bg Sofia

Ivan Vazov House

- Ivan Vazov Street 10 -
The residential building was built in 1895 for the Bulgarian poet, novelist, and playwright Ivan Minchov Vazov, often referred to as the Patriarch of Bulgarian literature, on the plot inherited from his uncle. He was born on July 9, 1850, in , in the family of Mincho Vazov and . He is the brother of military figures , , and , public figure and politician , merchant , and doctor , and his two sisters Anna and Valka. After Ivan finished primary school in Sopot, he studied Greek and Turkish at the School under and later became his assistant teacher. There he found a rich library of French and Russian-language books, which played a major role in his literary development.
Ivan Vazov and members of his family
In 1866, he enrolled in the fourth grade of the High School, where he had to master Greek and Turkish. In addition, he diligently studied French and was fascinated by the poetry of , , and . After some time, he went to live in where he lived with Bulgarian exiled revolutionaries and met . In 1874, he joined the struggle for his country's independence from the Ottoman Empire. He returned to Sopot in 1875, where he became a member of the local revolutionary committee. After the failure of the of 1876, he had to flee the country and went to , where most of the surviving revolutionaries were exiled. He was probably heavily influenced by Hristo Botev, who was the ideological leader of the Bulgarian revolutionary movement. He started writing his famous poems with him and some other Bulgarian emigrants in Romania. In 1876 he published his first work.
Ivan Vazov in this house in his office in 1895
After the and the subsequent , he returned to Bulgaria and became the editor of the political reviews called Science and Dawn. However, he was forced to go into exile once more, this time to , because of the persecution of the Russophile political faction. After returning to Bulgaria once more, this time with the help of his mother, he started teaching. His next stay was in , where he became a civil servant. In 1888 he wrote the novel called Under the Yoke, which depicts the Ottoman oppression of Bulgaria, which became the most famous piece of classic Bulgarian literature and has been translated into more than thirty languages. In 1889 he moved to Sofia, where in 1895 he built this house and lived and worked in it for the longest period of his life. His brother Nikola lived on the first floor and next to his bedroom was the room of his mother Saba.
Ivan Vazov and his wife Athena Bolyarsk during their wedding
In 1891, he got married to Athena Bolyarska, but they were only living together for a year and three months. Athena was chased away by her mother-in-law Saba. His attempts to get a divorce were unsuccessful, and so he remained childless. Ivan Vazov was a prominent and widely respected figure in the social and cultural life of the newly independent Bulgaria. In 1905, the blossoming 28-year-old conquered the heart of the 56-year-old poet and became his muse. Between the two, a lively letter relationship was established, which lasted until his death. After his death on September 22, 1921, Athena suddenly appears at his funeral, and despite the Vazov's family protests, stands at the head of the funeral procession and inherits most of the writer's money.

Just a few days after the death, the Minister of Education submitted to the National Assembly an extensive report with the reasons for turning the building into a museum. Five years later, on November 26, 1926, the first Bulgarian literary museum was officially opened. was appointed curator of the museum and for 20 years he was a tour guide and host of the museum. During the on Sofia on January 10, 1944, the house was hit, and the curator of the museum, Elin Pelin, was forced to save everything valuable from under the rubble. Despite the plans for further demolition and construction of a new building for the purposes of the museum, the building was restored to its original form.
The house somewhere at the beginning of the 20th century
The two-story building, which is built in the Eclectic style, features a balcony on the western side of the building. The balcony is supported by two and is secured with a wrought iron curved railing, both of which are adorned with . Above the second floor windows, you'll be able to see a straight . The frames of these same windows are embellished with two , as well as a that's decorated with the technique of . On this same floor, above the main entrance door, you can see a rectangular shape, which is framed with a wavy motif and flanked by two that are crowned with an Ionic . Underneath it, you can admire five that are embellished with five guttae each. A memorial plaque in honor of Ivan Vazov is placed on the northern side of the building.
The building after the Allied bombing of Sofia on January 10, 1944