bg Shumen

Dimitar Kanchev House

- Tzar Osvoboditel Street 143 -
The construction of the residential and administrative building started in 1893 and was completed in 1896 and its design was created by the Czech engineer . The was built for the Bulgarian printer, hotelier, and donor Dimitar Kanchev, who was born on June 17, 1862, in Shumen. After completing the second grade in his hometown, he became a clerk at the Regional Council. Later on, he created his own printing house, which was called , named after the German printer who is regarded as the inventor of the printing press in Europe. He was also involved in the hotel business and opened a hotel in this building in 1912, which was also named after Gutenberg. The first floor housed the bookstore of Dimitar Kanchev and in the 1920s, the premises were used for a confectionery called Malina for a short time, after which it became a tobacco warehouse. Dimitar Kanchev died in 1933 in Shumen, and in 1936, in memory of her husband, his widow Maria Kancheva donated 1.200 BGN to the Bulgarian Red Cross.

On March 30, 1928, he donated the building to the Bulgarian Red Cross, and he put in his will, that the property to be used forever by the Bulgarian Red Cross. The building housed a kindergarten and a home for poor mothers in labor and it was only in 1945 that a maternity home was opened in the building. An upgrade took place in 1985 by the architect Ognyan Garbev, which added extra space to the third floor.
An old photo from 1930 showing the building
The frieze on the second floor of the Eclectic building features many geometric shapes, one of which contains the year 1893. The balcony door underneath it is surrounded by a frame that contains relief lines and relief stars. The door is flanked by that are crowned with a Doric and are decorated with the technique of . The balcony is secured with a wrought iron railing, which is lavishly embellished with oval shapes and . The two that support the balcony, are adorned with even more volutes, but also with foliage.
Members of the Red Cross youth society in the 1930s