Neofit Rilski House-Museum

The house-museum of Neofit Rilski is located in the town of Bansko. It is also known as the Benina house. It was built in the XVIII century and has been proclaimed architectural and historical monument of national significance. Neofit Rilski is one of the patriarchs of the new Bulgarian education and enlightenment. He was born in 1793. He was taught icon-painting by one of the founders of the Bansko school of arts Toma Vishanov-Molera. He spent some time painting in the famous Rila monastery, where he went later to become a monk. He dedicated his whole life to science and education. He is the author of the first Bulgarian grammar (1835). The house he was born in, where he lived until 1811, is a typical example of the Banso architecture from the end of the XVIII – the beginning of the XIX century. Nowadays, it functions as a museum.