bg Shumen

Yordan Chakarov House

- Dobri Voynikov Street 9 -
The construction of the residential and commercial building began in 1923 and lasted for about ten years, and was built in two stages. It was built according to a design of the Czech engineer and housed apartments and shops together with warehouses, and galleries. It was built for the merchant Yordan Chakarov who settled in Shumen sometime at the beginning of the 20th century and bought the land from the Ottoman Turks fleeing Bulgaria. He was a prominent citizen and politician of Shumen and was elected as a national representative in the fifth Great National Assembly. During this time, his son Boyan graduated in Germany and received a higher engineering education, and contributed to the first telegraph station that received telegrams and to the first electric lighting in Shumen.

After the coup of , 1944, the building was nationalized and used for various purposes, among which a radio club, Bureau of Labor Department, and offices for other institutions. After 1989, the first two floors of shops and a gallery were restituted, and the remaining two remained the property of the state, subsequently of the Shumen municipality. In the 1990s, partial renovations were made by the owners of the first two floors of the building. In 2000, a company called Mitra leased the first floor to house their language services office. In 2017 they bought the entire property and started to rent out the apartments on the upper floors.
An old postcard showing the building
The building is built in the styles of Eclectic and Art Nouveau and features an with a hip roof on top of it that contains a dormer and a . The frieze underneath the roof contains a , as well as a wavy floral pattern. The that support the oriel window and the balcony right of it, are adorned with , foliage, and . The fragment that's placed between the two curved cornices on both sides ends with a volute and is embellished with even more guttae, as well as a . Underneath it, you'll be able to see a mushroom-shaped window, which is commonly used in the style of Art Nouveau. The are decorated with even more guttae, but also with ornamental clovers and an motif.
Another old postcard showing the building