bg Sofia

Dimitar Grekov House

- Moskovska Street 17 -
The residential building was built for the Bulgarian politician and lawyer, Dimitar Panayotov Grekov. It was built somewhere in the 1880s and was designed by the Austrian architect Otto Dörken.

Dimitar Grekov was born on September 2, 1847, in , at that time the Russian Empire, in the family of the wealthy merchant Panayot Grekov. He graduated from the Bolhrad High School in 1868. And in 1875, with a high school scholarship, he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Paul Cézanne University, in the city in France. After returning to Romania, Grekov was a lawyer and court clerk in and a member of the Brăila Court, and participated in the activities of the Bulgarian Central Charity Society. After the from Ottoman rule, Grekov settled in Sofia, wherein the year 1878 he became chairman of the district court, and for several months in 1879, he was the first chairman of the Bulgarian Supreme Court.

During the crisis after the abdication of Prince Battenberg in 1886, Grekov joined the People's Liberal Party. He participated in the delegation that led the negotiations for the Bulgarian throne by of Bulgaria. Between 1890 and 1894 he participated in the government of and was Minister of Foreign Affairs, and later on he was head of the Ministry of Justice. On October 1, 1899, he was forced to resign. Immediately afterwards, he again became the leader of the People's Liberal Party, a post he held until his unexpected death in 1901.

Dimitar Panayotov Grekov is the father of the Bulgarian diplomat, publicist and public figure .
Dimitar Panayotov Grekov
On top of the three-storey building, which is built in Neo-Baroque and Neo-Renaissance style, you can see a with a in the center of it. Four beautiful small are placed in the frieze, in the part of the building. The that flank the windows on the third floor have a Doric , while the ones on the second floor have a Corinthian one. The bottom of the , which are located on the third and second floor, are decorated with , while the one on the second floor contains an extra, more decorated strip of dentils. The frieze under the pointed is decorated with floral ornaments. A segmental pediment is placed on top of the two windows that flank the avant-corps part of the building. Below the windows, you can see a , which features a total of five each. The technique of is used in the , which are located on the corners of the second floor. On the western and eastern sides of the building, you can see an . Both are supported by two , which are decorated with .
An old photo showing the building