bg Varna

Former Hotel Paris

- Ulitsa Panagyurishte 1 -
The construction of the residential and commercial building, which was built according to the design of the Bulgarian architect Gero Gerov, was completed in 1906. It was built on the border of the then Armenian and Turkish neighborhoods. The construction was commissioned by Riza Bey Khalil, who is the son of the first mayor of Varna before the , Khalil Efendi Asaz Mehmed. The building, which was located in front of Riza's own home, was built as an income building and was rented out to the Hotel. A dairy shop, which was owned by Marko Karaatanasov, opened its doors on the first floor, and in 1908, the language institute the Alliance Française was also established here.
The project of the Bulgarian architect Gero Gerov
In 1910, someone in the hotel forgot a charcoal iron while ironing clothes. A spark ignites a shirt from a pile of clothes, and a huge fire breaks out, and as a result, the entire attic floor burns down. The restoration of the building was entrusted to the Bulgarian architect , who added an extra floor. The architect completely preserved the facade of the building. The extra floor looks almost completely identical to the other two, but with some slight differences. Until 1930, the manufacturing shop for the haberdashery of was located on the first floor. In the 1930s, the first floor housed the confectionery called Paris, which was the most renowned and luxurious confectionery at that time. The confectionery, where all kinds of chocolate and sugar products were offered, was owned by Dimitar Mladenov. After the coup of , 1944, it was nationalized and housed the First Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior for many years. In 2018 a project was announced for the complete renovation of the facade and the upgrade of the building.
The building in 1906 before the fire
The corner top of the building, which was built in the styles of Neo-Renaissance and Art-Nouveau, is lavishly decorated with a shield-shaped that contains the year 1906. Around the cartouche, you can see ribbons, a lion head , a decorative shell, as well as , and other floral ornamentation. The two balconies, which are also placed on the corner, are both secured with a cast iron railing. Above the third and second floor windows, you'll be able to see a , one more decorated than the other. The building features many , which are all embellished with a rosette. The fragments around some of these medallions, as well as the diamond-shaped fragments, are all decorated with the technique of . The building is also rich in , which in most cases are crowned with a .
The building just after the 1910 restoration