bg Vidin

Ionitsa Nikolov House

- Ulitsa Naycho Tzanov 24 -
The two-story residential building was built in 1909 according to the project of the Bulgarian architect A. Kovacevich, who graduated in . It was built for the Bulgarian merchant, benefactor, and donor, Ionitsa Nikolov and his wife Joanna Nikolova. Ionitsa was born on October 12, 1862, in the village of , as the first-born son of the wealthy merchant, Nikola Marinov. He received his primary education in his native village, and studied for one year at the Mutual School in Vidin and one year in the Romanian city of . His father included him in his commercial affairs when he was not yet 18 years old, and when he was only 19 he married Joanna from the village of . Enterprising and determined, he significantly expanded the assortment of the company and, in addition to cereals, he offered his fellow citizens wine, building materials, a wide range of agricultural products, and colonial goods. His active public activity and the authority of 's People's Liberal Party, of which he was an active member, led to his winning the mayoral elections in the village of Kapitanovtsi in 1891, and in 1893 to his election as a representative in the 7th National assembly. Between 1894 and 1895 he was elected as a district councilor, and in 1899 when the Municipal Council in Vidin was dissolved, he was appointed to the three-member body by the government of . After massive civil protests, the three-member board was replaced and he devoted himself entirely to his commercial and charitable activities.
Ionitsa Nikolov
In 1911 Ionitsa Nikolov donated a site for the construction of a school and financed its construction in his native Kapitanovtsi. After the and , he took care of the orphans of the village and donated a large sum and bought all the poor students certain necessities, like clothes, shoes, and textbooks, and he donated books and magazines to the school library. He donated funds for the construction of a church in the village of Kapitanovtsi and he brought a huge amount of capital to the Vidin National Bank to support the construction of a building to house the old people's shelter. The sheltered are men and women and the conditions in the home are very good, and according to the local management of the Public Support Union, it rightly serves as a model among the nursing homes in the country. The more valiant deeds he did, the crueler was the fate of Ionitsa, as in 1901 his only daughter died giving birth. The surviving grandchild and only grandchild was raised by Ionitsa and Joanna. In 1923, his grandson died of tuberculosis at the age of 22, and on September 19, 1937, Ionitsa Nikolov was killed with an ax by his debtor, whom he had previously helped build a house.
Joanna and Ionitsa Nikolov
The building, which combines the styles of Neo-Baroque and Art Nouveau, features an octagonal tower on the eastern side of the building. The frieze, which is located underneath the roof , contains a lot of air vents and . Many of the and columns that are located on the first and second floors are crowned with a Corinthian . The that's placed in the segmental is surrounded by floral decorations and embellished with a decorative shell, a , and and . The cartouche, placed within the spiky-shaped pediment, is surrounded by and two . The , as well as the stone balustrade of the balcony that's placed above the main entrance and supported by two corbels, contain a fair amount of .
The shelter Ionitsa and Joanna Nikolov had built