The stretch begins at “Sixth of September” Boulevard and ends at “Hristo G. Danov” Street in the very heart of the city under the hills. It is named after the brilliant musical composer Ludwig van Beethoven. At just 8 years old, he gave his first public concert in Cologne, and among classical music fans, he is remembered as the creator of 32 piano sonatas—including the famous “Moonlight Sonata”—9 magnificent symphonies, and one opera. In his later years, he suffered from severe hearing loss and composed while almost completely deaf.
The street itself is relatively short but, after the Liberation, it was located right in the city center. At that time, the Natural History Museum housed the mayor’s office, and the entire block around “Beethoven” Street was an extremely important part of the city's development.
It was also the choice of the patriarch of Bulgarian literature—Ivan Vazov—when he selected his own little place under the hills.
In October 1880, Ivan Vazov arrived in Plovdiv and rented a flat at the top of Dzhambaz Hill. Nearly half a century later, next to this first home of the national poet, the well-known House with the Tower (the Dzhakov House) was built. Shortly after that, the writer created a home at today’s “Beethoven Street” 3, where he lived until the fall of 1886. There, he wrote some of the works that would later earn him national recognition and reverence. Just a few meters away—in the "palace" of publisher Dragan Manchov—he edited the magazine Science (Nauka) and, together with Konstantin Velichkov, began publishing Zora (“Dawn”)—the first literary magazine in Bulgaria.
His house is located next to one of the projects of the great architect Josef Schnitter. At No. 2, built in 1884, lived Hristo Gendov, also known as Baron Gendovich. He was a significant figure in Bulgarian history and was granted the title of baron by the Russian Emperor Alexander II for his services during the Russo-Turkish War, in which he served as a translator for General Dandeville. According to Yvette Anavi, the house may have also belonged to Dr. Nasim Moscona.
In Sofia, Hristo Gendovich is known for building the city’s first skyscraper in 1914—a seven-story building in neo-Baroque style, designed by architect Nikola Lazarov. It is located across from the “Ivan Vazov” National Theatre and was the first building in the capital to have its own local central heating.
Another building designed by Schnitter—the creator of Plovdiv’s first city master plan—is the house at No. 10, built from 1883 to 1884, which was originally intended to be an Agricultural School.
The street also falls within the boundaries of the old Jewish district in Plovdiv, so many of the houses here once belonged to wealthy Jewish families. Today, bank offices occupy the former homes of Benzion Garti and Nissim Garti.
At the very end of the stretch, near the boulevard, where a well-known drugstore was recently located, it is said there was once a police station. In 1943, a young man named Aguadish was killed there by a police officer.
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