bg Ruse

Former Bulgarian National Bank Building

- Alexandrovska Street 53 -
The Ruse branch of the Bulgarian National Bank was opened on May 1, 1884, and was designed by the Swiss architect . In 1878 the Russian Imperial Commissioner in Bulgaria, Prince , ordered the financial department of the Council for the Management of the Liberated Bulgarian Lands to establish government and private banks. The Statute of the Bulgarian National Bank was approved a year later and this marked the beginning of the financial institution. The Ministry of Finance is opening branches of the National Bank in , , , and Ruse. The first director and longest-serving manager of the Bulgarian National Bank branch in Ruse was the banker Ivanitsa Ivanov, who kept his position until 1903.

In recent decades, the building has been used by the Trade Unions, and since 2000 it has housed the administration of the Regional Labor Inspectorate.
An old photo showing the building
The clock that protrudes above the Neo-Classical building is the first real, modern, and contemporary clock in Ruse, placed after the . A decorative garland was hung around the circular clock. A square bell roof is placed on top of the protruded part of the building and underneath the roof, a strip of can be seen. This is also the case concerning the straight and the roof , although in this last case you'll be able to see two different sized dentils. The windows on the second floor are flanked by , which are crowned with Ionic . The like that can be seen in the frieze between the first and second floor are adorned with seven . The above the circle top window is embellished with a scales motif and foliage. The keystone is flanked by rectangular shaped .
The ornamentation around the circle top window