The acanthus is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration. In architecture, an ornament may be carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the Acanthus genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to those of the thistle and poppy.
An apron, in architecture, is a raised section of ornamental stonework below a window ledge, stone tablet, or monument. Aprons were used by Roman engineers to build Roman bridges. The main function of an apron was to surround the feet of the piers.
An arcade is a succession of contiguous arches, with each arch supported by a colonnade of columns or piers. Exterior arcades are designed to provide a sheltered walkway for pedestrians. The walkway may be lined with retail stores. An arcade may feature arches on both sides of the walkway. Alternatively, a blind arcade superimposes arcading against a solid wall.
An astragal is a convex ornamental profile that separates two architectural components in classical architecture. The name is derived from the ancient Greek astragalos which means cervical vertebra. Astragals were used for columns as well as for the moldings of the entablature.
An avant-corps, a French term literally meaning "fore-body", is a part of a building, such as a porch or pavilion, that juts out from the corps de logis, often taller than other parts of the building. It is common in façades in French Baroque architecture.
An awning or overhang is a secondary covering attached to the exterior wall of a building. It is typically composed of canvas woven of acrylic, cotton or polyester yarn, or vinyl laminated to polyester fabric that is stretched tightly over a light structure of aluminium, iron or steel, possibly wood or transparent material.
Balconet or balconette is an architectural term to describe a false balcony, or railing at the outer plane of a window-opening reaching to the floor, and having, when the window is open, the appearance of a balcony.
A baluster is a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its construction are wood, stone, and less frequently metal and ceramic. A group of balusters supporting a handrail, coping, or ornamental detail are known as a balustrade.
Bargeboard is a board fastened to the projecting gables of a roof to give them strength, protection, and to conceal the otherwise exposed end of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof to which they were attached. Bargeboards are sometimes moulded only or carved, but as a rule the lower edges were cusped and had tracery in the spandrels besides being otherwise elaborated.
A bossage is an uncut stone that is laid in place in a building, projecting outward from the building. This uncut stone is either for an ornamental purpose, creating a play of shadow and light, or for a defensive purpose, making the wall less vulnerable to attacks.
In architecture the capital (from the Latin caput, or "head") or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column (or a pilaster). It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column.
A cartouche (also cartouch) is an oval or oblong design with a slightly convex surface, typically edged with ornamental scrollwork. It is used to hold a painted or low-relief design. Since the early 16th century, the cartouche is a scrolling frame device, derived originally from Italian cartuccia. Such cartouches are characteristically stretched, pierced and scrolling.
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure.
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian cornice meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element - the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the top edge of a pedestal or along the top of an interior wall.
Cresting, in architecture, is ornamentation attached to the ridge of a roof, cornice, coping or parapet, usually made of a metal such as iron or copper. Cresting is associated with Second Empire architecture, where such decoration stands out against the sharp lines of the mansard roof. It became popular in the late 19th century, with mass-produced sheet metal cresting patterns available by the 1890s.
A dentil is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Revival, Greek Revival, Renaissance Revival, Second Empire, and Beaux-Arts architecture.
Egg-and-dart, also known as egg-and-tongue, egg and anchor, or egg and star, is an ornamental device adorning the fundamental quarter-round, convex ovolo profile of molding, consisting of alternating details on the face of the ovolotypically an egg-shaped object alternating with a V-shaped element (e.g., an arrow, anchor, or dart). The device is carved or otherwise fashioned into ovolos composed of wood, stone, plaster, or other materials.
An epigraph is an inscription or legend that serves mainly to characterize a building, distinguishing itself from the inscription itself in that it is usually shorter and it also announces the fate of the building.
A festoon, (originally a festal garland, Latin festum, feast) is a wreath or garland hanging from two points, and in architecture typically a carved ornament depicting conventional arrangement of flowers, foliage or fruit bound together and suspended by ribbons. The motif is sometimes known as a swag when depicting fabric or linen.
A finial or hip knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire, tower, roof, gable, or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure.
The Green Man, and very occasionally the Green Woman, is a legendary being primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring. The Green Man is most commonly depicted in a sculpture or other representation of a face that is made of or completely surrounded by leaves. The Green Man motif has many variations. Branches or vines may sprout from the mouth, nostrils, or other parts of the face, and these shoots may bear flowers or fruit. Found in many cultures from many ages around the world, the Green Man is often related to natural vegetation deities. Often used as decorative architectural ornaments, Green Men are frequently found in carvings on both secular and ecclesiastical buildings.
A gutta (literally means "drops") is a small water-repelling, cone-shaped projection used near the top of the architrave of the Doric order in classical architecture. It is thought that the guttae were a skeuomorphic representation of the pegs used in the construction of the wooden structures that preceded the familiar Greek architecture in stone. However, they have some functionality, as water drips over the edges, away from the edge of the building.
A keystone is a wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically a round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch or vault to bear weight. In arches and vaults, keystones are often enlarged beyond the structural requirements and decorated. A variant in domes and crowning vaults is a lantern.
A loggia is a covered exterior corridor or porch that is part of the ground floor or can be elevated on another level. The roof is supported by columns or arches and the outer side is open to the elements.
In architecture, a mascaron ornament is a face, usually human, sometimes frightening or chimeric whose alleged function was originally to frighten away evil spirits so that they would not enter the building. The concept was subsequently adapted to become a purely decorative element. The most recent architectural styles to extensively employ mascarons were Beaux Arts and Art Nouveau.
A medallion is a carved relief in the shape of an oval or circle, used as an ornament on a building or on a monument. Medallions were mainly used in the 18th and 19th centuries as decoration on buildings. They are made of stone, wood, ceramics or metal.
A niche is a recess in the thickness of a wall. By installing a niche, the wall surface will be deeper than the rest of the wall over a certain height and width. A niche is often rectangular in shape, sometimes a niche is closed at the top with an arch, such as the round-arched friezes in a pilaster strip decoration. Niches often have a special function such as an apse or choir niche that houses an altar, or a tomb.
An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor.
The palmette is a motif in decorative art which, in its most characteristic expression, resembles the fan-shaped leaves of a palm tree. It has a far-reaching history, originating in ancient Egypt with a subsequent development through the art of most of Eurasia, often in forms that bear relatively little resemblance to the original. In ancient Greek and Roman uses it is also known as the anthemion. It is found in most artistic media, but especially as an architectural ornament, whether carved or painted, and painted on ceramics.
A pediment is an architectural element found particularly in Classical, Neoclassical and Baroque architecture, and its derivatives, consisting of a gable, usually of a triangular shape, placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. The tympanum, the triangular area within the pediment, is often decorated with relief sculpture. A pediment is sometimes the top element of a portico. For symmetric designs, it provides a center point and is often used to add grandness to entrances.
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth (base) at the bottom, and the various other column elements.
A protome is a type of adornment that takes the form of the head and upper torso of either a human or an animal. Protomes were often used to decorate ancient Greek architecture, sculpture, and pottery. Protomes were also used in Persian monuments.
A putto is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism, the putto came to represent the sacred cherub, and in Baroque art the putto came to represent the omnipresence of God.
Quoins are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner.
A rosette is a round, stylized flower design. The rosette derives from the natural shape of the botanical rosette, formed by leaves radiating out from the stem of a plant and visible even after the flowers have withered. The rosette design is used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity, appearing in Mesopotamia, and in funeral steles' decoration in Ancient Greece. The rosette was another important symbol of Ishtar which had originally belonged to Inanna along with the Star of Ishtar. It was adopted later in Romaneseque and Renaissance architecture, and also common in the art of Central Asia, spreading as far as India where it is used as a decorative motif in Greco-Buddhist art.
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently filled with decorative elements.
A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are typically built of stonework or brickwork, or else of timber structure with metal cladding, ceramic tiling, shingles, or slates on the exterior.
A sunroom, also frequently called a solarium, is a room that permits abundant daylight and views of the landscape while sheltering from adverse weather. Solaria of various forms have been erected throughout European history.
In Classical architecture a term or terminal figure is a human head and bust that continues as a square tapering pillar-like form. In the architecture and the painted architectural decoration of the European Renaissance and the succeeding Classical styles, term figures are quite common. Often they represent minor deities associated with fields and vineyards and the edges of woodland, Pan and fauns and Bacchantes especially, and they may be draped with garlands of fruit and flowers.
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are called metopes. The raised spaces between the channels themselves (within a triglyph) are called femur in Latin or meros in Greek. In the strict tradition of classical architecture, a set of guttae, the six triangular "pegs" below, always go with a triglyph above (and vice versa), and the pair of features are only found in entablatures of buildings using the Doric order. The absence of the pair effectively converts a building from being in the Doric order to being in the Tuscan order.
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification. As their military use faded, turrets were used for decorative purposes.
A tympanum (from Greek and Latin words meaning "drum") is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, door or window, which is bounded by a lintel and an arch. It often contains pedimental sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Many architectural styles include this element.
A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. The word derives from the Latin voluta ("scroll").
Pencho Genchev Koychev is a Bulgarian architect, one of the most authoritative in the first half of the 20th century. Pencho Koychev was born on January 27, 1876 in the town of Dryanovo. Even when he was very young, his family moved to Silistra, where his uncle lived. He studied in Silistra, and then in Ruse, where he completed his secondary education. He then went to Ghent, Belgium, where he first studied engineering and then architecture, graduating with honors. He married Nevena Trichkova on September 28, 1908, and the following year his son Boris Koychev was born, who would become a professor of biochemistry. Until his retirement in 1933, he held positions in a number of government offices and at the same time taught and practiced his architectural profession privately. He died on January 27, 1957 from a brain hemorrhage.
Georgi Dimitrov Fingov (18741944) was a Bulgarian architect who designed a large number of public, school and residential buildings, mainly in Sofia and Plovdiv. He was among the first architects in Bulgaria to use elements of Art Nouveau, mainly as ornaments in buildings. The architect Dimitar Fingov is his son.
Bitola is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges. The city stands at an important junction connecting the south of the Adriatic Sea region with the Aegean Sea and Central Europe, and it is an administrative, cultural, industrial, commercial, and educational center. It has been known since the Ottoman period as the "City of Consuls" since many European countries had consulates in Bitola. Bitola, known during the Ottoman Empire as Monastir, is one of the oldest cities in North Macedonia. It was founded as Heraclea Lyncestis in the middle of the 4th century BC by Philip II of Macedon. The city was the last capital of the First Bulgarian Empire (1015-1018) and the last capital of Ottoman Rumelia, from 1836 to 1867. According to the 2002 census, Bitola is the second-largest city in the country, after the capital Skopje. Bitola is also the seat of the Bitola Municipality.
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the Flemish Region (within which it forms an enclave) and the Walloon Region. Brussels grew from a small rural settlement on the river Senne to become an important city-region in Europe. Since the end of the Second World War, it has been a major center for international politics and home to numerous international organizations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants.
Elena is a Bulgarian town in the central Stara Planina mountain in Veliko Tarnovo Province. Elena is an old settlement founded before the 15th century. During the 18th and 19th century it established itself as a center for crafts, trade and education. There are several architectural ensembles preserved dating back to the Bulgarian National Revival and comprising about 130 old houses. There are also wall-to-wall construction forms and interesting street silhouettes. The houses have stone basements with white-washed or wooden walls of the upper floor with protruding bays above.
Kalofer is a town in central Bulgaria, located on the banks of the Tundzha between the Balkan Mountains to the north and the Sredna Gora to the south. Kalofer is part of Plovdiv Province and the Karlovo municipality. It is best known as the birthplace of Bulgarian poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev.
Leipzig is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig has been a trade city since at least the time of the Holy Roman Empire. The city sits at the intersection of the Via Regia and the Via Imperii, two important medieval trade routes. Leipzig was once one of the major European centers of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing. Leipzig has long been a major center for music, both classical as well as modern "dark alternative music" or darkwave genres. The Oper Leipzig is one of the most prominent opera houses in Germany. Leipzig is also home to the University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy". The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, established in 1743, is one of the oldest symphony orchestras in the world.
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, which stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of the estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial center, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. As one of the world's major global cities, London exerts a strong influence on its arts, entertainment, fashion, commerce and finance, education, health care, media, science and technology, tourism, and transport and communications.
Odessa is a port city in Ukraine on the Black Sea. Odessa is located on the hills surrounding a small harbor. It is the largest city on the Black Sea. In 1794, the city of Odessa was founded by a decree of the Russian empress Catherine the Great. From 1819 to 1858, Odessa was a free porta porto-Franco. During the Soviet period, it was the most important port of trade in the Soviet Union and a Soviet naval base.
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe`s major centers of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science, and arts. Paris is located in northern central France, in a north-bending arc of the river Seine whose crest includes two islands, the Île Saint-Louis and the larger Île de la Cité, which form the oldest part of the city.
Pazardzhik is a city situated along the banks of the Maritsa river, southern Bulgaria. Pazardzhik was founded in 1485 by Tatars originating from what is today Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi. They sited it on the left bank of the river Maritsa, near the market of the region, an important crossroad at the center of this productive region. Thanks to this favourable location, the settlement quickly developed. Very small at the beginning of the 19th century, it became the administrative centre for the region by the end of that century and remained so until the dissolution of Ottoman Empire. During the following centuries the town continued to grow and strengthen its position. Trade in iron, leather and rice prospered. From the early 20th century, on people built factories, stores and houses, and thus the industrial quarter of the town.
Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. During most of its recorded history, Plovdiv was known by the name Philippopolis after Philip II of Macedon. The oldest evidence of permanent habitation dates back to around 6000 BC. The foundation of the current city took place 2000 years later, when Troy already existed, but for example Athens and Rome not yet.
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd (19141924) and later Leningrad (19241991), is the second-largest city in Russia. It is situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the site of a captured Swedish fortress and was named after the apostle Saint Peter. Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a European great power.
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It was known as Serdica in Antiquity and Sredets in the Middle Ages, Sofia has been an area of human habitation since at least 7000 BC. The name Sofia comes from the Saint Sofia Church, as opposed to the prevailing Slavic origin of Bulgarian cities and towns. Sofia's development as a significant settlement owes much to its central position in the Balkans. It is situated in western Bulgaria, at the northern foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the Sofia Valley that is surrounded by the Balkan mountains to the north.
Troyan is a town remembering the name of Roman Emperor Trajan, in central Bulgaria. Troyan was named a town in 1868 when it developed as a craft center for the region. The town is famous for its traditional pottery, probably developed partly as a result of the qualities of the local clay soil. Pottery was the main source of income for the local craftsmen during the Bulgarian Renaissance age. The production of premium quality plum rakia has become a part of the local culture. In connection with this, the town holds the annual Festival of the Plum in the autumn.
Alexander Joseph, known as Alexander of Battenberg, was the first prince (knyaz) of the Principality of Bulgaria from 1879 until his abdication in 1886. The Bulgarian Grand National Assembly elected him as Prince of autonomous Bulgaria, which officially remained within the Ottoman Empire, in 1879.
Aleksandar Stoimenov Stamboliyski (1 March 1879 - 14 June 1923) was the prime minister of Bulgaria from 1919 until 1923. Stamboliyski was a member of the Agrarian Union, an agrarian peasant movement that was not allied to the monarchy, and edited their newspaper. He opposed the country's participation in World War I and its support for the Central Powers. In the 9 June 1923 coup, Stamboliyski was taken prisoner in his native village of Slavovitsa, where he was relocated following the coup détat. From his native village, Stamboliyski was organizing a counter-insurgence that was large in number but weak in arms. He was brutally tortured and murdered by the IMRO.
Boris III the Unifier (His Majesty Boris III, by the grace of God and the People's Will, King of Bulgaria, Prince Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Duke of Saxony) was heir to the throne and Prince of Tarnovo from his birth on January 30, 1894 to October 2, 1918. and king of Bulgaria from his coronation on October 3, 1918 until his death on August 28, 1943. He was the son of Tsar Ferdinand I, who abdicated in his favor after the defeat of Bulgaria in the First World War.
Dobrin Hristov Petkov is a Bulgarian conductor. He was born on August 24, 1923 in Dresden, Germany, where his parents were temporarily residing for health reasons. Dobrin Petkov began his musical education in 1927 with his father, and until 1932 he studied violin and participated in productions and concerts. He has performed many times in all Bulgarian orchestras, as well as in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, the USSR, Cuba, the GDR.
Princess Eudoxia of Bulgaria (5 January 1898 - 4 October 1985) was the eldest daughter and third child of King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma. She was a devoted sister and confidante to King Boris III. Princess Eudoxia never married; although, there were persistent rumors that she wished to marry a man of Bulgarian descent, which was dynastically unacceptable at that time. She devoted her life to Bulgaria and acted as First Lady of the Land until King Boris III married Princess Giovanna of Savoy. After 9 September 1944, Princess Eudoxia was arrested and tortured by the Communists. She was released and allowed to flee the country with the rest of the royal family. She later settled in Germany, where she lived close to her sister Princess Nadezhda. She died on 4 October 1985, at the age of 87.
Ferdinand I, born Ferdinand Maximilian Carl Leopold Maria Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was Prince of Bulgaria, from July 7, 1887 to September 22, 1908, when the Independence of Bulgaria was declared, and King of Bulgaria - from September 22, 1908 until his abdication on October 3. 1918. He ruled Bulgaria for 31 years and thus became the longest reigning monarch in the Third Bulgarian State.
Georgi Genov Gubidelnikov is a Bulgarian banker. For a short time he was engaged in political activity, and in 1894 - 1895 he was mayor of Ruse. Bulgarian-French art critic Tanya Wellmans is his granddaughter. Georgi Gubidelnikov was born on May 2, 1859 in Kotel. He studied high school in Odessa and law at the Novorossiysk University. In 1883 he returned to Bulgaria. Gubidelnikov's political career began after the fall of Stambolov. He organized a demonstration in Ruse, in which he demanded revenge for the killed Russophile officers and declared Stambolov a tyrant. After 1905, until his death, Georgi Gubidelnikov was the director general of the Bulgarian Commercial Bank (BTB), the largest bank in the country with mostly local private capital. At the same time, he is its deputy manager, while Atanas Burov is its manager. He died on November 28, 1938 in the city of Sofia.
Giovanna of Italy (13 November 1907 - 26 February 2000), Giovanna Elisabetta Antonia Romana Maria, was an Italian princess of the House of Savoy who later became the Tsaritsa of Bulgaria by marriage to Boris III of Bulgaria. Giovanna was born in Rome, the third daughter and the fourth of five children of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and Queen Elena, former Princess of Montenegro. Giovanna married Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria in the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, Assisi in October 1930, in a Roman Catholic ceremony, attended by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Bulgarians deemed her a good match, partly because her mother, Elena of Montenegro, was of Slavic ethnicity. She and Boris had two children: Marie Louise of Bulgaria, born in January 1933, and then the future Simeon II of Bulgaria in 1937.
Ivan Genadiev, called Harmosin, is a Bulgarian public figure, teacher and writer, an actor of the late Bulgarian revival in Macedonia. Ivan Genadiev was born around 1830 in Ohrid, then in the Ottoman Empire, in the family of Archimandrite Gennadiy, future Metropolitan of Veles. He graduated from the grade school in Bitola, where his father was proto-single of the metropolitan, and studied Greek philology at the University of Athens. After the death of his father, Ivan Genadiev settled in Tsarigrad, and from 1876 he was a history and music teacher at the Plovdiv High School. After 1878, he was the secretary of the Metropolitan of Plovdiv. In 1887, he published "Married. A book on kinship and other relations of marriage'. In his manuscript legacy, he left ecclesiastical collections and a satirical comedy written in Greek.
Ivan Evstratiev Geshov (20 February 1849 - 11 March 1924) was a Bulgarian politician who served as Bulgarian Prime Minister. He was born in Plovdiv to a family of merchants originally from Karlovo. Geshov was educated at the Bulgarian Sts. Cyrill and Methodius High School in Plovdiv, as well as at Owens College in Manchester (1866-1869), where he studied logic and political economy under Stanley Jevons. He served as governor of the Bulgarian National Bank from 1883 onwards he became recognized as one of the country's leading economic minds and was eventually appointed Finance Minister. Outside politics he fulfilled a number of roles, including editor of the Maritsa newspaper, founder of the Study Society and the Scientific and Literary Society and chairman of the Bulgarian Red Cross (1899-1924) and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1911-1924).
Prince Kiril of Bulgaria (Sofia, 17 November 1895 - 1 February 1945), Prince of Preslav, was the second son of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and the younger brother of King Boris III. After the mysterious death of Tsar Boris III on August 28, 1943, a regency council for the young King Simeon was established, consisting of Prince Cyril, Prime Minister Bogdan Filov and War Minister General Nikola Michov. The regents were deposed in 1944 by the new government of the Fatherland Front and executed on February 1, 1945.
Princess Nadezhda of Bulgaria, Duchess of Saxony (30 January 1899 - 15 February 1958) was the last child of King Ferdinand I and Princess Maria-Louise, who died at birth. Sister of Tsar Boris III, Prince Kirill and Princess Evdokia. She is of the Saxe-Coburg-Goth family, house of Vetin. She was baptized in the Roman Catholic way in the palace chapel in Sofia. He is not engaged in political activity. In 1918, with her older sister, Princess Evdokia, left Bulgaria and lived in exile with her father, Tsar Ferdinand, and her brother, Prince Cyril of Preslavski, in the city of Coburg, Germany. In 1922, together with her sister, she returned to her homeland, where she remained until her marriage to Duke Albrecht-Eugen of Württemberg, after which she lived in Germany. Her last visit to Bulgaria was during the mourning ceremony and burial of her brother - Tsar Boris III in September 1943.
Nikola Ivanov Genadiev is a prominent Bulgarian journalist and politician from the People's Liberal Party, known for his resistance to Bulgaria's accession to the Central Powers during the First World War. His name has been repeatedly linked to corruption scandals. Nikola Genadiev was born on November 19, 1868 in the town of Bitola. He is the son of the Bulgarian educator Ivan Genadiev Harmosin, the brother of the journalist Hariton Genadiev, and the uncle of the artist Vasilka Genadieva. Together with Vasil Radoslavov and Dimitar Tonchev, Nikola Genadiev was among the initiators of the formation of Radoslavov's coalition cabinet on July 4, 1913, in which he became foreign minister.
Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria, the 9th Princess of Koháry is a Bulgarian princess from the House of Wettin. She is, as the eldest child of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria and Tsaritsa Giovanna, the elder sister of Simeon, the last Tsar of the Bulgarians. After the monarchy in Bulgaria was definitively abolished in 1946, the ex-Tsarina moved with her children to Alexandria, where she settled with her ex-king grandparents, Victor Emmanuel III and Helena of Montenegro, who lived there.
Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma (17 January 1870 - 31 January 1899) was the eldest daughter of Robert I, the last reigning Duke of Parma. She became Princess-consort of Bulgaria upon her marriage to Ferdinand of Bulgaria, the then prince-regnant, who became Tsar after the Bulgarian Declaration of Independence in 1908. In 1892, her father arranged her marriage to the then reigning Prince of Bulgaria, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The negotiations were conducted between Duke Robert and Ferdinand's mother, Princess Clémentine of Orléans. She was the mother of Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria.
Todor Ivanchov is a Bulgarian politician from the Liberal Party. He was the Prime Minister of Bulgaria between October 13, 1899, and January 25, 1901. He was born in Tarnovo, and he graduated from Robert College in Constantinople and studied medicine for three years in Montpellier. An active member of the Liberal Party, Todor Ivanchov participated in the first government of Vasil Radoslavov and in the government of Dimitar Grekov. After that, he himself headed the 19th and 20th governments of Bulgaria. Under his rule, the natural tithe was restored, which caused peasant revolts that were suppressed by force. In 1903, Ivanchov was convicted by the First State Court of financial abuse but was pardoned a few months later. As Minister of Public Education in 1899, Ivanchov published the first official spelling of the Bulgarian language. Todor Ivanchov died on January 1, 1905, in Paris, France.
Vasil Hristov Radoslavov (27 July 1854 - 21 October 1929) was a leading Bulgarian liberal politician who twice served as Prime Minister. He was Premier of the country throughout most of World War I. Born in Lovech, Radoslavov studied law at Heidelberg and became a supporter of Germany from then on. He became a political figure in 1884 when he was appointed Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Petko Karavelov, also holding the position under Archbishop Kliment Turnovski. He succeeded Karavelov as Prime Minister in 1886 and being aged 32 years, was the youngest person to have ever been Prime Minister of Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian coup d'état of 1886, also known as the 9 August coup d'état was an attempted dethronement of Knyaz Alexander Battenberg in Principality of Bulgaria, carried out on 9 August 1886. Although unsuccessful, the event led to the abdication of Alexander Battenberg.
The history of the largest scientific institution in modern Bulgaria begins in the house of Varvara Hadji Veleva in the Romanian town of Braila. Between September 26 and 30, 1869, prominent representatives of the Bulgarian communities from Braila, Bucharest, Galati, Giurgiu, Chisinau, Belgrade, Vienna and Odessa met there. At the General Assembly they decided to establish a Bulgarian Literary Society based in Braila, today the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) against the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan states' combined armies overcame the initially numerically inferior (significantly superior by the end of the conflict) and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success. The war was a comprehensive and unmitigated disaster for the Ottomans, who lost 83% of their European territories and 69% of their European population. As a result of the war, the League captured and partitioned almost all of the Ottoman Empire's remaining territories in Europe.
The First World War began on July 28, 1914, and lasted until November 11, 1918. It was a global war and lasted exactly 4 years, 3 months, and 2 weeks. Most of the fighting was in continental Europe. Soldiers from many countries took part, and it changed the colonial empires of the European powers. Before World War II began in 1939, World War I was called the Great War, or the World War. Other names are the Imperialist War and the Four Years' War. There were 135 countries that took part in the First World War, and nearly 10 million people died while fighting. Before the war, European countries had formed alliances to protect themselves. However, that made them divide themselves into two groups. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on June 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and declared war on it. Russia then declared war on Austria-Hungary, which set off a chain of events in which members from both groups of countries declared war on each other.
The internal Macedonian revolutionary organization is a national liberation organization of the Bulgarians in Macedonia. The organization is the direct successor of the Internal Macedonian-Edirne Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) and is recognized by the majority of Macedonians as their liberation organization. The IMRO was rebuilt by Todor Alexandrov after Macedonia was again divided between Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria at the end of the First World War. The institutes, the structure of the revolutionary networks, the Chetnik organizations are directly borrowed from the old organization, where the majority of the IMRO activists come from. Its main goal is the acquisition of political autonomy of Macedonia and its unification into an independent state with a predominant Bulgarian population, with the capital Thessaloniki, a thesis supported by the government of Alexander Malinov in view of the political isolation and distrust of Bulgaria by the Great Powers. .
The liberation of Bulgaria covers the events related to the restoration of the Bulgarian statehood after almost five hundred years of Ottoman rule. This happened as a result of the national Revival, which led to the recognition of the Bulgarian Exarchate and to the organization of the April Uprising. The uprising prompted Russia to start the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878).
The 1944 Bulgarian coup d'état, also known as the 9 September coup d'état, was the forcible change of the government of Kingdom of Bulgaria carried out on the eve of 9 September 1944. In Communist Bulgaria it was called People's Uprising of 9 September - on the grounds of the broad unrest, and Socialist Revolution - as it was a turning point politically and the beginning of radical reforms towards socialism.
The Second Balkan War, also called the Inter-Allied War, was a conflict that broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. With Bulgaria also having previously engaged in territorial disputes with Romania and the bulk of Bulgarian forces engaged in the south, the prospect of an easy victory incited Romanian intervention against Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the previous war. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice, resulting in the Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan War gains to Serbia, Greece and Romania. In the Treaty of Constantinople, it lost Adrianople to the Ottomans.
The Second World War was a global war that involved fighting in most of the world. Most countries fought from 1939 to 1945, but some started fighting in 1937. Most of the world's countries, including all of the great powers, fought as part of two military alliances: the Allies and the Axis Powers. It involved more countries, cost more money, involved more people, and killed more people than any other war in history. Between 50 to 85 million people died, most of whom were civilians. The war included massacres, a genocide called the Holocaust, strategic bombing, starvation, disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons against civilians in history.
The Serbo-Bulgarian War was a war between the Kingdom of Serbia and Principality of Bulgaria that erupted on 14 November 1885 and lasted until 28 November 1885. Despite Bulgaria being a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks did not intervene in the war. Serbia took the initiative in starting the war but was decisively defeated. Austria demanded Bulgaria stop its invasion, and a truce resulted. Final peace was signed on 3 March 1886 in Bucharest. The old boundaries were not changed. As a result of the war, European powers acknowledged the act of Unification of Bulgaria which happened on 18 September 1885.
The Unification of Bulgaria was the act of unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and the province of Eastern Rumelia in the autumn of 1885. It was coordinated by the Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee (BSCRC). Both had been parts of the Ottoman Empire, but the Principality had functioned de facto independently whilst the Rumelian province was autonomous and had an Ottoman presence. The Unification was accomplished after revolts in Eastern Rumelian towns, followed by a coup on 18 September 1885 supported by the Bulgarian Knyaz Alexander I. The BSCRC, formed by Zahari Stoyanov, began actively popularizing the idea of unification by means of the press and public demonstrations in the spring of 1885.
Kostadin Todorov Mumdzhiev is a Bulgarian architect. He was born on July 8, 1892 in Pazardzhik. He is one of the five children of the educational and social activists Todor Mumdzhiev and Darina Peneva. His grandfather, Ivan Mumdzhiev, created one of the first large priestesses in Pazardzhik. His maternal grandfather was the owner of the first bookstore in Pazardzhik and a benefactor. Between 1911 and 1912 he studied architecture at the Higher Technical School in Prague, Czech Republic. He interrupted his studies to take part in the Balkan, Inter-Allied, and First World Wars. He continued his studies in Prague together with Dimcho Debelyanov's cousin, architect Velo Debelianov. His teachers are Josef Shanta and Anton Balsanek. At that time he met the architects Boris Boyadzhiev and Lazar Parashkevanov. He graduated in 1921. He settled in his hometown, where he worked as a freelance architect. In 1925, he became the co-founder and first chairman of the tourist association "Slaveevi Gori" in Pazardzhik. In 1927, he bought land in Sofia and built a cooperative apartment building on "Knyaz Boris I" Street, where he later established his office. He left BIAD and joined the newly founded Society of Bulgarian Architects. In 1929, he married the daughter of political scientist and politician Nikoa Padarev. In 1936, the Pazardzhik Municipality entrusted him with the construction works of the Courthouse in the city. According to his design and construction supervision, the monument to Aleko Konstantinov on Svoboda Island was also built in 1937. In March 1937, he participated in the exhibition and the XIV regular congress of the Society of Bulgarian Architects, which were held in the exhibition gallery of the Academy of Arts in Sofia. In the period after January 1945, he was the head of the department at the Ministry of Public Buildings, Roads and Public Works for the construction and reconstruction of Sofia after the bombings His son Nikola Mumdzhiev is an opera singer and his daughter Dora Mumdzhieva is a medical psychologist. He died on November 25, 1946 in Sofia.
Ivan Atanasov Batakliev is a prominent Bulgarian geographer, historian, and geopolitician. Professor, head of the department of General Geography and cultural and Political Geography, dean of the Faculty of History and Philology and director of the Geographical Institute of the University of St. Kliment Ohridski", co-founder and chairman of the Bulgarian Geographical Society, corresponding member of the geographical societies in Berlin, Prague, Belgrade, Würzburg, Greifswald, the Bulgarian Archaeological Institute and a full member of the Thrace Scientific Institute and the Union of Scientific Workers. He specializes in Austria, England, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, and is the author of over 110 scientific works, of which 22 have been translated into foreign languages. Professor Ivan Batakliev is considered the founder, and "father" of Bulgarian geopolitical science, as well as landscape science in Bulgaria.
Evgenia Atanasova Bataklieva was a Bulgarian teacher, editor, and journalist. She was born on November 25, 1897 in Pazardzhik. She is the sister of the geographer Professor Ivan Batakliev and the dentist Doctor Dimitar Batakliev. In 1917, he graduated from high school in his hometown. In 1925, he graduated with a degree in Bulgarian language and literature and Bulgarian history at Sofia University. In the period between 1925 and 1928, she was a teacher in Chirpan, and then, until 1953, in Pazardzhik. From 1937 to 1941, he organized and led the educational student society "Konstantin Velichkov" at the Girls' High School in the city. In the same period, he was the editor of "Polet" magazine and "Velichkov list". She is a contributor to the newspapers "Pacha", "Podem", "Jubilee Sheet of the Pazardzhik High School "Konstantin Velichkov". In 1982, she published the monograph "Sin velik na kraiia roden", dedicated to the creative work of Konstantin Velichkov. He died on February 23, 1986 in Pazardzhik.
Kostadin (Kosta) Atanasov Panitsa was a Bulgarian officer, major, participant in the Serbian-Turkish War, the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), and a militiaman. He is a hero of the Unification of the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia and the Serbo-Bulgarian War, an actor of the Macedonian-Odrina revolutionary movement, and one of the builders of the Bulgarian army. After an unsuccessful attempt to organize a Russophile coup, he was sentenced to death and executed.
Khariton Ivanov Genadiev is a Bulgarian journalist, lexicographer and translator. He was born in 1861 in Bitola, then in the Ottoman Empire, today in North Macedonia. His grandfather is the Bulgarian Metropolitan Gennadiy Veleshki, he is the son of Ivan Genadiev Harmosin, and the prominent politician Nikola Genadiev is his brother. In 1876, his family moved to Plovdiv. Genadiev graduated from high school in Plovdiv as a private student, and then the Galatasaray Lyceum "Mekteb i Süleymanie" in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. He held various administrative positions in Eastern Rumelia. He later served in the Bulgarian Exarchate in Constantinople and in 1887 made an unsuccessful attempt to found an exarchate newspaper in Constantinople in 1887. He returned to Plovdiv, where he bought the printing house of the Frenchman Edouard Dione and from 1888 to 1890 published the successful magazine for translated novels and short stories "Winter Nights". In 1890, he founded the daily "Balkanska Zora", the first large and lasting Bulgarian daily newspaper after the Liberation, of which he was the editor-in-chief until 1894. From 1903 to 1907 he was head of the press department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and head of the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency. From 1912 to 1914, he was secretary of the cabinet of King Ferdinand I.
Dimitar Nikolov Petkov (2 November 1858, Tulcea - 11 March 1907, Sofia) was a leading member of the Bulgarian People's Liberal Party and the country's Prime Minister from 5 November 1906 until he was assassinated in Sofia the following year. A veteran of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 he fought for the Russian Imperial Army at the Battle of Shipka Pass where he lost an arm during the combat. Petkov spent five years (1888-1893) as mayor of Sofia and during his time in charge he undertook an extensive redevelopment of the city. Following the death of Stefan Stambolov in 1895 he took over as leader of the People's Liberal Party, a role he held until his own death when Nikola Genadiev succeeded him. Petkov's party took office in 1903 following the resignation of Stoyan Danev but Ferdinand I of Bulgaria chose a non-party Prime Minister, his close friend Racho Petrov, instead of Petkov. He was finally appointed Prime Minister in November 1906 but held the post for only a few months as he was murdered by an anarchist in Sofia's Boulevard Alexander II on 11 March 1907.
Dobri Petkov Petkov is a Bulgarian officer, colonel, and statesman. He was born on September 14, 1859, in the village of Tserova Koria, Tarnovsko. In 1880 he graduated from the Military School in Sofia. He began his service in the 17th Infantry Company. In November 1885 he was a company commander. He was a department head in the Ministry of War. Editor of "Svoboda" magazine (1886 - 1899) and publisher of "Nov Vek" magazine (1899 - 1916). It was released in 1895. People's representative from the People's Liberal Party in the XIII (1903 - 1908), XV (1911 - 1913), XVI (1913), XVII (1914 - 1919) National Assembly. In addition, he was vice-chairman of the XIII National Assembly (1903 - 1907) and chairman of the XIII National Assembly (1907 - 1908). During the Balkan Wars, he was in the Kardzhali detachment. He returned to the reserve in 1913. In the period September 23, 1913 - June 21, 1918, he was the Minister of Public Buildings, Roads and Public Works. On November 4, 1919, he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was amnestied on July 19, 1924. He died on January 1, 1932 in Sofia. He married Bonka, the daughter of the famous Turnovo rich man Hadji Nikoli. She bore him 5 children: Petko, Hristo, Maria, Stefan, and Tsvetana.
Dimitar (Dimcho) Stefanov is a Bulgarian revolutionary and terrorist of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization. He was born on August 16, 1899, in the village of Marchino in Probisthip. He remains an orphan and is adopted by a Shtip family. In 1922, he went to Bulgaria, where he entered the Military Academy of Arts and Sciences. Joins Ivan Berlio's squad, and later ensures the safety of Todor Alexandrov. On October 30, 1923, he killed Nikola Genadiev, who was pointed out to him by reserve lieutenant Dimitar Radev, and the murder was not revealed by the police, and later came under amnesty.
Teodor Ivanov Teodorov (8 April 1859, Elena - 5 August 1924) was a leading Bulgarian politician and legal expert who served as Prime Minister of Bulgaria immediately after the First World War. He was Minister of Finance from 1897 to 1899 and from 1911 to 1913. Teodorov first came to prominence through his support for reform of the Bulgarian legal system and took part in a Commission set up in 1911 that eventually produced the Administrative Justice Law that established a Supreme Court. He was called in to head a coalition government after the resignation of Aleksandar Malinov on 28 November 1918 and struggled to keep order in the defeated country. Initially an opponent of Aleksandar Stamboliyski, he was later forced to admit the Agrarian Peoples Union leader into the Cabinet and was ultimately succeeded as Prime Minister by him. Teodorov was to play no further role in Bulgarian politics.
Pernik is a town in western Bulgaria and the most populated town in western Bulgaria after Sofia. Originally the site of a Thracian fortress founded in the 4th century BC, and later a Roman settlement, Pernik became part of the Bulgarian Empire in the early 9th century as an important fortress. The medieval town was a key Bulgarian stronghold during Bulgarian tsar Samuil's wars against the Byzantine Empire in the 11th century, when it was governed by the local noble Krakra of Pernik, withstanding Byzantine sieges a number of times. From 1396 until 1878 the town was under Ottoman rule. In the 20th century, Pernik developed rapidly as a center for coal mining and heavy industry. During the Communist rule of Bulgaria it was called Dimitrovo between 1949 and 1962 after Bulgarian Communist leader Georgi Dimitrov. Economically Pernik is an industrial town. Industry is of vital importance for the economy of the province.
Simeon Borisov Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (born 16 June 1937) is a Bulgarian politician who reigned as the last tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria as Simeon II from 1943 until 1946. He was six years old when his father Boris III of Bulgaria died in 1943. Royal power was exercised on his behalf by a regency council led by Simeon's uncle Kiril, Prince of Preslav, General Nikola Mihov, and Prime Minister, Bogdan Filov. In 1946 the monarchy was abolished by referendum, and Simeon was forced into exile. He returned to his home country in 1996, formed the political party National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP), and was elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria from July 2001 until August 2005. In the next elections, as a leader of NMSP, he took part in a coalition government with the Bulgarian Socialist Party. In 2009, after NMSP failed to win any seats in Parliament, he left politics. He is, along with the 14th Dalai Lama, one of only two living people who were heads of state from the time of the Second World War, although both held mostly symbolic roles in their government's position.
