Meet the PlaceCRAFT Regions I Ivanovo Municipality - Bulgaria

A PlaceCRAFT series introducing the five pilot regions and the activities taking place within them.

Across the Danube Region, PlaceCRAFT works with five pilot communities, each shaped by its own history, culture and challenges. In this series, we take a closer look at these places: their landscapes, communities and heritage, and the range of activities, from workshops to cultural and touristic initiatives, being carried out to support their revitalization.

Ivanovo Municipality - Bulgaria

About the Region

About 20 km south of Ruse and the Danube, Ivanovo is a network of 13 villages set in the Rusenski Lom river valley, a landscape of limestone canyons, forests and traditional farmland, and one of Bulgaria's most remarkable cultural landscapes.

The region is home to the Rock-Hewn Churches of Ivanovo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site carved into the canyon cliffs, and the medieval fortress of Cherven, alongside Orlova Chuka cave, the eco-routes of Rusenski Lom Nature Park, and a string of villages with active local traditions. Ivanovo is also a multicultural rural area where diversity is part of everyday life, reflected in local food, traditions and the social fabric of the villages.

Beyond its best-known landmarks, the region rewards a slower kind of visit: village stories, food traditions, and routes linked to local memory, culinary heritage and wine-making offer an especially deep and authentic way to connect with the area.

The Pilot Focus

The Ivanovo pilot addresses a challenge the region knows well: most visits are short and seasonal, and the area's heritage, nature and village life are not yet connected into a coherent offer. The work centres on connecting the villages, through routes, shared experiences and stronger local collaboration, so the region becomes a destination rather than a stopover.

An underused community space will be revitalised as a local hub for events, markets and creative activity, while an artist residency will produce site-specific works tied to the region's identity, including a permanent installation. Alongside this, the project is developing practical tools for visitors: a microregional map, themed travel packages combining heritage, gastronomy and nature, and pilot events testing what a slower, village-based experience in Ivanovo could look like.

The focus throughout is on activating what already exists, community spaces, local food traditions, village events, walking and cycling routes, and making the connections between them visible and usable.