Winter lasts for almost half the year in BANSKO , a town of just under 10,000 people nestled among greenery in the shadow of ice-capped Mt Vihren, the highest peak in the Pirin range. Unlike many Bulgarian towns, its modernized centre co-exists easily with the older quarters, a maze of cobbled lanes where the timber-framed stone houses hide behind thick walls with stout double doors, built to withstand siege. The money to pay for these sturdy dwellings came from a nineteenth-century upsurge in commerce, when Bansko was an important waystation on the trade routes linking the Aegean port of Kavalla with the Balkan hinterland. Home to a new mercantile elite, many of whom used their wealth to endow churches or assist in the restoration of Rila Monastery, the town became an important centre for icon painters and other craftsmen. When the trade routes moved westward in the twentieth century Bansko settled back into rusticity, and despite a recent move into tourism it remains an agricultural town, with goats and donkey-drawn carts sharing road space with the latest four-wheel-drives.

Since 1990 the town has become enormously popular with Sofians as an out-of-town retreat, prompting an explosion of family-run B&Bs and cosy, traditional-style mehanas or restaurants. The existence of some exhilarating ski runs just west of town is an important part of the town's winter appeal, although the difficulty of access to the pistes (unreliable public transport and inadequate ski lifts) has meant that Bansko is yet to feature in the plans of the package-tour operators. The locals plan to change all this by building a new cable car up the slopes of the Pirin range, but the project has encountered stiff opposition from Bulgaria's environmentalists, who argue that the unspoilt nature of the area - which exerts such a powerful draw over summer visitors - will be irreperably damaged by the scheme.

For the time being, Bansko remains very much a weekend resort, with visitors crowding into the mehanas to be entertained by local folk groups singing traditional Macedonian songs about anti-Ottoman brigands. From Monday to Thursday however, many establishments shut up shop, and Bansko goes to bed early.