Year: 2020

Atanas Burov Sq. In 1911, on what was then Alexander I Sq. (now Atanas Burov) and the extant Znepole Str., officially opened the Union Palace Hotel. The project for the impressive Secession building belongs to Nikola Yurukov, who had studied at Vienna and was co-founder of the capital’s foremost architectural firm Fingov – Nichev –…

22, San Stefano Str. In 1881, the Czech brothers Georgi and Bogdan Prošek, set up near the Eagle’s Bridge a deep cellar for cooling and maturing the beer produced in Knyazhevo. A year later, on the site began construction works for a state-of-the-art brewery that would eventually enter into operation in 1884. At the end…

2, Prince Alexander I Sq. Established in 1879 by the Provisional Russian Government, the Bulgarian National Bank is among the first state institutions of the newly liberated Principality. Its first known address, used by the bank since 1894, was on the corner of Lege Str. and Prince Alexander I Blvd. The two-storey building was designed…

1, General Gurko Str. On the site occupied before the Liberation by the Bey’s harem and subsequently, though briefly – by the Fire Brigade, in 1908 opened the City Casino. It was designed by architect Naum Torbov, graduate of the Bucharest School of Fine Arts, proponent of the National Romanticism trend in architecture, and author…

2a, Saborna Str. One of the most beautiful buildings of pre-war Sofia, is the former Grand-Hotel Imperial. It became part of the capital’s landscape in 1920, commissioned by the industrial mogul Ivan Balabanov. Architects of the splendid fusion of Baroque forms with Secession decoration were the undisputed geniuses of the early 20th century Bulgarian construction…

3, Knyaz Alexander Dondukov Blvd. The Bulgarian Phoenixjoint-stock insurance company is established in Sofia in 1917, with initial capital of 4 000 000 LEVA and quickly rises to one of the country’s leading insurance companies. Its growing prosperity leads to the purchase of a 600 sq. m. plot on capital’s 21 Dondukov Blvd. (today at…

54, Alabin Str. The monumental building at the corner of Alabin and Graf Ignatiev was constructed in 1928, for the Orel [Eagle] Insurance Company. The building was designed by the Chernev, Apostolov, Mikhailovski architectural bureau. Its founders had received their education in Europe and have contributed a number of emblematic landmarks to the capital, including…

1, Prince Alexander I Sq. The extant representative building of the established in 1895 Balkan National Insurance Company, occupied the corner of Alexander I Square and Targovska Street (also extant), across the Palace’s West Gate. Built in 1904 after the reconstruction of the former Coburg Hotel, for decades it was among the most beautiful buildings…

3, Ivan Vazov Str. Established in 1904, the Bulgarian Agricultural Bank is the third state-owned bank of Bulgaria – after the Bulgarian National Bank and the Postal Savings Bank. It played key role in country’s economic life, often as back-up source for unforeseen treasury expenditure – from compensations for hail and flood, to aid for…

5, Sveta Nedelya Sq. At the closing of the 19th c., on the former Dondukov Blvd, close to Sveta Nedelya Sq. stood the Balkans’ largest bookshop – that of the prominent Bulgarian publisher Todor Chipev. Starting as an itinerant bookseller, in 1889 Chipev moves to Sofia and opens his first bookshop in 1891, in a…