History
When I first saw the abandoned school in Milanovo in 2022, it was a cold December day. I won't go into details about what it looked like then, what crossed my mind, or what it took for us to rebuild it. But today, five years later, it is ready to welcome people once again.
This is a profound reward for me – after 25 years of decay, to reopen the doors of this beautiful building, built with the voluntary labor and incredible devotion of the local people, and to know that I had a hand in its revival.
Education in the village of Milanovo—known as Osikovo back then—dates all the way back to 1858, during Ottoman rule. Initially, a single teacher taught the children in their homes and at the traditional church-based school.
In 1887, a dedicated two-room building was constructed specifically for the school. In 1908, girls were admitted for the first time, and in the years that followed until 1945, the number of students surged so much that there weren't enough desks, and children had to stand upright along the classroom walls. Between the Liberation of Bulgaria and 1950—a period of 70 years—three school buildings were built, with local villagers donating the land for some of them.
In 1945, after the war ended, construction on today's school building began. It was erected by youth and volunteer brigades, who participated in tasks such as making bricks and extracting sand and gravel from the Preboynitsa and Iskar rivers.
During the 1990s, rural depopulation intensified, and in 2002, the school—built with so much passion and hard work—closed its doors due to a lack of students.
I learned all this from the book written by the school’s last principal, Mrs. Dinova. I share this story because it shows how valuable education was for the Bulgarian people at the time.
If you’re curious to see what is hidden around Osika Park, here you can explore some of the most beautiful landmarks in the region.