bg Ruse

Revenue Building

- Svoboda Square 4 -
In 1896 the Ruse municipality, led by the Mayor , and the school board made a decision in the alienated place of Haralambi Petkov to build a Revenue Building. The building had to include shops on the first floor and on the second floor a room for the city library, as well as a hall for performances and other needs, which will bring income for the maintenance of municipal schools. A commission composed of the chairman of the school board, the district engineer Todor Tonev, the state architect , the city engineer , and the engineer-architect Todor Petrov prepare the competition conditions. On February 20, 1897, a jury made a decision out of 15 projects that were submitted and chose the project of the Austrian architect . The management of the construction was assigned to the architects Georg Lang and Franz Stoltz, and the masonry work to the master Petar Atanasov.
Floor plans
The construction of the building started on March 15, 1898, and was completed in just two years. After its completion, the Revenue Building is a prototype of the first mall in the country. From the very beginning, the Ruse Drama Theater, which has been named after since 1953, is housed in the building. In the years of socialism, the first floor was used by one of the most renowned restaurants at the time, called Prista, which is known among the old people of the city for its red upholstered furniture. The building underwent reconstruction after 1980 and further expansion opened in 2005.
An old postcard from 1919 showing the building
The of the elegant Neo-Renaissance building is crowned with two towers and a dome in the central part. On top of the dome rises the statues of the Greek god , the patron of trade and culture. On top of the roof , you'll see three small dormers and four decorative vases. Underneath it, you can see a strip of , as well as some richly decorated with in some cases a in between them. The two circular windows are adorned with a beautifully decorated frame. A straight , supported by two corbels, is placed above the two windows underneath the circular ones. Above the circle top windows, you'll either see a richly decorated , or a garland wreath that's embellished with ribbons. The windows are flanked by that are crowned with Ionic . Underneath the windows, you can admire a small balcony, which is supported by two corbels and secured with a stone balustrade that contains .

The remaining six statues, which are placed on the wings of the building, symbolize art, science, agriculture, trade, defense, and justice. A total of five gables are placed above the roof cornice, which are crowned by a pointed pediment, which is decorated with a . The rest of the wings contain festoons and also pilasters, but in this case, they are crowned with Composite capitals.

On the northeastern corner of the building, there's a , which is crowned with a curved cone dome. The circular windows contain the same beautiful frame as can be seen in the avant-corps.
Another old past card, this time from 1901