When renowned merchant Andrey Arsov tasked Austrian architect Karl Heinrich to design his family home in 1910, the latter had more than 20 years of experience as architect and designer of key buildings in Sofia. These included the house of Petar Sarafov, the famous engineer, (at 9 Khan Krum Street) and the house of Gen. Kalin Naidenov (at 53 Vasil Levski Boulevard). In 1905–1906, Heinrich supervised the construction of the National Theater following the designs of Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer. This is why the house at 6 Malyovitsa Street, completed in 1911, is a real masterpiece of the Vienna Secession architectural style in Sofia, introduced by Fellner and Helmer, whose theatrical buildings have become iconic for cities like Hamburg, Zurich, and Sofia. The two-domed house was declared a cultural monument in 1978.
In 1996, the building’s restoration began after international developer Litexco Bulgaria acquired the first floor and entrusted the job to architect Roussi Dellev. Litexco restores valuable old buildings throughout Europe and Latin America to rent out as office spaces. However, more than 15 years would pass before the house was brought back to its former glory.
You won’t hear any household clamor at 6 Malyovitsa Street today, 107 years after it was first built. Instead, it is home to passionate creative work. The property houses the America for Bulgaria Foundation, the biggest philanthropic organization in the country. Architect Dellev breathed new life into the building over the course of the extremely careful restoration he supervised, the second phase of which lasted nearly two years and ended in 2012.The decorative elements on the façade, crafted by 20th-century Austrian sculptor Andreas Greiss (he also did the interior of the Parliament building and the Royal Palace in downtown Sofia), the magnificent veranda with a wooden decorative grid, and the central staircase connecting the first and second floors have been fully restored. The glass railing, following the curves of the staircase, gives visitors full access to the views afforded by the enormous arched windows.
The domes, which had been destroyed and removed in the previous century, were rebuilt based on two black-and-white photographs taken from the backyard in the 1960s. The main change in the building involves the elevation of the attic and its conversion into a habitable space, done in harmony with the building’s exterior. A new limestone spiral staircase connects the second floor and the new third floor. Skylights were installed in the roof to add natural light to the interior.
In a poll conducted by Bulgarian National Television in 2013, the building was declared one of the five best-restored historic buildings in the capital. In December 2013, architect Dellev received an award from the Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria for his work on the building.
“I really appreciated the great freedom the investor gave me to rediscover all the building’s details as well as the opportunity to work with the restoration team of Nikolay Ivanov,” says the architect. He was also impressed by the owner’s extraordinary respect for every historic element of the building and by his ability to incorporate modern elements reinforcing the effect of the original structure.
The house at 6 Malyovitsa Street is included in “Vienna’s Creative Influences on Sofia Architecture,” a temporary exposition at Sofia History Museum, which can be seen through the end of August 2018.
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