The two-story building was built around 1903 for the residential and commercial needs of the Bulgarian merchant, industrialist, and philanthropist, Stoycho Marchev. He was born on June 1, 1879, in Haskovo, and his poor eyesight, which his parents initially ignored, brought him failure at school. He has to repeat the classes, and his father's serious illness forces him to interrupt his studies and start working in the family's shop and oil mill, although his father wanted him to study at the Robert College in . At his father's factory, he learned the intricacies of the production of vegetable oils. In 1903 he got married to Kitsa Sotirova and soon after his marriage he separated from his father and built his oil workshop and his own house with office. Stoycho Marchev wants to keep up with technical progress. In the new workshop, he introduced a two-shift mode of work and subsequently ordered a motor and a hydraulic press from England. He is assisted in his work by his wife, who is far-sighted, honest, thrifty, and hard-working, and thanks to whom their business generates large profits, which are invested in the purchase of land and real estate.
Stoycho in his office and his wife Kitsa on the far left
Kitsa and Stoycho did not have children of their own, but they helped hundreds of other children by funding homes for orphans and the needy. They support many charitable endeavors in the city and help to build an orphanage in the yard of the . On April 8, 1938, 5 years before his death, Stoycho Marchev appeared before a notary in Haskovo and publicly made his colossal bequest to the Haskovo municipality. He left real estate, built and unbuilt in the center of Haskovo with the aim of building, furnishing, and managing a Technical Crafts School, the kind that existed only in Kazanlak at the time, which would bear his name and that of his wife, and one of the rooms to be turned into a family museum. The house of Stoycho and Kitsa Marchev was destroyed around 1970, and until then, it was used as a building of the Technical Crafts School.
Stoycho and Kitsa Marchev seated in front of items donated to the church
The building was built in the styles of Eclectic and Neo-Baroque and featured a top gable that was beautifully decorated. It was topped with a segmental and contained a pointed pediment, as well as several and globes. The balcony door that was placed within the top gable led to a small balcony, which was secured with a curved cast iron railing. The two that supported the balcony, was in addition to even more volutes, also embellished with three . The frames around the second floor windows were also adorned with guttae, as well as some ornament that was adorned with floral decorations. The , as well as the , were lavishly decorated with all sorts of geometric forms.
The building shown on the right in the 1960s before its destruction
Apron
An apron, in architecture, is a raised section of ornamental stonework below a window ledge, stone tablet, or monument. Aprons were used by Roman engineers to build Roman bridges. The main function of an apron was to surround the feet of the piers.
Corbels
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure.
Gutta
A gutta (literally means "drops") is a small water-repelling, cone-shaped projection used near the top of the architrave of the Doric order in classical architecture. It is thought that the guttae were a skeuomorphic representation of the pegs used in the construction of the wooden structures that preceded the familiar Greek architecture in stone. However, they have some functionality, as water drips over the edges, away from the edge of the building.
Pediment
A pediment is an architectural element found particularly in Classical, Neoclassical and Baroque architecture, and its derivatives, consisting of a gable, usually of a triangular shape, placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. The tympanum, the triangular area within the pediment, is often decorated with relief sculpture. A pediment is sometimes the top element of a portico. For symmetric designs, it provides a center point and is often used to add grandness to entrances.
Pilaster
In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth (base) at the bottom, and the various other column elements.
Volute
A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament that forms the basis of the Ionic order, found in the capital of the Ionic column. It was later incorporated into Corinthian order and Composite column capitals. The word derives from the Latin voluta ("scroll").
Istanbul
Istanbul, formerly known as Constantinople, is the largest city in Turkey and the country's economic, cultural and historic center. The city straddles the Bosporus strait, and lies in both Europe and Asia. Founded as Byzantion by Megarian colonists in the 7th century BCE, and renamed by Constantine the Great first as New Rome during the official dedication of the city as the new Roman capital in 330 CE, which he soon afterwards changed to Constantinople, the city grew in size and influence, becoming a beacon of the Silk Road and one of the most important cities in history.
Saint Dimitar Church
On July 14, 1896, the foundations of the Saint Dimitar Church in Haskovo were laid. The construction continued for two years and in the autumn of 1898, at the Feast of the Cross on September 14, the temple was consecrated by the Metropolitan of Plovdiv Nathanael. The temple of St. Dimitar is built with limestone and lime. The roof is doubled. Initially, there was a cube, but in 1956, due to aging and unable to be repaired, it collapsed. All windows and doors in the church end with arches. The iconostasis in the highest part above the gates is 6.32 m high and its length is the entire width of the temple is 10 meters. Every Sunday at 10.30 am in the Saint Dimitar Church is the only Sunday school in Haskovo. The purpose of God's ministers is to educate the children about the values of the Orthodox faith.