Arbanasi is a village 4km from Veliko Turnovo, set on a plateau above the Yantra valley with sweeping views down to the town and the river gorge. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was a wealthy merchant settlement — its residents enjoyed special tax privileges from the Ottoman authorities — and the houses and churches they built reflect that prosperity. Several large fortified mansion-houses have been preserved or restored, their forbidding exterior walls concealing beautifully decorated interior rooms.
The Nativity Church (1748) is the finest of Arbanasi's churches, its interior almost completely covered with frescoes depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments in a vivid, energetic style that has nothing to do with the austere formality of Byzantine painting. The sheer density of the imagery — thousands of figures covering every surface — is overwhelming in the best way. The church exterior offers no preparation for what is inside. Combined with a visit to Tsarevets in Veliko Turnovo, Arbanasi makes a full day's serious sightseeing.