Factory in the Bulgarian town of Kostandovo makes carpets for the British royal family

One of the few factories for handmade carpets in the world is in the town of Kostandovo in the Rhodope mountains, Southern Bulgaria. Carpets for the British royal family have been made there for years. The factory also carries out many projects for public institutions in the UK, for which they create replicas of old carpets.

The owner of the factory says with sadness, there is no similar policy in Bulgaria to preserve old carpets that have historical value and replace them with a complete replica.

For years, the Bulgarian factory has produced carpets for the royal family in the UK. They also fulfil orders for public institutions, which come from the National Trust charity, of which King Charles III is honorary president.

"We've been working under his auspices for 25 years, when a committee got together and decided that this historic site's carpet was over 300 years old, needed restoration and when they made that decision, my partner had trained group that does this work - the restoration," said Nino Parpulov, owner of the carpet factory.

However, this restoration process takes years and costs a lot of money.

"This now obliges the organisation to not be able to lay it again, just keeps it for generations, in perfect, shape, restored. And in its place, they lay our carpet, which we make within 3 to 6 months. An exact copy of the same antique carpet," added Nino Parpulov, owner of the carpet factory.

Preparation beforehand is of utmost importance, says Nino Parpulov.

"The way we worked with the Nashonal Trust was - we get the order, we take the design. From there they send us a sample of 10 - 15 knots of each colour that's in the carpet and say these are the colours, this is what you need to do - I have to repeat the exact same colours and weave a sample, which sample I send to England. The committee meets, they discuss it and say yes - that's what we want," said Nino Parpulov.

However, the satisfaction of working for the institutions on the Island brings sadness for Nino and his colleagues, because there are no similar orders for restoration and copying of old carpets in Bulgaria from Bulgarian cultural institutions.

"There is no interest - neither from the government nor from anyone and the only place where there is a carpet made by us is the Rila Monastery. The bishop watched a programme on TV, contacted me and they decided to restore the room of Boris the Third who used to go there in the Rila Monastery for recreation. We went there, on the spot and decided what the design should be, we made it, we laid the carpet, now the room is used by the Patriarch," adds Nino Parpulov.

The factory in the town is among the very few left in the world where the carpets are made entirely by hand. This is highly appreciated by the royal family, and Nino Parpulov is among the few Bulgarians who have met the then Prince, now King Charles III, in person.

"Charles and Camilla are very down-to-earth people, they behaved very naturally. They are unique and in no way showed any superiority. They behaved almost like us," said Nino Parpulov.

Nino is confident that the cooperation with the UK will continue and beautiful carpets will continue to come out of the weavers' skilful hands.