IMI Interactive Museum of Industry

Gabrovo is called ‘The Bulgarian Manchester’ because of the sudden growth of industry there in the nineteenth century. IMI, the Interactive Museum of Industry, tells the story of its wide range of trades – leather production, weaving, pottery, iron forging, carpentry, ropemaking and knife making. It is located in the house of a Grabovo industrialist, which was built in 1893. The displays are divided into three periods of history – first from the industrialization of the country at the end of the nineteenth century to 1944, then during the era of socialism in Bulgaria and finally the period since 1989. The interactive parts of the museum let visitors ‘blow up’ a wall with dynamite, take part in films and choose stories to listen to about the history of the city.