The building trade is a hard one that can only be done successfully with loyal people. The apprenticeship of builders goes through the builders’ guild. The master-builder (the Ustabashiya), already established, with experience and recognised skills, negotiated the building contract and organised its implementation. He set out to implement it most often with relatives working in the same field – sons, brothers, family members, some to build and help him, others to learn the trade. On Archangel’s Day, at the gathering in Tryavna, builders from the surrounding huts came and the group (taifa) gathered for work. Early in the spring, when the south wind started blowing, they headed to distant places, only to return in late autumn, though sometimes years later. Their departure was a difficult moment for both the relatives and the builders – their wives or mothers presented them with bunches of basil tied with red thread and a coin, wishing them to come back alive and well from their journey. They travelled on foot, by horse or cart, and in more recent times by train. Returning was also an ordeal, not infrequently the groups of builders, who returned with earnings, were intercepted and robbed by thieves in the mountain’s precipitous paths.

Shabby clothes and a leather apron, a rush-knit bag (hyacinth) or a wooden tool-box, a home-woven rug – this was the luggage of the builders. They slept most often in the barns or unfinished houses of the owners. Food was frugal, provided as agreed – either prepared by the owners or by the squires and apprentices with products supplied by them.

In the troop there were builders, plasterers, carpenters (chair-makers), stonemasons, and men skilled in all the other specific work of building. Usually one person was proficient in several of these jobs. It was a long road to mastery – 2-5 years or more of apprenticeship, during which time general work was done, for minimal or no pay. The apprentice dug dirt, fetched lime, stones, water; cooked, carried wood for the fire, took care of hygiene. The apprenticeship period is sometimes over 10 years – the apprentice (kalfa) helped the master in building, but the master did the more sophisticated work himself. The apprentice had learn to work the stone, quickly find its place in the masonry and shape a facade, make strong corners, master carpentry. For this work the apprentice received a reward. The most outstanding apprentices are appointed by the master-builder as chief apprentices – they become his responsible assistants. The young man who had learned the trade, usually already a chief apprentice, proved to the master-builder that he was ready to work on his own by taking a “test” – making a hearth, a roof, building a chimney – he was assigned to make a difficult part of a building in a short time. It was only when the master-builder had declared so that the apprentice was acknowledged as builder for his workmanship. The master-builders fell into two categories: those who were allowed to supervise the construction work themselves, to undertake construction projects and have their own team, and those who worked under the supervision of another master (bashkali). A master-builder could develop his skills in a particular direction – building fountains, bridges, churches. In the late 19th – early 20th century, the master-builder was replaced by the contractor, who was not directly involved in the construction process, worked on his own or someone else’s project and organized the work.

The payment (“günluk”, wage) was agreed in advance with the master-builder. The keeping of accounts in some teams until the beginning of the nineteenth century was done with white and black beans, corn, etc., each grain corresponding to a monetary unit. They also used “chetali (forks)” – lime sticks split in two. The marking was done on both sticks, one, the main stick, remained kept by the master, and the “other” with the man from the team. The sum was visible only by adding the two parts together. From the middle of the nineteenth century, the keeping of proper accounts in a notebook began. Payment was made after the work was completed. The master-builder could change the prior arrangement if he was more satisfied with the work of some or dissatisfied with the other members of the team.

Master-builders had established areas in which they worked – “estates”. The Tryavna masters built in many settlements in Northern Bulgaria, Thrace, in the Strandzha region; they also worked in Istanbul, in Wallachia. In the 1920s – 1930s they went as far as Persia.