Baron Gendovich House in Sofia

Just a few steps from the National Theatre in Sofia, a beautiful seven-storey neo-baroque building rises majestically, known to Sofia citizens as the city's "first skyscraper". It was built in 1914 by order of Bulgarian politician, entrepreneur and Levski's partner Hristo Gendovich.

The project is the work of one of the most remarkable architects of the beginning of the century, the founder of the first private Bulgarian planning office Nikola Lazarov. The owner of the building was awarded the title of "Baron" by the Russian Tsar Alexander II for his services during the Russo-Turkish War, in which he served as an interpreter for the General.

Soon after the liberation, the entrepreneurial baron began to become wealthy and amassed a considerable fortune carrying out military contracts for the Eastern Rumelian militia and gendarmerie. His career as an influential member of the Liberal Party and MP in ten national assemblies multiplied his influence and capital. In 1890 Gendovich bought the land around the National Theatre. His heirs report that before the house was built, the baron lived with his family in a three-storey building on the plot where the building of the Union of Composers in Bulgaria now stands.

In 1910, a Franco-Belgian bank began construction of a building nearby that illegally encroached on Gendovich's garden and stables. The baron then vowed to build a bigger and nicer bank to eclipse the foreign one. Four years later, the first Bulgarian National Bank was housed in a newly constructed stately building that towered over the surrounding houses. Gendovich's house remained behind.

The architecture of the imposing bank building still impresses with its European appearance. It was designed on the Viennese model: monumental and elaborate, with terraces, bay windows on the floors and a richly decorated façade. Its staircase is made of monolithic Vratsa stone. The mixed construction - a Prussian vault with metal beams and the absence of supporting pillars - complements its unique appearance for the time. According to the original plan, the "skyscraper" was to have two domes, but due to the wars that broke out in the meantime, the second dome remained unfinished. The building also became known as the first building in Sofia with its own district heating.

In 1949, the Gendović family's property, including three houses in Sofia, three houses in Plovdiv, three houses in Sliven and a glass factory in Pernik, was confiscated by the People's Power. The Baron's "skyscraper" shares their fate. Later, the building next to the National Theatre was temporarily used by the municipality and then given to the military, which turned it into a hospital, an officers' canteen and finally a hotel. For this purpose, the building was altered in many ways: The façade on the Composers' Association side was destroyed, the shop windows were bricked up, the roof was shortened and pipes were laid everywhere to supply the rooms with water. Until 1966, the building also housed the famous Bambuka restaurant, where Sofia's elite often met at the time. In the early 1990s, after protracted litigation, the heirs of Baron Gendovich succeeded in regaining possession of the building under the Restitution Act. Gradually, the roof, the façade, the cladding of the ground floor and the entire turn-of-the-century appearance were restored.