Just a week ago, we reminded you of some demolished architectural sites that few remember today, and now we reveal what never managed to happen on Plovdiv’s architectural stage:
The City Casino
Years ago, city casinos were more like cultural and entertainment centers than what we imagine them to be today. Casinos hosted meetings, exhibitions, public lectures, and all sorts of cultural events. Although Plovdiv had many places for such activities – since the mid-1930s even the well-known House of Arts and Printing – the city never had an actual “casino”.
Attempts in this direction, however, were not lacking. Among many discussed locations, Tsar Simeon’s Garden turned out to be the most suitable, and by the late 1930s a plot was set aside near the lake. Newspapers from that period even featured ads promoting a future apartment building, noting that it would be next to the “City Casino” – which had not yet been built, but everyone seemed confident in its future. In the end, neither the casino nor the interesting residential building designed by architect Svetoslav Grozev (pictured above – supposed to stand roughly where today’s Youth Center is located) ever came to life.
The Courthouse
For many years, there were efforts to build a proper Courthouse in Plovdiv. Particularly active work in this direction was done during the time of Bozhidar Zdravkov. One of the nearly realized ideas would have deprived the city of one of its great treasures – the City Garden (today known as “Dondukov” Garden).
As Plovdiv’s very first public garden, laid out soon after the Liberation, it was long regarded as a source of pride for citizens. So, when the idea surfaced to parcel it out and sell the land to cover debts – with one of the plots designated for a new Courthouse – the public reaction was strong. The proposal was even discussed on a national level but was never finalized.
The building we know today as the Courthouse was originally constructed for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, funded by the city’s industrialists. It only became a courthouse during the socialist era.
The Municipal Hall
The issue of a proper Municipal Hall plagued Plovdiv for decades. In the years following the Liberation, the administration constantly changed and expanded its buildings. The problem wasn’t only with staff conditions, but also with archives – which suffered from flooding, mold, and other damage that civic leaders and mayors repeatedly brought up.
The main obstacles to construction were the funding of such a building and the choice of location. A near-final solution came after the demolition of Kurshum Han following the 1928 Chirpan earthquake. At that time, there was intense discussion about building a shared structure for both a market hall and the municipal administration. In the end, no compromise could be reached between these completely different functions, and only the covered city market was built – which still serves that role today.
Thus, even after 45 years of totalitarian rule, Plovdiv remained without a proper Municipal Hall. The current building is actually a compromise: it was not designed for such administrative services, but was originally built for the regional administration, later served as a police headquarters, and only eventually became the Municipality building.
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