Though it lacks the cachet of antiquity, Samokov can boast a tradition of skilled craft work second to none in Bulgaria. Founded as a mining community in the fourteenth century, it soon became one of the busiest manufacturing centres in the Turkish empire (its name is derived from the Bulgarian verb "to forge"). In Samokov, all kinds of craft guilds have flourished, particularly weavers and tailors, who turned flax into uniforms for the Ottoman army. Weaving and tailoring are still flourishing business in the area. 

From the seventeenth century until the end of Turkish rule, Samokov's stature eclipsed that of Sofia and Kyustendil and was elevated even more by the artistry of its woodworkers and painters. These skilled craftmen and artists decorated Bulgaria's finest monasteries. Today the town is famous as the centre of Bulgaria's highest producing potato growing area, and you'll see sacks of the tubers sold by roadside vendors on your journey into town. Foreign tourists are sometimes bussed into Samokov from nearby Borovets to wander around the town during the day, but the area isn't really designed and geared up for tourism. Therefore, it will be a very natural unenhabced Bulgarian experience and one that will be remembered for its lack of pretension.

There's plenty of evidence of Samokov's past in and around the centre, although modern urban planning has left its monuments marooned in a sea of crumbling paving stones. The ornate fountain or cheshma on the main square is a legacy of the Turks, who considered running water an essential part of civilized living. Close by stands the only one of Samokov's once-numerous mosques to survive, the Bairakli dzhamiya (Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 1-5pm), preserved as a monument to the skills of local builders rather than as a place of worship. Just off the square to the east, the History Museum (Mon-Fri 8am-noon & 1-5pm) traces Samokov's evolution up to the present day. The town's industrial past is remembered in a sequence of models illustrating the mining and smelting of iron ore: one shows a gargantuan, waterwheel-powered set of bellows used to force air into the furnaces. There's a disappointing lack of exhibits relating to the Samokov school of icon painters, who decorated churches and monasteries throughout Bulgaria in the nineteenth century, although one display cabinet does contain the personal effects of Zahari Zograf, the greatest of their number. Continue east for 400m and you'll stumble upon the impressive shell of a derelict synagogue, built to serve Samokov's prosperous Jewish community in the nineteeenth century. Next door, a walled garden filled with fruit trees wraps itself around the dazzling, blue and white Sarafina House, home to a rich Jewish trading family in the 1860s, and fully restored in the 1970s. Inside, chambers lead off from the main reception room, each sumptuously kitted out with traditional carpets, vivacious floral wall paintings, and intricately carved wooden ceilings.