Bulgaria Insurance Company

In 1898, a three-storey building for the home of the first Bulgarian insurance company "Bulgaria" was erected on 30 Aleksandrovska Street, designed by architect Eduard Winter and under the direction of architect Udo Riabau.

At that time the insurance business in Ruse was developed mainly by the Romanian company Dacia, but in 1891 the prominent Ruse residents Panayot Popov, Georgi Teodosiev, Ivan Chorapchiev and Stefan Simeonov founded the first Bulgarian insurance company Bulgaria. Years of prosperity followed under the management of its director Franz Novak, who in just one year expanded the company to 62 agencies at home and abroad. Over the years, Bulgaria Insurance Company has had offices from Constantinople through Athens, Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, London, all the way to Chicago.

After 1944, all insurance companies in the country moved to a single State Insurance Institute (DZI), which led to the closure of Bulgaria. A few years later, the District Office of the Ministry of the Interior, which is its last occupant, moved into the building.

Currently, the building has mixed ownership, which prevents a unanimous decision to renovate it. In an attempt to demolish it, the roof and the sign tower were removed. However, the initials of the first Bulgarian insurance company BZD are still above the side entrance of the complex.

Source for the house of the Bucklov brothers: Doikov, V., Dimitrova, M. The buildings - the European cultural heritage of Ruse. R., 2013