The Natural History Museum in the village of Cherni Osam

In 1956, the young biologist Ilija Hristov returned as a teacher in the village and founded a naturalist club, began research and collecting, and paired birds and animals. In 1966, the headmaster of the school sent a letter to the Institute of Biology at BAS, and in 1976 the school collection was moved to a new building. The museum's exposition presents fauna from the territory of the northern slopes of the Middle Balkan Mountains, including the biosphere reserve "Steneto", and the museum is active in nature conservation and research and is visited by many tourists. In the 1990s, the museum's exposition and collection contained 1 345 animals, almost all of them rare species - 546 species of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, 158 species of insects, 70 species of ladybirds, 200 herbarium plants, and 90 photographs show the natural sights of the mountain and the Steneto reserve.

Since 2017, 174 insect boxes from a private collection that was donated and contains 9,538 specimens have been added to the exhibits, of which only 572 insect species have been identified so far.