The Aprilov National High School, Gabrovo
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At the First Bulgarian School, the “Bell-Lancaster method”, also known as “mutual instruction” method, is integrated. According to this teaching technique, the more talented pupils are being used as “helpers” to the teacher, passing on the information they had learned to other students. Today, the system is know as “learning through teaching”, and resembles the way professors, assistants and tutors work together in university education.
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In 1847, Vasil Aprilov wrote his will – he left a large amount of money for the building of the School of Gabrovo with the recommendation that it should become a "school for high science".
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One of the interesting architectural solutions found there is the building’s atrium. Glazed at its north part, it connects the visual space of the inner courtyard and the greenery in it, the tomb of Vasil Aprilov and the facases that surround the old school building.
In the difficult centuries of the Ottoman rule, one of the Bulgarian cultural centers is the small mountain town of Gabrovo. Situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains, it became the cradle of the Bulgarian secular education. The first modern secular school was opened in 1835. As an acquisitive project, the school is built with donations from patriotic Gabrovo citizens as Vasil Aprilov, Nikola Palauzov, Vasil Rasheev and other wealthy Bulgarians. There, the first textbooks, materials and supplies were written. These have served as a model for all upcoming educational materials in other schools across the country.
Year by year, the Gabrovo School turns into the first full school in oppressed Bulgarian lands.
In 1840, the first school library in Bulgaria was created there with books donated by Aprilov and Palauzov.
Since 1889, the school took the name of its primary benefactor Vasil Aprilov – the Aprilov National High School. On September 6th, 1916 the high school became mixed, which means that girls can also receive an education there.
GALLERY
Since 1992, it became a public school called “The Aprilov High School” – one of the most prestigious high schools in Bulgaria.
The school still exists today, having returned to its historic building and having been upgraded with two new and modern school buildings.
You can find out more about the building at: www.nag-school.org
"The Emblematic buildings of Bulgaria" initiative aims to promote the Bulgarian cultural and historical heritage. The presented 3D visuals are illustrative and make no pretence of having thorough scientific and architectural accuracy.
