bg Stara Zagora

Vasil Shakhanov House

- Kolyo Ganchev Street 62 -
The residential and administrative building was built for Vasil Shakhanov and his family. He founded the first Bulgarian cognac factory and distillery in Stara Zagora. He started the production of white and red wines, fruit brandies, cognacs, vermouths, liqueurs, and wine vinegar. He was an active public figure in the city until the end of the and develops a wide charitable activity. On the eve of Christmas and Easter, he secretly ordered a sack of flour, sugar, and a bottle of sunflower oil to be placed in front of the doors of the poorest families. He was the main supporter of the construction of the Stara Zagora Theater and from 1894 until 1896 he was a municipal councilor. Together with his wife Anka Shakhanova, he is a member of many charitable societies such as the one called Good Samaritan, which he supports financially. He was a donor of the Augustus Trajan Archaeological Society and every year he sponsors poor Bulgarians to study in Russia. He died of kidney failure in 1909 in during a family trip to Europe.

The Stara Zagora Municipal Marketplace, which opened its door on August 2, 2022, is named after Vasil Shakhanov.
Vasil Shakhanov
The building, which is built in the styles of Art Nouveau and Neo-Baroque, contains two semi-hexagonal . Both oriel windows are supported by two each, and on top of them, you can see one big balcony, which is supported by a wrought iron railing. The roof overhang is supported by a lot of corbels. The that can be seen on the third floor are adorned with a , an Ionic , and a . The pilasters that can be seen on the second floor, are crowned with yet another Ionic capital, which is embellished with an motif, and in between them you can see a zigzag motif. The ornamentation above the second floor windows consists of whiplash lines, another palmette, and a . Some of the that are placed underneath these same windows also contain a rosette, but they are all adorned with multiple . The pilasters that can be seen on the first floor, contain some stone blocks, which are decorated with the technique of . On the west side of the building, above the beautifully decorated wrought iron-barred windows, you can see some fragments that are embellished with three rosettes each. On this same side, you can admire a shield-shaped , which is surrounded by a palmette, as well as foliage.
The opening of the Vasil Shakhanov market