Geography

The village is located about 12 km northwest of Dryanovo

Dryanovo

The town of Dryanovo is situated at the northern foot of the Balkan Mountains in Gabrovo Province, Bulgaria, amphitheatrically along the two banks of Dryanovo River, a tributary to the Yantra River. The town is a centre of the homonymous Dryanovo Municipality, which is composed of 62 villages,...

, Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

 on the road to Sevlievo

Sevlievo

Sevlievo is a town in north-central Bulgaria, part of Gabrovo Province. Sevlievo is known as one of the wealthiest towns in Bulgaria owing to the well developed local economy, high employment rate and major foreign investments, such as the American Standard Companies factory...

. It is situated in a small but picturesque valley around the Yantra

Yantra River

The Yantra is a river in northern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. It is 285 km long and has a watershed of 7,862 km²....

 river. The climate is relatively mellow with the summer temperatures reaching up to 36 degrees Celsius.

History

The surrounding region is rich of cultural and historical values. About two kilometers south of the village are the ruins of the Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 fortress Discoduratera. Built in the second half of the 2nd century AD, it was an important commercial center. It was located on the road from Nicopolis ad Istrum

Nicopolis ad Istrum

Nicopolis ad Istrum was a Roman and Early Byzantine town founded by Emperor Trajan around 101–106, at the junction of the Iatrus and the Rositsa rivers, in memory of his victory over the Dacians. Its ruins are located at the village of Nikyup, 20 km north of Veliko Tarnovo in northern Bulgaria...

 to Augusta Trajana. It also served as a customs station. Its layout conforms to other roman stations: a square with each of its corners aligned with one of the four cardinal directions. The area of the fortress was roughly 12000 square meters.

In the middle of the 3rd century AD, Discoduratera was destroyed by the Goths

Goths

The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

. It was later re-built and live there continued on until the arrival of the Slavs. During the Second Bulgarian Empire

Second Bulgarian Empire

The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...

 the village came to live as a convenient place to spend the night in. The name of Gostilitsa is derived from the word gosti , Bulgarian for guests.

Culture

Gostilitsa is home to the traditional Bulgarian folklore group Gostilovski Babi . The group has participated in and is a winner of many folklore events including the festival in Koprivshtitsa

Koprivshtitsa

Koprivshtitsa is a historic town in Sofia Province, central Bulgaria, lying on the Topolnitsa River among the Sredna Gora mountains. It was one of the centres of the April Uprising in 1876 and is known for its authentic Bulgarian architecture and for its folk music festivals, making it a very...

. As part of their act they recreate many local traditions such as Laduvane, Trifon Zarezan, and Lazaruvane. Most-colorful however is the Ponuda: on Babin Day , all women dress as men and walk through the village until they run into a man whom they will then lift and carry around in the air. It is said that men are afraid to go out on that day.