The Tower of Kurt Pasha (, ''Kurtpashova kula''), also rendered as Kurt Pasha Tower or Kurtpashov(a) Tower, is an Ottoman-era

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

in the town of

Vratsa Vratsa ( ) is the largest city in northwestern Bulgaria and the administrative and economic centre of the municipality of Vratsa and Vratsa district. It is about north of Sofia, southeast of Montana. Situated at the foot of the Vrachanski Bal ...

in northwest

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. Built in the 17th century, nowadays it is used as an exhibition space and souvenir shop adjacent to the Vratsa Regional Historical Museum. Like other

tower houses in the Balkans Tower houses ( ; , ; , ) developed and were built since the Middle Ages in the Balkans,Greville Pounds 1994p. 335 "In southeastern Europe, where the extended family was exemplified as nowhere else in the western world, the home itself was often ...

from that age, the Tower of Kurt Pasha belongs to a specific type of habitable defensive tower which emerged in parts of the Balkans during a turbulent and anarchic period in the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century. The Tower of Kurt Pasha was constructed by a local

feudal lord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or s ...

of the period as a fortified abode for his family, collectively known as Kurtpashovtsi. A legend claims that the family stems from medieval Bulgarian nobility and, having converted to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

under Ottoman rule, preserved its holdings in the region. The tower has a square foundation of and reaches in height. It has a total of four stories, including the basement and ground level. The two top stories were occupied by the family of the owner. The construction of the tower employs trimmer joists, mortar and stone to separate the top floor from the one below, preventing potential fires. The top floor features twelve

arrow slit An arrowslit (often also referred to as an arrow loop, loophole or loop hole, and sometimes a balistraria) is a narrow vertical aperture in a fortification through which an archer can launch arrows or a crossbowman can launch bolts. The interi ...

s as well as openings designed for pouring boiling liquids over potential enemies. These openings were positioned between the

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

s. Although it is smaller in size and more modern than the nearby Tower of the Meshchii, the Tower of Kurt Pasha has the appearance of a small medieval fortress, due to its lack of windows and characteristic shape. In late 2011, the Tower of Kurt Pasha underwent minor conservation works worth 10,000

Bulgarian lev The ''lev'' (, plural: / , ; ISO 4217 code: BGN; numeric code: 975) is the currency of Bulgaria. In old Bulgarian, the word ''lev'' meant "lion"; the word "lion" in the modern language is ''lаv'' (; in Bulgarian: ). The lev is divided in 100 '' ...

a. Currently, the tower houses a souvenir shop on the first floor as well as exhibition space for exhibits of the Vratsa Regional Historical Museum. From early 2012 to mid-2013, the tower had been visited by a total of 40,000 people.

References

{{coord, 43, 12, 3, N, 23, 32, 51, E, type:landmark_region:BG, display=title Museums in Vratsa Province Towers completed in the 17th century Kurt Pasha Vratsa