The housing construction in Tryavna town and Tryavna region is in direct correspondence with the mountainous ambiance of the settlement. The houses reflect the customs and ethnopsychology of the local Bulgarian people. Any foreign influences have been skillfully assimilated through the perceptions and dexterity of unknown master builders in harmony with the surrounding nature. Generally, the Tryavna house is a mountain type of a house. Two periods can be distinguished in the house construction typology. The first one covers the time from the very appearance of the settlement in the 16th century until it was set on fire by the kirdzhalis (organized armed gangs from demobilized militaries) in 1798. The second one covers the time from the beginning of 18th century until the end of 19th century. 

The houses from the first period were made of timber with plank frame structure. They had simple architectural characteristics. The stone basement floor contained the livestock. Above it lied the living quarters, which was accessed through an outdoor wooden staircase. The house had a few rooms only – a living room, a bedroom and a larder. The typical house had large eaves, it was lined with stone tiles and its rear façade facing the street, amidst a spacious courtyard in front enclosed by stone wall fencing. Sample houses of that period, such as Popangelov’s house and Angel Kanchev’s house, have been preserved to nowadays.

Daskalov’s house was built between 1804 and 1808 and it is the type of building characteristic for the transition from the first to the second architectural period. Bisymmetrical structure, having a spacious balcony and magnificent carved wood ceilings, this house was a residence representative for the time and age of the Revival period as a whole. 

In the second architectural period Tryavna houses were raised higher. The house was pushed further to the street line, while the stone basement floor was intended to serve as a craft workshop or trade store. Above the basement floor lies the living quarter floor, which was made of beam frame structure and wattle and daub walls. Interior and exterior walls were also daubed with fine clay layer and whitewashed on the outside. There were more rooms in the house. It was made more comfortable and functional in line with the growing requirements of their inhabitants and their activities. The large balcony, the beautiful bay windows, the recesses ornamentally drawn in a French manner, the corner windows and winding stone stairs in front of the entrance door are only a small mentioning of the peculiarities of Tryavna houses dating from the middle of 19th century. The abundant availability of construction materials that were obtained from the nearby vicinity blends the house with its natural environment. This unity is the key that makes Tryavna houses so unique. Its functional floor separation in horizontal line was further emphasized by different construction methods – stone basement floor with white filling of the joints, whitewashed walls and wooden window frames ending with the so called “eyebrows” (curved wooden ornaments on top of the window frame). Polychromy is a distinctive feature of the works of master painters from the entire Tryavna artistic school.

“The old Tryavna house had mostly two stories. One-story houses were rarely built and they were mostly located away from the central street. <…> the whole structure above the stone basement was made of assembled wooden beams. The construction included the making of the whole wooden frame structure of the house, which was then covered by heavy stone tiles. When the wooden frame structure was ready the so called filling began, that is, the empty area between the beams would be filled up with woven lattice made of thin flexible breech laths. When the woven lattice of interior and exterior walls was done, the wattle was daubed with clay-straw mixture. <…> When it dried, the plaster coating was whitewashed. <…> The best part of the house basement floor was occupied by a kind of shop (craft workshop or a trade store), while in the remaining portion of it there was a kitchen raising slightly above the ground floor and a room with as little window overlooking the workshop interior, enabling the housewife to see who was coming in and out of the house. The rooms upstairs (ranging from 2 to 5) were laid out in circle around a wide covered balcony. The family would live downstairs in the winter, and upstairs in the summer. <…>  The second floor of a Tryavna house, gracefully extending on beautiful wooden bay windows and providing some extra area, looked quite light despite the overhanging wide-eave stone roof. The bay windows were made with an exquisite sense of proportion without giving the impression that the heavy upper structure was suppressing the one beneath.” 

Excerpt from: Dimo Kazasov, “The Bulgarian towns long ago”.