bg Varna

Alexander Vassilev House

- Slivnitsa Boulevard 46 -
The building, also known as the Patrician Home, was built in 1912 as a private house of the rich Varna lawyer and mayor Alexander Vassilev. The building's specially designed project came from the Bulgarian architect . Alexander Vassilev was born on July 15, 1867, in , and in 1894 he graduated in law from the University and began working as a judge in .

Between 1896 and 1899 he was Deputy Prosecutor in Sofia. In 1899, he settled in Varna, and from then until 1905 he was vice-president of the Varna District Court. From 1912 until 1915 he was mayor of Varna and during that time part of the electrification, sewerage, and water supply of the city were being realized. During the Balkan Wars, he took care of feeding poor military families and collecting aid for soldiers. On July 2, 1913, Romanian troops entered the city and he was forced to leave the municipality, which he refused. He took part in the , and in the autumn of 1916, his house was turned into a hospital. Alexander Vassilev died in 1927.
The mayors of Varna, who ruled the city in the period between 1881 and 1935. Alexander Vassilev, second row, second from the right.
The house received the name "Patrician Home" immediately after its construction. The elite of the then Varna society gathered here for balls, matinees, and parties. On January 5, 1926, with free donations and playing the municipal lottery, a significant amount of money was collected and the house was bought and it became the center of the society and the community center library. Until 1990, it also housed the Regional Library.
A postcard showing the building
The top gable of the building, which is built in the styles of Neo-Baroque, Neo-Renaissance, and Art Nouveau, is richly decorated with all sorts of ornaments. You'll be able to see a decorative vase, some floral ornamentation, as well as a containing the construction year. The dormers are crowned with an open pointed that contains an ornament in the open part of the pediment. In the center of the main facade, you can see a massive with a balcony on top of it. The balustrade, which secures the balcony, is adorned with , as well as two decorative vases. The oriel window itself is adorned with two richly decorated cartouches, a garland, and two round shaped on each corner. The two supportive underneath the oriel window are decorated with and some other floral ornamentation. Underneath the window that's located underneath the oriel window, you'll be able to see a that contains different balusters than those used in the balcony balustrade.

The garland you saw on the oriel window continues around the entire building. In some places, it is interrupted by some corbels or a cartouche. The fragment underneath the windows on the second floor are adorned with geometric forms, while the ones underneath the windows on the first floor are adorned with a decorative shell and floral ornaments. Above the arched window frame, you can admire a and even more floral ornamentation. The arches themselves contain the same decorations as the corbels that are placed underneath the oriel window. Between the windows on the first floor, you can see a that's decorated with a motif consisting of .

The beautiful cast and wrought iron gate show similarities with the barred basement windows.
The beautifully decorated top gable