bg Sofia

Dobri Petkov House

- Neofit Rilski Street 64 -
The residential building was built in 1910 for the Bulgarian officer, Colonel, and statesman, Dobri Petkov. He was born on September 14, 1859, in the village of , in the Tarnovo region. In 1880 he graduated from the Military School in Sofia and began his service in the 17th Infantry Company. In November 1885 he was a company commander and later on he was head of the department in the Ministry of War. He married Bonka, the daughter of the famous rich merchant from Tarnovo. Together they had five children, Petko, , Maria, Stefan, and Tsvetana.

During the Balkan Wars, he was in the detachment and retired from the army in 1913. From September 23, 1913, to June 21, 1918, he was Minister of Public Buildings, Roads, and Public Works. On November 4, 1919, he was arrested and sentenced to life in prison but was amnestied on July 19, 1924. He died on January 1, 1932, in Sofia.

His first child son Petko was married to a French woman, named Lily, with whom he had two children, Nadia and Johnny. Hristo was married to Tsvetana Zografova who was the daughter of the Macedonian revolutionary . Their only son is the famous Bulgarian conductor . Maria was married to Raycho Raichev, to whom she gave birth to a daughter named Dobrinka. Stefan was not married, he got arrested on the street after the coup of and disappeared without a trace. Tsvetana, the youngest, married Isaac Jerassi and gave birth to two daughters, Elena and Vera.
The second seated person on the left is Dobri Petkov in the garden of this building, 1917
The building, which is built in the style of Art Nouveau, contains a lot of beautiful ornaments. The most noticeable of them all are the alluring garland wreaths, which are hanging from the top of the like ornaments. The corbels are embellished with five pretty unusual shaped and three circles. Smaller versions of these ornaments can be seen just left of the main entrance. Some of the corbels that support the straight above the windows on the first floor are adorned with three guttae each, while others with garlands. The , which can be seen on the second floor, are decorated with a circle motif. Some fragments in the gables are decorated with the technique of , which gives the building more depth. The ornament in the segmental roof cornice, which can be seen on the north side of the building, is decorated with .
An old photo from the 1970s showing the building