bg Ruse

Former Balkan Bank

- Alexandrovska Street 27 -
At the end of the 19th century, the grain company K. D. Bebis and Sons built a one-storey administrative building to house their offices and warehouses. It was probably designed by the Greek architect Spiros Valsamaki, who also designed another of their houses. During the anti-Greek pogroms in 1906, the Bebis family left the city and the building was purchased by the Balkan Bank. In 1911, another floor was added and a restaurant opened its door on the first floor of the building. In 1924, the German graduate, architect created a project for a major reconstruction of the building on which the third floor was added.
An old postcard showing the building
In 1924, during the years of the tobacco crisis, the Balkan Bank liquidated its foreign deposits and merged with the Franco-Belgian Bank. The building was sold to the Bulgarian Credit Bank, which was established in 1905. The bank invests in the Carpathian timber factories in Ruse, the brewery , and others. The director of the bank in Ruse is Karl Buuragens, who is also an honorary German vice-consul based at the bank. In 1941 the bank was renamed the German-Bulgarian Credit Bank. After the , the building was confiscated as German property by the Soviet occupation authorities, and a Russian club with a restaurant and a summer garden was opened in it. In 1962, the famous restaurant called Buzludzha was located here. After a major renovation in 1964, it housed the Teachers' Home and the Ruse Cinema Club. A summer cinema was opened on the site of the former summer garden restaurant.
An old postcard created after the major reconstruction
On the third floor of the Neo-Classical building, you can see some huge that support the roof above them. The , which are located in between the corbels, are either embellished with a or with the initials К. Б. (K. B.). Two different kinds of are placed underneath the cornice that can be seen between the third and second floor. The pilasters, located on the second floor, are crowned by Corinthian , two of which are adorned with . A richly decorated mascaron is placed above some of the straight , while above one of them you'll see three triangles. The balcony on the east side of the building is also decorated with triangles, as well as two pinecones.
The balcony