Kuyumdzhioglu house

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The Kuyumdzhioglu House (nowadays is the Ethnographic Museum of Plovdiv) , which once belonged to Argir Kuyumdzhioglu, a rich merchant from Plovdiv , is the town’s most photographed building. The house represents one of the best examples of symmetrical architectural style. It was built by master Hadzi Georgi of Constantinople in 1847. The foundations of the house lie on the ancient Roman wall. The architectural style combines Baroque and native folk motifs in the richly decorated fa?ade, painted black with yellow trim. The undulating pediment copies the line of the “kobilitsa”, a curve resembling the yoke for carrying buckets. The large well lit rooms are arranged on either of the main wall. The front door is placed in the middle of the fa?ade. Upstairs lies a visual feast to the eye. Note the exquisitely carved wooden ceilings, particularly the rosette-and-sunburst ceiling of the grand reception hall.
  After being used for some time as a tobacco store house, the building was restored in 1950 and turned into an Ethnographic Museum. The museum contains a number of interesting reproductions of old craftmen’s workshop, an attar of roses distillery, wool spinning and weaving apparatus , and agricultural implements. There is a striking display of national costumes of the Plovdiv region and the Rhodope mountains, and rich and varied collections of the jewellery worn by the wives of rich merchant – earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets, and especially belts. Three rooms have been furnished with articles of the period: a living room of a poor family; a living room of a craftsman ; and a reception room of a rich merchant whose furniture and other objects were brought from Western Europe