bg Varna

Former Bulgarian Commercial Bank

- Preslav Street 15 -
The commercial building was constructed in 1909 by a project that came from the hand of the Bulgarian architect Atanas Nestorov. It was built for the Bulgarian Commercial Bank, which was founded in 1895, in , by the Bulgarian banker . Later on, his son took over the management of the bank for three decades. After his death on December 9, 1939, in , his dedicated brother became the manager of the bank. In the period, which lasted from 1914 until 1947, the directors of the bank were father and his son .
The project of the Bulgarian architect Atanas Nestorov
One of the main shareholders is the French bank Banque de Paribas, which originates from a private bank, which was founded by the German banker in the early 1820s in . At the beginning of the 1940s, the Bulgarian Commercial Bank took a large part in financing the export of agricultural products from Bulgaria to Germany. During its existence from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, it was the largest bank with mostly domestic private capital. The bank was connected through numerous personal ties to the Bulgarian center-right liberal political party the People's Party, which existed from 1894 until 1920. On December 27, 1947, the bank was nationalized and became part of the Bulgarian National Bank.
A share of the Bulgarian Commercial Bank
A is placed on top of the southeastern side of the Neo-Baroque building, which is embellished with a and . The cartouche contains the Cyrillic letters Б.Т.Б. (B.T.B.) and is surrounded by laurel twigs. The two , which are placed on top of each of the , are all decorated with three . Even more guttae can be seen on the bottom of these pilasters, as well as on the that are placed underneath the second floor windows, and above these same windows, you can see a fragment that contains another cartouche. The aprons that are placed underneath the third floor windows are adorned with a , and the above these same windows, contain a of the Greek God . The northwestern side of the building is decorated with even more dentils, guttae, and triglyphs.
An old photo shows the northwestern side of the building