bg Shumen

Toma Varhota House

- Kliment Ohridski Street 14B -
The residential building, which is built somewhere at the beginning of the 20th century, was designed by the Czech architect Toma Varhota, for himself and his family. He was born in 1872 and lived and worked in from 1890 until 1907, initially as a third category technician-designer, and later as an architect. He was the city architect of Vidin, where he designed the Military Club and multiple residential buildings and he actively participated in the design of the Cathedral . After Vidin, he moved to live and work in Shumen on the invitation of architect Evgeni Gesler, where several houses were built according to his designs. He also designed the buildings of the state hospital, the former building of the police department, and part of the urban planning of the park. For a short time, he also worked in the town of , after which he returned to Shumen and worked as a freelancer. Toma Varhota died in 1936 in .
One of Toma's many works
The beautiful Art Nouveau nicely shows what the architect has been capable of. The beautifully designed window that is placed around the balcony door gives the building a lovely appearance. The frame around this window is embellished with a lot of floral ornamentation, among which are plenty of . The curved wrought iron railing that secures the balcony, is lavishly adorned with , which also counts for the two that secure the balcony. On top of the segmental top gable, you can admire an ornament that resembles a lyre harp and within the top gable, you can admire a and two garlands. The and top frames of the windows, as well as the , are richly decorated with all sorts of floral ornamentation and geometric shapes, among which are a lot of . The that separates the second and third floors, is embellished with a wavy pattern of which rosettes are part.