Shiroka Laka is one of the best-preserved traditional villages in Bulgaria, designated an architectural and historical reserve. It sits in a narrow valley above Devin, its stone houses climbing the steep hillside above a clear stream, the old water mills still standing at intervals along the bank. The village was a centre of craft production and trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the prosperity of that era is visible in the solid, ornate houses with their characteristic overhanging upper floors and woodcarved interiors.
The village is also one of the key centres of Rhodope musical tradition. It hosts the National Gaida Festival and other folk music competitions, and the distinctive two-voiced singing style of Rhodope women — a sound that startled Western ethnomusicologists when recordings were first released in the 1970s — is still performed here. The walk from the village centre up to the old church on the ridge above takes 20 minutes and gives a fine view over the valley.