ATCHITECTURAL ENSEMBLE
on Tsanko Lavrenov Street
Along the northern side of the steep cobbled street, which goes through the Hisar Gate there is a striking ensemble of some of the most interesting Revival houses in Plovdiv. Because of the terrain the houses stand in a terrace-like order on the northern side of the street. Up on the saddle above Hisar Gate there rises the stately body of the largest Revival house – the home of Argir Kuyumjioghlu. To the right of the Gate you can see the broken up facade of Dimiter Georgiadi’s house. Further down high stone walls hide the houses of Nikola Nedkovich and Ivan Chernozemski. At the very end of the street there rise the bell tower and the dome of the SS. Constantine and Helena Church. The street bears the name of the distinguished Bulgarian painter Tsanko Lavrenov, the author of many paintings of Old Plovdiv.
ARCHITECTURAL ENSEMBLE
on Dr Stoyan Chomakov Street
The Revival Period houses on this street are some of the oldest in Plovdiv, most of them built at the end of the 18th century. At the beginning of the street, behind a high stone wall and at the far end of a spacious courtyard is Kuyumjioghlu’s magnificent house, now the Ethnographic Muse freedom’ in the struggle against the foreign rule bulgaria holidays.
Another quite impressive house is Veren Stambolyan’s. Symmetrical in design, with a gracious bay window overhanging the street, it is situated in a deep gardened courtyard. Most original for its architecture and interior design is the so-called House with the alafrangas. Each room of this house, built at the turn of the 19th c. has an attractive ornamental niche – alafranga – with painted townscapes and decorative patterns. The street is named after a benefactor of education in Plovdiv and its area – father Kiril Nectariev, born in Sopot and for many years a coadjutor at the Plovdiv diocese in the 19th c.
REVIVAL PERIOD HOUSES
Plovdiv’s residential architecture of the Revival Period is a veritable peak in the development of Bulgarian architecture in general. Starting from the end of the 17th c. Plovdiv grew steadily as an important economic centre and in the middle of the 19thc.it was the biggest town in the heartland of the Bulgaria lands. The greater financial means of the population promoted the construction of a new type of urban houses – the so-called Plovdiv house. In the 18th and 19th c. it went through two phases – symmetrical and asymmetrical. The earliest specimens of asymmetrical houses preserved date back to the end of the 18th c.
They have expressive facades broken up by bay windows, balconies facing the courtyard and a veranda with wooden pillars on the ground floor. Some of the noteworthy houses of this type are Furnadjiev House at 53 Dr Stoilov St., the house of Haji Vlasaki Chohadjiyata (housing Old Plovdiv Association), Dr. Vlado’s House at 7 Puldin St., Danchov House and others. The symmetrical type of house appeared in the 30s of the 19th c. Its characteristic feature is a centrally positioned grand drawing-room – hayet, with rooms of equal size standing around it.
