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Sabetai Avram Aftalion House

- Rila Street 17 -
The residential building was built in 1897 and was designed by the Polish architect Edwin Petriczky. It was built for the Jewish banker and merchant Sabetai Avram Aftalion, one of the richest Jews in Ruse. He was an emigrant from Catholic Spain and a wholesaler of various goods. Much of his wealth comes from shares in the Prince Boris Gunpowder Joint Stock Company. In the early 1890s, he took the initiative to establish the country's first Jewish bank. His son Avram Sabetai Aftalion was born in 1886, in Ruse and specialized in England. He studied at a trade school in Vienna where he graduated in 1912. In the same year, he founded the Masonic Lodge called Sigmund Bergel. He later moved to , where he was a member of the Masonic Lodge called Dawn.

The house was later bought by Nasim Israel Barutchiev, owner of a cartridge factory. After its nationalization in 1947, the building was used as a police station, a children's tube dispensary, a hygienic and epidemiological station, a home of the Hunting and Fishing Union, a newborn naming center, and in recent years the administration of the construction company Roanne.
One of the segmental pediments that's adorned with a mascaron
The eastern and western side of the Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque building are identical and almost identical to the main facade. The roof is supported by , with in between them a decorative motif. You'll be also able to see a in between the corbels, which is embellished with foliage. Above the windows, you can either see a straight or a segmental , all adorned with and acanthus foliage. The protruded white blocks, which have been decorated with the technique of , give the building a nice multidimensional touch. Above the beautiful wood carved main entrance door, you'll see a panel that is adorned with . Almost the same balusters are used in the banister of the stone staircase that leads to the main entrance door. The premises is surrounded by a beautifully decorated wrought iron fence.
The beautiful ceiling inside the building