The Permanent Exhibition of the Bansko Icon-Painting School occupies a former Revival-era school building in Varosha and houses around 100 of the best surviving works of the local icon-painting tradition. The Bansko School flourished from the late eighteenth into the nineteenth century, blending Byzantine Orthodox conventions with secular and folk elements that were unusual for their time.
The most prominent figure was Toma Vishanov-Molera, who studied in Vienna and brought back Baroque shading and perspective that other Bulgarian icon painters of his generation never used. His works dominate the exhibition. Half an hour to an hour, depending on your appetite for icons.