Ruse Drama Theater

With its magnificent silhouette in the center of Ruse, the Revenue Building, later the Sava Ognyanov Theater, is an emblematic building of the European architectural heritage of the Danube city and together with the Freedom Monument are the symbols of Ruse. In 1972 the building was declared in the State Gazette in the list of Ruse's architectural and historical heritage under №1, as an object of national importance.
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In 1896 the Ruse municipality and the school board decided to build a Revenue Building on the expropriated site of Haralambi Petkov (a two-storey building with shops on the lower floor and a room for the city library and a hall for performances and other needs) on the upper floor. brings income for the maintenance of municipal schools.
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The management of the construction was assigned to the architects Georg Lang and Franz Stoltz, and the masonry work to the master Petar Atanasov.
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The construction of the Revenue Building is not easy. The building is unfolded asymmetrically, because on the plot was previously built the building of Andre Turio (Hotel "Boulevard", later Hotel "Teteven"). The south wing does not correspond to the north. The building is being built at the end of the former Turkish cemetery, which has been turned into a city garden.
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Stones from the quarries in the village of Krasen were delivered by buffalo and ox cars. The seven decorative statues designed by arch. Peter Paul Brang, were not approved and was assigned to arch. Todor Petrov to give them a Bulgarian character. They symbolize, respectively, art, science, agriculture, trade, defense, justice. The characteristic domed roof of the building is crowned by the symbol of trade - the winged figure of Mercury.
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The building was basically completed in 1900. The interior of the theater hall was made by the painting teacher at the Ruse Girls' High School Vaclav Trunecek and the set designer of the Bucharest Theater Romeo Jerome. The first decors and curtains were made by the Italian artist Kvap, and the stage furniture was donated by citizens of Ruse. Curtain and backdrop designs were requested by Max Heigendorf of Vienna. For the metal lodges designed by arch. Edward Winter in 1900, no artist was found. The steam heating system was designed in Prague.
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The history of the Ruse Drama Theater is connected with this building, which since 1907 has been performing in the completed hall, and since 1953 it has been named after the famous artist Sava Ognyanov, who spent his school years in Ruse. The first opera performance (Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata) was staged in the Revenue Building on November 27, 1949. In 1960, the first performances of the puppet theater were held here, later housed in the former palace of Prince Alexander I on Knyazheska Street. From 1928 to 1954 the Revenue Building housed the Ruse Library, and later the Zora Chitalishte (from 1955 to 1990), as well as the Art Gallery (until 1979).
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Famous merchants such as Angel Tsvetkov and Hermann Kronig have shops in the Revenue Building, whose rents support the schools in Ruse. There is the popular brewery "Ambrosia". For several decades, the modern Prieta restaurant, the most expensive in the city, has been on the first floor, with a balcony furnished with red sofas.
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Source: Doikov, V., Dimitrova, M. The buildings - the European cultural heritage of Ruse. R., 2013