bg Sofia

French-Bulgarian Bank

- Lege Street 17 -
The building of the Franco-Bulgarian Bank was built in 1923 and was designed by the Bulgarian architects and . The Franco-Bulgarian Bank is a joint-stock company, which in 1938 was formed after the merger of two other banks, the Bulgarian General Bank and the Franco-Belgian Bank. In 1947, during the reign of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the bank was nationalized.

The founder of the bank was the Bulgarian, Spanish and American financier, banker, merchant, and agent Angel Kuyumdzhiyski. He was born in in 1886 and comes from the Samokov family of Jewish goldsmiths. He initially sold roasted pumpkin seeds on the streets of his own city, and later became one of the richest Bulgarians before the .
Angel Kuyumdzhiyski
The building is built in Neo-Classical style and contains many rectangular and round all crowned with a Corinthian . The dormers on the attic floor all are topped with a segmental with a decorative shell in the center of it. The between the fourth and third floor is adorned with a strip of . On the left and the right side of the main facade, you can see a balcony with two supportive and a wrought iron railing. The windows on the second floor all feature a , which contains geometric shaped . The three fragments located in the center of the facade contain a , a globe, or a of a wooden boat. The top of the window frames on the third floor are decorated with two each. The four corbels that can be seen on the first floor are decorated with volutes and foliage. The wrought iron barred windows on the first floor are adorned with , volutes, and the Cyrillic letters ФББ (FBB) and the Latin letters BFB. The letters can also be seen on the wrought iron entrance door, which is also embellished with acanthus foliage. The door frame is adorned with an and motif, which is also decorated with acanthus foliage.
An old postcard shows the building on the left