One of my first clear childhood memories is associated with my grandfather. We walk through the small cobblestone streets around the Doctor’s Garden and he tells me about each of the beautiful houses in this part of the city. On each of our walks we spent the longest time standing in front of the house, the so-called “strawberry house”.
The house was built in the late 1920s for the banker Dimitar Ivanov and his wife Nadezhda Stankovic. Inside, the accent is the red marble fireplace in the reception hall. There is a podium for musicians as well as crystal glasses on the interior doors. Several bedrooms, beautiful terraces, a large study and service rooms. Nothing of the furniture has survived, but it is known that Sofia’s upper class population at the time preferred furniture from Central and Western Europe.
There is a podium for musicians as well as crystal glasses on the interior doors. Several bedrooms, beautiful terraces, a large study and service rooms. Nothing of the furniture has survived, but it is known that Sofia’s upper class population at the time preferred furniture from Central and Western Europe.
The exterior is a large front garden overlooking the street, separated from the sidewalk by a beautiful wrought iron fence. Triple staircase to the entrance to the house, but it is always very impressive that on both sides of the courtyard there are special portals for carriages and carriages.
Even today I imagine a hut in which the members of the invited family enter the courtyard of the house through a portal, while the horseshoes and carriage remain in the specially designed room behind the house while they wait for the reception ends and goes out again from the courtyard, but through the other portal.
Banker Ivanov’s family lived happily in the house at least until 1944. After the war, the property was nationalized and originally housed the Romanian embassy
Later in the year, the house served as the USSR’s trade mission in Bulgaria, as well as the administrative headquarters of various communist structures of unclear purpose.
In the 90s the house was restituted and returned to the heir of the first owner and banker Dimitar Ivanov.
Since 2004, the property has been the property of the director of Lukoil-Valentin Zlatev, who has not yet shown any connection to this cultural monument.
The beautiful house was once a ruin for decades and is now sad and sad.
