Gradored - Young Civil Society of Ruse
The Mission - To revive the history of Ruse for the young generations!
Ruse, known as "Little Vienna", is one of the first cities with an urban plan in Bulgaria. A field for the performance of the masters of the time and the ambition of the local leaders. This is what makes the central part of the city so fabulous and richly organized. The buildings are the work of some of the most talented Bulgarian and European architects and are home to successful merchants and rulers.
Landmarks along the route:
Polikar and Canetti Commercial House
Sarkis Kouyumdzhiyan Commercial Building
Knyaz Boris Gymnasium
District Administration
Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Simeonov Brothers Bank
Balkan Bank
Baklov Brothers Building
Rousse Mufti's Office Building
Burov Brothers Bank
Fisher Brewery
Bulgaria Insurance Company
Andre Thuriot Building
Rousse Drama Theater
One of the great prides of Ruse is that it is the birthplace of Elias Canetti, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of his family's houses still stands on Slavyanska Street. In 1892, his grandfather, Elias Avram Canetti, together with his partner David Polikar, created the famous trading house "Polikar and Canetti". It was not by chance that they chose the then "Targovska" Street as the home of their business, as it was a lively center connecting Bulgaria with Europe through the port. The talented architect Nigohos Bedrosyan completed the building of the same name in 1898. On the ground floor, he designed the warehouses in which the trading company "Polikar and Canetti" sold all kinds of goods: wheat, barley, coffee, and small agricultural tools. The commercial premises are situated on the first floor.
In 1898, Nigokhos Bedrosyan designed an impressive commercial building for the Armenian Sarkis Kouyumjian, a textile merchant. In its original form, it consisted of six independent shops with galleries in the courtyard and storage rooms located on the first floor. Sarkis Kouyumjian moved from Constantinople to Rousse in 1892 with his family. During the years he lived here, in addition to being a prominent textile merchant, he was the manager of the Anglo-Bulgarian Umbrella Manufacturing Joint Stock Company, as well as a member of the board of directors of the Tsar Boris Gunpowder Joint Stock Company. Over the years, the building has been used for tailoring workshops and offices of various institutions, and currently, the Chiflika Tavern is located on the ground floor.
The building of the former Knyaz Boris Boys' High School was built in 1894 - 1898 according to the design of the architect. Petko Momchilov and Arch. Yordan Popov. It has a classical form, a symmetrical rectangular body, a closed courtyard, and direct lighting of rooms and corridors. It consists of a ground floor, a first floor, as well as a basement under the entire building, where the central heating with hot air heaters built into the walls was located. The high school is one of the oldest and most elite schools in Bulgaria. The Ruse Museum was founded here in 1904 with two rich collections of archaeology and natural history, which were collected by the founders of Bulgarian archaeology, Hermingild and Karel Shkorpil, teachers at the high school.
The District Administration Building is the first large public building in the new Bulgarian state. Built in 1882 according to a design by the Austrian architect Friedrich Grünanger. The year of construction is marked in Roman numerals on the facade, along with the name of Prince Alexander I Battenberg. The building is two-story. It ends with a mansard roof covered with sheet metal. The building is known as the "Palace of Battenberg", but it was never a princely palace. The original architectural plan states: "Building of the Ruschush District Administration". For seven decades, it was used for district and regional administration.
The first Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce was founded in Ruse in 1890 with Panayot Popov as chairman. On April 14, 1914, construction of the building began, and in 1916 it was completed. The facade of the building is in the Modern or fin de siècle style with Baroque elements. A clock is installed in the dome above the main entrance, and the door of the central entrance is beautifully decorated with a metal rosette and the wings of Mercury, the god of trade. Since 1954, the building has housed the "Lyuben Karavelov" District Library.
The Simeonovi Brothers Bank is a building of enduring architectural value. The entrepreneurial brothers chose the young ungraduated architect Nigohos Bedrosyan as the designer of the building. In 1895, the building was completed and shaped the corner space between the two streets very well. There are shops on the ground floor and offices on the first and second floors. The building has natural lighting from a glass roof. The internal stairs are curved with an elegant iron railing, in which are woven plant ornaments and a fantastic dragon with a lion's head and wings. The owners of the building, Ivanitsa and Stefan Simeonovi, transformed the family company into a bank thanks to their entrepreneurship and solid political and public contacts. The bank assumed a large part of the payments on Bulgarian foreign loans.
The building of Balkan Bank (later Bulgarian Credit Bank) was built in 1906 by the famous Ruse architect Spyros Valsamaki on the order of the Bebis brothers. Founded in 1906 with mainly French and Belgian capital, the bank financed the construction of the two largest factories in Ruse – the tannery and the sugar factory. In 1911, the building was added with another floor, and in 1924, it acquired the appearance of a three-story building, which it still has today. The building was also home to the famous restaurant "Buzludzha". After 1964, it housed the Teachers' Home and Cinema Club, and an open-air cinema was opened in the former garden.
In 1911, the Baklovi brothers financed the construction of a building for their business. On the ground floor, there were shops in which they traded various goods. On the first floor, there was a Credit and Commercial Popular Bank, which was established by the brothers to support the commercial activities of their partners. The brothers Dimitar and Hristo Baklovi chose Ruse as a prosperous city to establish their business. Initially, they were engaged in the trade of leather goods and articles, and with the joining of the third brother, Petar, they became representatives of famous brands of sewing machines and bicycles. Their business flourished, and they opened a store on Aleksandrovska Street, which gained immense popularity.
At the beginning of the 20th century, between 1905 and 1907, a remarkable building was built in Ruse – the Income Building of the Ruse Muslim Board of Trustees. Like most buildings in the city, it bears the iconic neoclassical architectural style. Soon after its construction, the jewelry store of “Tevo Papazian and Sons” opened in it, and its main parts housed the “Bristol” hotel, which was housed there until 1936. During the socialist period, the “Bristol” hotel was renamed “Republic”, “Moscow”, and “Balkan”. It is under the name “Balkan” that the building is known to Ruse residents today.
The Burovi Bank was built in 1912 according to the design of the Hungarian architect. Janovich. The building is located on an area of 200 sq m., and it is in neoclassical style. It consists of a ground floor, two floors, and an attic. The last floor is decorated with a medallion and two bas-relief female figures. For many years, the building housed the Pension Department and on the ground floor - the "Old Pear" diner. Burovi is one of the most famous families in Bulgaria, which has given the country remarkable economic and political figures. After the First World War, the bank in Ruse was managed by Atanas Burov, who made great contributions to the development of the city as chairman of the Ruse Chamber of Commerce and Industry and founder of modern vocational education in Ruse.
In 1880, the Czech musician Josef Fischer arrived in Ruse, together with his family, and opened a restaurant named "Fisher" in the then neighborhood of "Golyam Varosh". A string orchestra often played in the beer hall, and various celebrations were organized, which was the reason for resentment from the residents of the area. After moving to "Gospitalna" Street, the building was purchased by Sofia residents and converted into a cinema. Until 2009, the building existed as a cinema, although it had undergone structural reconstruction and a change of ownership. The cinemas housed in it were named "Maxim Gorky" and "Royal", the latter being the name by which Ruse residents recognize the building today.
In 1898, based on a project by architect Eduard Winter and under the supervision of architect Udo Riabau, a three-story building was erected at 30 Aleksandrovska Street to house the first Bulgarian insurance company “Bulgaria“. In 1891, prominent Ruse residents Panayot Popov, Georgi Teodosiev, Ivan Chorapchiev, and Stefan Simeonov founded the first Bulgarian insurance company, Bulgaria. Over the years, the Bulgarian insurance company has had representative offices from Constantinople to Athens, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, and London, all the way to Chicago. Currently, the building is under mixed ownership, which prevents a unanimous decision from being made for its renovation. However, the initials of the first Bulgarian insurance company, BZD, still stand above the side entrance to the complex.
In 1897, a four-story building was designed on the thriving Alexandrovska Street by order of Andre Thuriot. Its architect was the Italian Nino Rosti, who brought all his imagination and lavishly decorated the Baroque building with columns, pilasters, and busts. After its completion, the building housed the Boulevard Hotel, and on the ground floor was a jewelry store owned by the Armenian Tevo Papazyan. Andre Thuriot was a wealthy industrialist of French origin. After his death, the building was sold to Bratan Yotov Revenski. He founded the Teteven confectionery. The confectionery offered only pastries of its production and was a favorite meeting place for generations of Ruse residents. The hotel, in turn, was one of the most representative phenomena in the city, with first-class furnishings, central heating, hot water, and a telephone.
With its magnificent silhouette in the center of the city of Ruse, the Revenue Building, later the Sava Ognyanov Theater, is an emblematic building from the European architectural heritage of the Danube city and, together with the Freedom Monument, is the symbol of Ruse. In 1972, the building was announced in the State Gazette in the list of Ruse's architectural and historical heritage under №1, as a site of national importance. The history of the Ruse Drama Theater is connected with this building, which has been performing in the completed hall since 1907, and since 1953 has been named after the famous artist Sava Ognyanov, who spent his school years in Ruse. The first opera performance ("La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi) was staged in the Revenue Building on November 27, 1949. In 1960, the first performances of the puppet theater were also held here.
For more information, please visit the Gradored website - https://www.gradored.com/marshruti/malkata-viena
