bg Sofia

Dimitar Gichev House

- Shipka Street 46 -
The residential building, which later turned into a commercial property, was constructed around 1890. From 1894 until 1923, it was inhabited by the Bulgarian communist activist Dimitar Nikolov Gichev. He was born in 1888 in the village of and was a licensed lawyer in Switzerland for some time before returning to Bulgaria where he started working at the Administrative Court of Cassation in . While living in Sofia, he persistently read literature and took an active part in the revolutionary struggles of students. Here he grew up as a dedicated and mature communist and performs a number of responsible party tasks.
Dimitar Nikolov Gichev
He participated in the preparation of the in 1923, organized by the Bulgarian Communist Party, under pressure from the Communist International Organization. He attended the meetings of the revolutionary committee in Sofia, at which an operational plan for the uprising in Sofia and the district was adopted. Together with Simeon Bankov, he was tasked with leading the seizure of the central station and depot in Sofia. On September 21, 1923, as a result of treason, the military-revolutionary committee was surrounded at the home of the midwife Ganusha Zlateva, which served as their safe haven for two months. In order not to surrender alive into the hands of the enemy and to help his comrades escape from the police ambush, Gichev shot four times at the armed policemen who came to arrest him and then committed suicide.
The building is shown on this postcard as the first building on the left of the road
The roof of the Neo-Renaissance building, which is covered with roof tiles, contains a simplified dormer window. Under the roof overhang, on the north side of the building, a strip of can be seen that moves just a little further around the corner. Above the windows a pointed can be seen, one of which is broken in which a decorative vase can be admired. The last mentioned pediment is supported by three , while the other one is supported by just two corbels. The fragments below the windows contain a symmetrical composition, which is richly decorated with and geometric shapes. The use of bricks and gives the building a beautiful multi-dimensional appearance.
An old photo showing a plaque that was placed on the building in honor of Dimitar Gichev