bg Stara Zagora

Stoyan Bukhchev House

- Tsar Ivan Shishman Street 52 -
The residential building was built in 1910 for a representative reception of important guests in Stara Zagora and was designed by an Austrian architect. During the , the Bulgarian General Ivan Fichev, Chief of the Army Staff, lived here. He was born on April 15, 1860, in Tarnovo, nowadays and was the grandson of the famous National Revival architect, . He took his studies in his hometown, in , and at the Robert College in .

During the , he participated in the Bulgarian volunteer corps and later served as a translator for the temporary Russian governors in Gabrovo and Tarnovo. In 1880 he was accepted into the Military School in and graduated in 1882 with the rank of Lieutenant and was assigned to serve in the 20th infantry battalion. He also participated in the in the defense of , the First Balkan War, as well as the , and after these wars, he continued to serve as Chief of the General Staff of the Army. On 14 September that year, he was appointed Minister of War and served as such until August 1915 when he went into the reserve. Ivan Fichev died on 13 November 1931 in Sofia.
Ivan Fiched
Between the period of 1912 and 1913, Tsar of Bulgaria stayed here twice. In 1920, it was bought at a public auction by Stoyan Bukhchev, a famous industrialist from Stara Zagora, and became his private home. After the coup in 1944, the house was nationalized and housed the headquarters of the Allied Control Commission. From April 28, 1984, the house housed the Stara Zagora Union of Bulgarian artists, and until its restitution in 1992, it was known as the House of the Artist.
An old photo showing the building
The building is built in the style of Art Nouveau but also features some Neo-Baroque elements. The most eye-catching feature is the tower-like structure on the south side of the building. It's crowned with a scaly sheet hip roof, which is decorated with and topped off with a . Below the that's placed underneath the roof, you can see a strip of . A bit further down, you'll be able to see two that contain unusually shaped . On the same level, underneath the roof cornice, you can either admire a that supports the cornice above it, or a festoon. Above the main entrance door, which is covered by an , you'll be able to see a , which is supported by two corbels, as well as two columns that are crowned with a Corinthian . The that can be seen above the loggia are embellished with five .

The beautifully decorated on the second floor are all crowned with a Corinthian capital, which is adorned with a . Above the windows on the second floor, you can see a lovely window frame, as well as a straight , and underneath it some elegant floral ornamentation. A garland wreath that contains a , is placed on top of the pilasters that are located on the first floor. The alluring wrought iron-barred windows on the first floor contain the same beautiful motifs as the fence and gate that separates the street from the premises. The that are placed underneath these barred windows contain two corbels, as well as a lot of guttae.

On the west side of the building, a plaque was placed in honor of the visits that Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria brought to this place between 1912 and 1913.
The plaque that shows that Ferdinand I stayed in the house between 1912 and 1913