A text sent to "Pod tepeto" by Rudolf Frick's granddaughter - Lidia Ulatovski, takes us back to the names of the two foreigners who left a deep mark on the economic appearance of Philippopolis - Christian Bomonti and Rudolf Frick, as well as to the dramatic fate of their successor Dimitar Frick.
Author: Lidia Ulatovski
The history of Plovdiv after the Liberation in 1878 is often told through the political events and the cultural rise of the city. But behind this process there are also personalities who laid the foundations of modern industry in Bulgaria. Some of them are almost forgotten today and we rarely think of them.
Among them are two Swiss entrepreneurs – Christian Bomonti and Rudolf Frick – whose destinies intertwined in Plovdiv and left a lasting mark on the industrial development of the city.
The Swiss who chose Philippopolis
Christian Bomonti was a Swiss of Italian origin, born in 1822 in Izmir. Before settling in Plovdiv, he developed a successful business in the Ottoman Empire and laid the foundations of the beer industry in Istanbul. After his death, the enterprises were taken over by his sons and by the end of the 19th century they became a true industrial giant.
Even before the Liberation, Bomonti settled in Philippopolis with the ambition to develop industrial production. He built a distillery and a rice husking plant. The location was chosen strategically – close to the newly built railway station, which facilitated the transport of the production both in the country and abroad.
After his death in the 1880s, the factories were taken over by his heirs and continued to operate until the early 1920s, when they were sold.
Rudolf Frick and the birth of “Kamenitsa”
Another key figure in the industrial history of Plovdiv was Rudolf Frick. Born in 1849 in Bubikon, canton of Zurich, he graduated in engineering from the Polytechnic School in Zurich, one of the most prestigious technical schools at the time.
Around 1875, Frick arrived in Philippopolis to work on the construction of Baron Hirsch’s railway line. It was here that he met the family of Christian Bomonti – a meeting that would later prove fateful.
In Plovdiv, Rudolf Frick laid the foundations of the first industrial brewery in Bulgaria – “Kamenitsa”. The official establishment of the factory dates back to between 1881 and 1883. Over the following decades, it became one of the symbols of industrial Plovdiv.
Today, only a chimney remains of the once emblematic factory – a silent memory of the time when the entire neighborhood smelled of hops and brewer’s yeast, and the noise of the bottling lines echoed through the city’s streets.
In the later years of his life, Frick also devoted himself to teaching. Between 1911 and 1918, he was a teacher at the German School in Plovdiv, where he taught history and literature to the children of the emerging Bulgarian bourgeoisie – future students at European universities.
A friendship that became a family story
The history of the two families is not only industrial, but also deeply personal.
Adolf Bomonti – one of the heirs of the industrial empire – maintained a long-standing friendship with Rudolf Frick. After his sudden death from a heart attack in Alexandria, his brother Walter Bomonti took over the family business.
After the Bomonti family withdrew from Bulgaria in the 1920s, Walter Bomonti’s illegitimate son – Dimitar – was adopted by Rudolf Frick. Thus, he became the symbolic bridge between the two industrial dynasties.
However, fate brought an even more unusual twist – Dimitar married the illegitimate daughter of his adoptive father. Thus, the young family became the sole heirs to the traditions and capital of both families.
The Lost Legacy
After the death of Rudolf Frick in 1926, a new stage in the history of “Kamenitsa” began. Production, interrupted during the First World War, resumed in 1921, and in 1927 a large-scale modernization of the factory began.
By all rules, it was Dimitar Frick who should have received a significant part of the inheritance. Instead, he found himself involved in long and exhausting legal disputes with relatives and partners, who gradually pushed him out of the management of the company.
Although he initially won the case in 1931, the decision was contested and overturned. Expensive legal proceedings and attorney fees gradually ruined him. Thus, Dimitar was left without the inheritance of both his biological father and his adoptive father.
When history is rewritten
In 1947, nationalization finally changed the fate of the family. Dimitar Frick's properties became state property, and his name gradually disappeared from the official history of "Kamenitsa".
During the communist years, his background as the son of a foreign industrialist became a burden. This meant constant control and limited opportunities for professional development for both him and his children.
And so, while the archives gradually silence this story, the memory of it is preserved in the families of the heirs.
The living memory of Plovdiv
Today, few people know about the connection between the Bomonti and Frick families and their role in the industrial development of Plovdiv. But traces of their presence can still be found – in the history of “Kamenitsa”, in the old buildings of the city and in the memories that their descendants continue to keep.
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