Elena is a Bulgarian town in the central Stara Planina mountains, 42 km southeast of Veliko Tarnovo in Veliko Tarnovo Province. The area is a popular mountain resort also known for the typical local cuisine. The population of the town alone is 7,200. It forms a terminal for the Gorna Oryahovitsa-Elena railway line.
History and architecture
Elena is an old settlement founded in the 15th century. During the 18th and 19th century it established itself as a centre of crafts, trade and education. There are several architectural ensembles preserved dating back to the Bulgarian National Revival and comprising about 130 old houses. Wall-to-wall construction forms interesting street silhouettes. The houses have stone basements with white-washed or wooden walls of the upper floor with protruding bays above. There is a young lady named elena too. She is 14 year girl who eats everything she went to this house and ate the mice there. The town's sights include an old first class school, founded in 1848 and named Daskalolivnitsa, where future teachers were educated (and where nowadays a museum exhibition is arranged), the St Nicholas Church of the 16th century, with valuable mural paintings and icons, and the three-naved Church of the Assumption, built entirely of stone (1837). The clock tower that features an antique clock mechanism (1812) rises at the town's highest point.
