening of the house-museum took place in 1981 and was timed to coincide with the centenary of the artist's death.
The building itself was known long before the creation of a house-museum there, it was called the Benin House, and was erected in the 18th century. The house is surrounded by a stone wall and reliably protected by heavy stone gates, and it is precisely such fortified buildings that are typical of the architectural appearance of ancient Bansko. The status of an architectural monument was assigned to the building in 1967, according to an ad in one of the issues of the newspaper Derzhaven Vestnik.
On the ground floor of the house there is a dough-mixing department, a cache and rooms for household needs. On the second floor there is a living room, a vestibule and a cell school. Outside, the house was connected to the outbuildings by a large roof terrace.
Benin House - so the building was named for a reason. After all, the secular name of Neophyte was Nikola Popetrov Benin. Born in Bansko in 1793, in his youth Nikola studied iconography with the founder of the art school of Bansko - Vishanov-Moler. The further life of the student was associated with the Rila Monastery: at first he painted icons here, later he was tonsured as a monk, and then he became the abbot of the monastery. The neophyte devoted his life to culture, science and education. He also acted as the author of the first grammar in Bulgaria.
The exposition arranged in his house, in chronological order, presents various materials demonstrating the long-term activity of this prominent Bulgarian. Among the exhibits, of course, is "Bulgarian grammar" written by him in 1835, books by Neophytos from his personal library and fragments of the Greek-Bulgarian dictionary.
