Shiroka Luka

Shiroka Luka is a village in the Valley of Shirokolushka River, 20 km north-west of Smolyan; it is an architectural and ethnographical reserve. The population is 910 people. It was settled at the time of mass conversion to Mohammedanism of the Rhodope population during the Ottoman yoke. The Revival town planning construction has been successfully preserved till now. Approximately 90 sites have been proclaimed monuments of culture. Many houses have been preserved including 6 bridges and the complex of the old school St. Panteleimon (1888) and the Church of the Holy Virgin (1834). The oldest houses date back to the beginning of the 19th century. (1802, 1829). The houses built towards the middle of the 19th century are much bigger; they vary in design by the overhanging bays and forthcoming protrusions. Here in Shiroka Luka there is a musical school teaching national instruments.

The origin of Shiroka Luka dates back to the early years of the Ottoman rule in Bulgaria (late 14th - early 15th century) and due to the used force in order Bulgarians to be converted to the Muslim religion. The first settlers of Shiroka Luka were villagers from the skirts of the Rhodopi Mountain, who fled up to the hard-to-reach mountains so as to escape from conversion.

Shiroka Luka is declared a unique architectural, folklore and ethnographical reserve for its 110 monuments of culture. Its houses are of the so-called type of Large Rhodopi Houses, where visitors can notice the significant influence of the Italian Renaissance and the so obvious sign of symmetry and perfection. The typical house of Shiroka Luka is a two-storey building, with bays and high chimneys made of stone. It is surrounded by a thick wall, and has small windows, doors of forged metal, internal staircases and a cellar with a hiding place. Sometimes it even has its own chapel.

Besides the typical houses of Shiroka Luka, the most astonishing buildings in the village are the Sgurov Konak, which currently hosts an ethnographic museum, and a church named "Our Lady's Assumption" (1834), built in just 40 days. In Shiroka Luka there is also the one of just two folklore music schools in Bulgaria.