The Town Hall

1, General Gurko Str.

The Town Hall

In 1880, the Sofia City Council voted to place the city government temporarily at the house of the prominent physician and politician, Dr. Mincho Tsachev, occupying the corner of General Gurko and Vasil Levski (today General Gurko and Dyakon Ignatii) streets. The Town Hall remained there until 1968, when in the building moved in the destroyed during the Second World War City Library. The original house was small, single-storey, of adobe on wooden framework. Thus, several reconstructions were necessary, one of which after the project by the Swiss architect Hermann Mayer, author also of the building of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the old Slavyanska Beseda Community Centre, the tomb of Prince Alexander I Battenberg, etc.

The Town Hall

Between 1894 and 1931, the building was considerably expanded: it received a second storey and wings around a quadrangular inner court. The Town Hall impressed its contemporaries with monumental volumes, wide halls and characteristic Post-Liberation Neoclassical style architecture. During the bombing raids of January 10, 1944, the building suffered severe damages and one section was completely destroyed. Though restored later, once it was vacated by the Sofia City Library in 1990, it fell into neglect and began to crumble. In 1995, it was denationalised and demolished; in its place was raised a hotel, the first and second floors of which attempt to emulate the facade of the old building.

The Town Hall