The origin of Shiroka Luka can be traced back to the early years of Ottoman rule in Bulgaria (late 14th-early 15th century) and the wave of forced conversion of Bulgarian citizens to the Muslim religion. The first settlers of Shiroka Luka were villagers from the skirts of the Rhodopi Mountain, who fled up to the hard-to-reach mountains in order to escape from forced conversion.
The village of Shiroka Luka is declared a unique architectural, folklore and ethnographical reserve for its 110 monuments of culture, grouped into several architectural ensembles. Its houses are of the so-called type of Large Rhodopi Houses, where one can notice the influence of the Italian Renaissance and the latter’s fondness of symmetry. The typical house of Shiroka Luka is a two-storey building, with bays and high chimneys made of stone. It is surrounded by a thick wall, and has small windows, doors of forged metal, internal staircases and a cellar with a hiding place. Sometimes it even has its own chapel.
Apart from the typical houses of Shiroka Luka, the most impressive buildings in the village are the Sgurov Konak, which currently hosts an ethnographic museum, and a church named '"Our Lady’s Assumption'" (1834), built in just 40 days. Shiroka Luka is also home to one of just two folklore music schools in Bulgaria.
