Rose Museum, Rose production museum in Kazanlak, Bulgaria

The Rose Museum in Kazanlak occupies a 1,200-square-metre building in the Rosarium park, opened in 2016. Its two exhibition halls hold over 15,000 objects from rose growing and oil production across Bulgaria: tools for working the fields, vessels for storing and exporting rose oil and rose water, photographs and documents. Reconstructions show a rose-oil warehouse and the first laboratory for testing rose oil, set up in 1912 by chemistry teacher Hristo Yaramov.

The first exhibition on Kazanlak's oil rose opened in 1967 in the building of the Rose and Essential Oil Crops Institute, and in 1969 it became a separate museum. In 2016 the collection moved to a purpose-built hall in the Rosarium park. A reconstruction shows the first laboratory for testing rose oil, set up in 1912 by chemistry teacher Hristo Yaramov.

Since 1903 Kazanlak has held its Rose Festival on the first Saturday and Sunday of June, with a parade and a rose queen chosen from the town. The museum sells rose oil, rose liqueur, gyulova rakiya and rose-petal jam, and a hall is set aside for tasting aromas. Distilling demonstrations take place in the inner courtyard.

The museum sits in Rosarium Park in central Kazanlak, not north of the centre. It is open daily from 9:00 to 17:30, and entry is free on the last Monday of each month. Guided tours are available in Bulgarian, English, French and Russian; photography and video recording carry separate fees.

The vessel visitors remember is a konkouma, a flask used for rose oil that was last filled in 1947; decades later it still gives off the scent of roses. It sits among more than 15,000 objects covering rose growing and oil production from across Bulgaria.